Jeff Deville

This has been a fascinating 2 weeks.  I finally dragged myself to IndyHall (a coworking space in the city) and have found a ton of great folks with fantastic entrepreneurial ideas.  It's always fun to meet other people like yourself, but I've been struck by the tremendous opportunity to connect us all, and help us all become tremendously more successful.  

Most of the Philadelphia entrepreneurs I've met are creators of one variety or another. I'm noticing that many of us are not supremely effective 'connector' types.  However, I've been studying effective entrepreneurs, and this appears to be exactly the skill they DO have.  Repeatedly, it seems like many of us take a "If you build it, they will come" viewpoint.  It's comfortable. It's easy.  

It's virtually guaranteed to fail.

I propose we unite. We band together to support one another in our tech-related startups, and hold each other accountable for becoming better, more well-rounded entrepreneurs. There's a lot of simple things we can do to get started. We start with these, and then we see where it takes us.

1. Connect with one another in every conceivable online venue.  Different things seem to appeal to different user groups.  Some of us may find success via HackerNews, some via StumbleUpon. We must be prepared to support one another in every conceivable forum. Toward that end, let's all create AboutMe accounts, and be absurdly complete with them. Here's mine:  Jeff Deville  
2. Come launch time, we're going to do the best we can to get behind one another, and push like hell. Use our personal network to pimp out ideas we believe in, and see if we can't push one another over that critical hump. That'll mean upvoting, tweeting, using, buying, etc.  
3. Subscribe to the philly startup user group, introduce yourself, and your about.me page so everyone can go follow you and your various ventures.

   Subscribe to LeanStartupPhilly

   Email: Visit this group
4. Practice your pitch on us via the forums.  I'm hoping that we'll be small enough and engaged enough to support each other in this.  We all need the practice!  Beyond that, tell us about releases, struggles, new tools etc. This forum is for community, and I want everyone to feel open about posting to it. 
5. Try to make it in to some meetings at Indy Hall.  We're going to try and meet at lunch on Fridays.  Bring your pitch, be prepared to tell us what you're struggling with.  Or just tell us about your plans, and see if we can't help you improve upon them.  The where and when here may evolve over time, but I highly encourage you to try and meet up with us face to face. I guarantee that it'll be worth it.  You won't be charged just to attend the meeting.
6. Start working on some marketing material for your startup. I'm going to create a blog for all of us to post news-worthy stories for our respective startups.  Then, I'm hoping we'll all help market that blog as a source for local news agencies, for when they need some content.  This is gonna take some work, but getting external press is one of the best ways for us to get the word out!  If you have any best practices, or suggestions, make sure you post them to the group!

So who's with me?