(Software) Developers in Santa Fe

[Eric Renz-Whitmore]

 

For those interested in the Santa Fe area's software development scene, you might want to check in on the Santa Fe Software Developers meetup group at http://www.sfdev.org/

 

Current plan is for the group to meet monthly and vary our locations to offer low-key opportunities for those in the software-related world to meet, talk issues and experiences and otherwise network.

 

Our next meetup is this Thursday night at the Santa Fe Complex (6:30PM - more details at the link) - and we'd love to keep building connections between the software and startup communities in the Santa Fe area.

 

Best wishes -- and see you at the next Open Coffee!

[Mark Montgomery]

Eric,

I couldn't help but note that in most markets around the world, to the extent a start-up community exists, it's usually primarily consisting of software developers. Jim Rutt provided a nice presentation on this from the perspective of a software entrepreneur, exec, and investor his talk recently co-sponsored by SFI and HD3. My experiences aren't identical, particularly in recent years when the pace of change has accelerated--it is indeed a different world in the U.S. than it was just a few years ago, but it's worth a careful study when it becomes available-- believe SFI will post to web site soon.

 

Among many lessons Jim shares is that it's essential to work for equity. Markets that don't literally cannot compete with those that do, particularly given the fact that those that focus on equity also have by far the most investment, with SV leading the world still by an enormous margin. I would also ad that funding is increasingly strategic to geography, meaning that much less is available for potential sourcing in most of the U.S. In working with markets worldwide I've found this issue to be just one of many essential elements in determining whether a start-up community survives.

 

There are 13 other essential issues we tracked and tested in venturing. Much of the world listened while much of the U.S. did not. Quite a number are hoping that NM will be one that does, but so far I am still seeing politics, idealism, and protectionism -- reliance on research funding, not competing with proven models, concepts, and people in venturing.

Another good resource is this podcast from co-author of selling in a new market space. I have the book -- it's excellent, but if you haven't read it -- it's dated -- the cases are largely from the era where these guys made their name, which is same era I learned. A lot of it is timeless, but also true that many of the tactics aren't, which is touched on in this pod cast regarding Google ads. I particularly like and agree with his view on the role of sales, which (unusually) comes specifically from enterprise software so is particularly targeted for founders and ceos of related sw companies. Only a few minutes-- well worth it as is series. This type of essential experience is so far in my experience completely missing in not just SF, but NM.

 

http://briangburns.podhoster.com/index.php?pid=17053

 

 

.02--MM

[Eric Renz-Whitmore]

This is very good stuff -- thanks!