Venture Starters Is Working!

Starting up this community called Venture Starters was a big risk for me. I was happy with all in my life when Luke suggested all these new ideas. At first I didn't know if any of these ideas would work. Luke knew I was opinionated on startups because he has been watching me on the panel of investors for StartupBrite, a bi-weekly pitch event. Luke is their Chief Marketing Officer. I was impressed with what Luke accomplished for StartupBrite. Through this event I met amazingly talented founders who pitched me. I became one of the more active investors. So I took Luke's suggestions serious and thought about them for about 3 months.

Over time, I started to think maybe I should try to dip my toe into the pool of risk associated with Luke's ideas. The pool of risk being "what if no one shows up or likes my speeches". I waded in slowly and cautiously. I prepared speeches and gave 2 that were an hour long each. Talking for an hour straight was uncomfortable. Despite the large turnout to these live webinars, I wanted to try something else that felt more comfortable.

Without really knowing if it would work, I invited 25 people to a life science focused networking event on zoom. I set it up like a meeting. It was a great event and the best thing about it initially was that I was doing more listening than talking. I was hooked.

Now that we had a networking event model, what scared me most was that no one would show up to a weekly event. Just because I think it's what the startup ecosystem needs, I had no idea if doing a weekly primetime Wednesday night live event would be a flop or not.

Enter Luke who did a great job at promotions and teaching me how to leverage my huge network on Linkedin. I was still nervous on that first Wednesday, August 3rd. But you all showed up. I was amazed! The event felt right to me and my concerns faded to excitement for it's potential.

Tomorrow night will mark 7 weeks of Venture Starters having a community weekly event live on zoom. I want to share with you two examples that prove to me that Venture Starters is indeed working.

Without giving up first and last names, yesterday I introduced two people who found me through Venture Starters. One is with a multi-fund successful VC that is raising a few hundred million more, and the other is with what is a called a Fund of Funds. These are large pooled funds that invest in other funds. It's where some VC's get their money. I have no idea if my introduction will lead to anything, but both parties were appreciative that I was able to connect them, and I was only able to connect-the-dots for them through my networking experiences directly tied to Venture Starters. This was an example to me that even though we are focused on startups, whales also are engaged in our community.

Another example is that one of our startup founder attendees told me that he has had more constructive conservations with people he met in the chat at our live events in just the past 2 weeks than his experiences the past 6 months. He is super appreciative. It makes me feel great when I hear these stories.

It's remarkable to me that our Linkedin page has over 2,000 followers so quickly. I have over 2,000 emails of everyone who has registered for the events. Some of our video replays have over 2,000 views. What is happening?

It feels like magic to me. 2,000 people saw the need for a community.

Venture Starters is now bigger than me. It's all about you. You are the ones that show up. You are the ones that register. You are the ones that start ventures. I am along for the ride with you all. I am curious to see what we become. I want to thank all of you all.

If you have a personal story of how Venture Starters helped you, please share it tomorrow night at our Wednesday, September 14th event. You can register to attend at www.VentureStarters.com.

I am grateful to Luke for his ideas and promotional skills. I am grateful to every one of you for wanting to become part of Venture Starters. Thank you for making this an amazing journey for me.

Mark November