Tech Tuesday Rocks

Last night I attended my first Tech Tuesday event held at the Microsoft NERD building on Memorial Drive. Here is a shout out to Microsoft for providing the food and beverage at the event. For those of you not familiar with Tech Tuesday, it is an informal gathering held on the second Tuesday of every month for geeks, tech savvy professionals, DIY-ers, press, and other industry luminaries. Attendees bring their laptops, robots, new cell phones, gadgets, and other new-fangled devices for ad hoc show and tell. It is a great venue to show proof of concept, solicit ideas from peers, or refine your pitch.

It is hosted by the Mass Technology Leadership Council and tech luminary Dan Bricklin. At the beginning of the event, Dan gave each attendee an opportunity in two sentences to introduce themselves and promote what they are showing.

Last night there was a group of entrepreneurs from Ireland that are visiting Babson for a week-long boot camp of entrepreneurial studies. Several of them have already launched successful ventures in Ireland and are looking to scale beyond Emerald Isle while others are getting ready to launch iPhone apps in the near future. I had a lively discussion with Barry Lynch from Nifty Nosh, an online food ordering service for take-out on how they were using Twitter to promote special events for their client restaurants. What I found interesting about the conversation is that they were using what I would call “classic pull through channel marketing” using new social media tactics.

Blank Label is a newly launched online company that provides custom dress shirts for the trendy male. This is a very cool and interesting company that has the foundation of a successful venture. I particularly like their belief in Connected Individualism - I think this concept has great promotional potential.  Blank Label launched late October using social media as their primary vehicle to get the word out.  Good start but here is the challenge. I hear this all the time from young twenty-something entrepreneurs and also from VCs – social media and SEO are the only tools I need to get the word out. NOT! (I will pontificate more on this subject later in the week!)

There were a number of very experienced and seasoned professionals taking a look at this company. Within 15 minutes, we as a collective group came up with at least a half dozen of ideas on how this start-up could enhance their presence in their target market. The ideas ranged from innovative video to grass roots event marketing – fashion shows in nightclubs, partnering with universities and graduate programs, and the list goes on. All great ideas. And this is what Tech Tuesday is all about. Sharing ideas, mentoring innovative companies, and keeping it all in Massachusetts.