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I’m at a small conference in New York of early stage investors.  One of the panels was on alternative early stage models.  Tom Keller from TechStars was speaking, and there were some grilling from the audience about the ability for a program like this to generate a meaningful amount of value. 

I’ve also heard offhand comments from folks in other venues that incubators like TechStars start little companies or features that can never be important businesses. 

In my view, this is quite short sighted. It is true that TechStars makes relatively small investments in very raw companies.  So far, they have had a number of successful exits, but have not yet had a large scale win by VC standards (although it’s too soon to tell for many of their companies.)

But what you are seeing is a major improvement in the quality of entrepreneurs and the pace of entrepreneurial activity in all the geographies that TechStars operates. Young entrepreneurs are getting more shots on goal, and more shots on goal results in more small wins AND more venture scale companies.

Consider SocialThing. I chatted with Matt Galligan before he joined TechStars four years ago.  He was working on a “small company” that eventually got acquired for $10M by AOL.

Matt was able to work within AOL to continue to develop his product within a larger platform.  He walked away from SocialThing an infinitely better entrepreneur and operator and made some meaningful money that gave him flexibility to pursue his next thing.

Matt is now the founder and CEO of SimpleGeo (with Joe Stump, another strong young entrepreneur). They have raised just under $10M from RedPoint, Foundry,First Round Capital, and a number of prominent angels.  They are going for a big win and are making amazing progress. 

I would consider SimpleGeo a part of the TechStars portfolio.  It’s a former TechStars entrepreneur, the company is building its team in Boulder, and multiple TechStars investors are also investors in SimpleGeo.  Matt is also an active mentor for new TechStars classes. 

What an amazing outcome for TechStars.  And I think we’ll have many more stories like this in Boulder and elsewhere. As the next class of TechStars Boston wraps up, I’m particularly excited to see the long term repercussions of the program as more entrepreneurs get great mentorship and more shots on goal. 

I previously wrote a To-Do list for new entrepreneurs arriving in Boston.  It included a bunch of folks to follow on twitter and on their blogs, events to go to, and companies to get familiar with.

I’d like to add a new to-do on the list, especially if you are a younger entrepreneur.  Check out Dart Boston - a community of entrepreneurs 30 and under helping one another start their businesses.  These guys have sprung up out of nowhere in recent months, and I’ve been really impressed by their level of activity and creativity.  For example:

Pokin’ Holes: A weekly meetup and video show where one local entrepreneur presents their company and gets grilled by their peers.  The show moves around Boston in an effort to engage the entrepreneur community in different areas.  Tonight’s event is at Tufts.

Capitalize: A monthly show where one company pitches to a VC or angel investor.  You get to see the pitch and feedback streamed live.  This month, it was at Kepha Partners with Eric Hjerpe.  In May, I’ll be on the show at Spark Capital.

Rule 53: A podcast that features a series of interviews about startup life, business, and tech.

I don’t know how these guys and gals have time for all this, but I’ve been very impressed and think it’s an excellent addition to the local tech scene.

Fall is upon us (although it feels like winter) and for Boston, that means a new wave of folks who are arriving here for studies or new career opportunities.

When I moved to Boston from Silicon Valley in 2005, I had a pretty sparse network of friends in the tech and entrepreneurship scene.   I also found the tech community here a little disorganized and opaque, although I think that has been changing quite a bit in recent years.

Four years later, I think I have a much better idea of what’s going on, and I’m excited about it.  But it took a while to figure out.  So I thought I’d post a little to-do list for folks who want to get integrated into the local tech community and benefit from all it has to offer.

1. Follow this list of entrepreneurs, VC’s, and academics

• David Cancel (blog , @Dcancel)
• Dharmesh Shah (blog, @dharmesh)
• Brian Shin (blog, @brianshin)
• Don Dodge (blog, @dondodge)
• Nabeel Hyatt (blog, @nabeel)
• Furqan Nazeeri (blog, @altgate)
• Andy Payne (blog, @payne92)
• Bijan Sabet (blog, @bijan)
• Jeff Bussgang (blog, @bussgang)
• Lee Hower (blog, @leehower)
• Larry Cheng (blog, @larryvc)
• Tom Eisenmann (@teisenmann)
• Andrew Mcafee (blog, @amcafee)
• Me :) (blog, @robgo)

2. Follow a few journalists and news aggregators

• Scott Kirsner
• XConomy
• VentureFizz
• MarksGuide

3. Go to the follow meetups at least once

• WebInno
• Mobile Monday
• OpenCoffee Meetup
• Dart Boston

4. Hang out where you are likely to have chance encounters (ok, this isn’t really that practical, but it’s interesting to know where VC’s and entrepreneurs tend to go)

• Deisel Cafe in Davis Square
• Andala Cafe in Central Square
• Paramount Restaurant in Beacon Hill
• Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square
• Naked Fish in Waltham
• The Marriott in Newton
• The Westin in Waltham
• Preschool OpenHouses in Wellesley, Weston, Cambridge, Lexington,  BeaconHill, etc.  (I’m obviously joking here, but this just happened to me, so I couldn’t resist.  We went to an open house at the Cambridge Ellis School, and among the group of parents, I saw 2 VC’s, an entrepreneur friend, and an HBS professor before deciding the school was way out of my price range)

5. Try to meet folks affiliated with the following organizations and companies (the reasoning being that people at interesting companies and organizations tend to congregate)

• PopSignal
• HubSpot
• Betahouse
• DogPatchLabs
• TechStars Boston
• Cambridge Innovation Center

Hopefully this is a helpful start.  Should take a few months to work through all of these.  I know I’m missing a few (I think I’m obviously missing out events and people affiliated with MIT, among others).  Feel free to add additional thoughts in a comment.