Who can Supercharge the Santa Cruz Startup Ecosystem? YOU!

NOTICE: Our scheduled speaker for this meetup, Sol Lipman, was called away last minute on business out of town. He's rescheduled for the July meetup and has promised AOL schwag to make amends :) We had this presentation in the queue and are bringing it to you this week in his place.

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Who can Supercharge the Santa Cruz Startup Ecosystem? YOU!

We want to build a vibrant tech ecosystem in Santa Cruz. It isn't something that happens in a silo, it isn't something that can be done by one or three people. It needs a vision and it takes a movement. The TechRaising team has recently spent time studying other tech ecosystems like Boulder and Portland to see how they are revving their engines. We'd like to share our findings and co-create a plan that inspires us to action in Santa Cruz.

Margaret Rosas, a TechRaising cofounder, will provide an overview of our findings of other tech ecosystems and then turn the session over to YOU, the participating TechRaisers. We want to hear from you about what Santa Cruz needs to serve YOU the current/aspiring founder or a current/aspiring startup team member. She will lead an interactive session to answer these questions from the group:

Do you need classes, training? Looking for a mentor? In search of funding? Need talent? What speakers would be most inspirational? What's holding you back from taking your startup to the next level? And finally, what can YOU can contribute? What skills, connections, talents, expertise can you share to help grow this ecosystem? Many of us have spent hours (days, years!) having this conversation about what Santa Cruz needs to be a better city for startups. We want to seize this moment to capture the community pulse on what is needed now, what is needed today to make our city a better place for entrepreneurs.

The meetup will allow us to gain insights into what needs to happen next and set things in motion - we won't just talk we will take steps to affect change.

Join us.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead