Startup Dojo

There’s been a lot of talk about internships on the Seattle Tech Startup mailing list, so I wanted to share my experience. I still remember my first startup internship with Shelfari and how it came about. It all started with meeting Shelfari CEO Josh Hug at the Annual UW Springboard Event.

I knew about Shelfari prior to the event, and I wanted to share some ideas on how I would go about connecting Shelfari with the book community. During my mini pitch, he mentioned he didn’t have any openings at the internship level, but he’d connect with me once they bring on a VP of Marketing. I definitely continued to follow up with him.

Three months later, I saw an internship at Shelfari come through Husky Jobs (UW Job Board), so I emailed Josh. He forwarded me to Dave Hanley, Shelfari’s new VP of Marketing and we hit it off. That’s where I landed my first internship at a startup. Here are 5 tips that helped me along this process:

1. Follow the news surrounding the startup community.
There’s a ton of news out there surrounding tech startups: TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, and Mashable. We’re lucky enough in Seattle to have news like TechFlash and Seattle 2.0, so there’s no shortage. Once you find startups you’re interested in, follow them because they’ll probably mention opportunities you’re looking for.

2. Visit job boards geared toward startups.
Along with visiting the startup’s website and looking for job openings, there are job boards dedicated for startups. At a job board, definitely subscribe to their RSS feeds, if available, to be updated. Here are some of resources:

• Startupers: http://startupers.com
• Venture Loop: http://ventureloop.com
• Startuply: http://startuply.com
• nPost: http://npost.com/jobs
• InternMatch: http://internmatch.com
• Craigslist: http://craigslist.org (search “startup”) 

3. Find local startup events and start networking.
Obviously, you can’t just read about the startups, you got to meet them too. Start making moves and find out about events in your area. It’s an opportunity to get in front of entrepreneurs and get a deeper understanding about their business and how you can help. And also, try to get to know them on a personal level. The Seattle Tech Calendar is an amazing resource, they organize all the events around town.

4. Showcase how you can help them.
Folks working in startups don’t have a ton of time, they’re all busy building their businesses so when you get a chance to chat with them you got to capitalize. Share your strengths and how you can help their business. If you have ideas on how you can help manage their online presence, create better e-mail campaigns, or even a crazy idea to 10x their traffic — make an impression. Being passionate and enthusiastic can also go a long way.

5. Always follow up.
Entrepreneurs meet a lot of people and your goal is to be one of those folks they remember. An easy way to do this is just to follow up. After meeting someone, maybe at a startup happy hour, remember to get their card and follow up. I see so many people exchange business cards without taking the next step. It’s a wasted opportunity, so don’t waste yours. Be persistent. Take it from Andy Sack, serial entrepreneur and investor at Founder’s Co-Op, “Follow up, follow up, follow up”.

Did I miss something? Any follow up questions or comments? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Personalizing your Google Reader is only the first step into getting more involved online with the communities you care about. Once you have your blogs / publications categorized and labeled, the next step is to finally dive in and participate. The easiest way to do that is to leave comments.

I remember last week, Dave Schappell mentioned to me, “You won’t realize the importance of comments until you start your own blog,” and he was right. Comments allow you to add onto the conversation happening on that blog along with getting you more exposure about who you are as a person. If you’re going to leave a comment, here’s 5 ways to leave a rockstar comment.

1. Don’t be anonymous.
Nobody like a person who speaks their mind behind a fake name or “anonymous”. Grow some balls, and let the community know who you are, preferably with your full name and an accompanying website. Feel free to use your website, blog, or other URL (i.e. Twitter, Linkedin, etc.). Don’t forget to setup a Gravatar and Disqus account.

2. Build upon current comments.
Redundancy is annoying. If someone has already said what you wanted to say, think of something to add on to their comment and reply to it. It’ll allow you to connect with that commenter along with the blog owner. Sometimes the conversations had in the comments are more interesting than the blog itself.

3. Research before commenting blindly.
Do a bit of due diligence before you start commenting away, especially if you’re planning to bring up facts or rumors. You don’t have to be extensive, just do some quick Google search. If you’re able to reference another blog post, video, or photo, all the better since many visitors and future visitors will benefit from your research.

4. Share your personal experiences.
It’s always great to add a bit of a personal touch. Set yourself apart from other commenters by sharing some of your personal experiences. There’s nothing better than learning from the comments on top of the blog post written. Sometimes comments can be mini blog posts within the blog.

5. Be honest and speak your mind, good or bad.
If there’s one thing you should follow when you write a comment, it’s to be authentic. Good or bad comments are typically welcomed, as long as you follow #1 of this list. Sometimes negative comments can be good for your blog. Remember, leave something negative — be prepared to back it up and respond just in case.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below on what you think. If you think something is missing, you know what to do.

Do you still use Google Reader (or any RSS reader) to consume your news? I know I still do, on top of the news I get via Twitter and Tumblr. For me, it’s my morning newspaper I go through everyday to see what’s going on. Although, I never felt that I wasn’t connecting as much as I wanted to with the folks writing the content…and I wanted to change that.

About a month ago, I made a small, but substantial, change to my Google Reader which instantly made the content I was reading more personal. I wanted to connect with these blogs at a different level, and what better way to do that than to connect with the writers themselves.

One Step to Personalize your Google Reader:

• Step One: Change all the blog names to the author’s name

I renamed Startup Marketing Blog to Sean Ellis, TechFlash Microsoft Blog to Todd Bishop, Yes You May to May Peria, and Yahoo! Cagewriter to Steve Cofield — just to name a few. This turned it around for me. Now, I was able to connect the style of writing, opinions, questions, discussions, etc. to the people writing the blogs rather than just the blog itself. Again, not a huge change, but mentally seeing the author names rather than the blog names made a difference and made me more active within their communities.

This might not work for blogs at TechCrunch, CagePotato, or Seattle 2.0 since they have multiple authors — but for most of my blogs it did. Try it out, it doesn’t take a whole lot of time and let me know what you think after a week.