The NYC Tech Scene Is Alive, and Thriving

After having spent the majority of my time in NYC over the past months, I've experienced some impressive conferences, talks, Meetups and gatherings. One such gathering, held at a three story penthouse in Tribeca, was dubbed the Founder's Club. Or:

a group of NYC Internet founders and CEOs promoting the start-up spirit in Silicon Alley.

It was that, and more. I spotted Jeff Jarvis, and ran into some now-familiar faces, like CNET's Caroline McCarthy, Civil Netizen's Dave Evans, Brett Petersel and Socialight's Dan Melinger.

It was nice meeting blip.tv's Dina Kaplan, Fast Company's Michael Prospero and artist Scott Draves, a highly regarded geek artiste whose work adorns the walls of Google's  Mountainview HQ. Scott recently moved his life from San Francisco to NYC to make it all happen. I told him that I could relate to that, firsthand (although I'm originally from the East coast, and he's not).

A few other organizations, and their leaders/evangelists, I chatted up:

Ventbox's Nate Westheimer
Ventbox is, as you might guess, a place to vent on the web. But it's more than that - it's social ranting, if you will. Nate, aka VentMan, sees many other applications for the service, particularly within corporations (don't employees like to vent?). I told him it's a pretty cool knowledge management tool he's got on his hands. Nate wins best dressed founder of the evening, simply because he was the only 20-something (or any age, actually) that showed up in a bow tie. And, it worked.

Noel 'NoNeck' Hidago:
What to say about Noel Hidago, other than once you meet him, it's not likely you'll forget him. Filled with passion (and I mean cup-runneth-over filled not just to-the-brim filled), Noel will speak quite intelligently - yet not without flair - about technology and culture, politics and co-working, entrepreneurship and unconferencing. His latest project, called the Luck of Seven, is an "open source, around the world project" where:

...for seven months, he will traverse the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and attempt to visit the seven ancient wonders of the world. Using a wiki, noneck will harness the collective knowledge of the globe, and report weekly on seven topics of freedom. Before he leaves, he is fundraising US$11.11 from 700 global residents.

Trickle Up's Jesse Greendyk
Trickle Up is a non-profit which has been around, for 27 years to be precise. Jesse explained the core focus of the organization, microfinancing the world's lowest income, would-be entrepreneurs, giving them their 'first steps out of poverty.' They do this by

... providing conditional seed capital, business training, and relevant support services essential to the launch or expansion of a microenterprise. This proven social and economic empowerment model is implemented in partnership with local agencies.

You can catch an enlightening conversation with Trickle Up's President Bill Abrahms, led by BusinessWeek's Karen E. Klein, here. And, meet one of their entrepreneurs here.

What's happening in the NY Tech sector is worth paying attention to. Observationally speaking, it's a rumble of energy, passion and power that, I believe, is on the verge of erupting.

Comments

[Nate Westheimer]

Thanks for the mention! See you soon.

[Dina]

Tracy, this is a great post...you're an awesome writer. And can't wait to have you join the next Founders Club! xo Dina