Ron Schmelzer talks about the importance of communities in turning a startup idea into a business.
We’ve spoken a lot about the importance of being part of strong communities in achieving success. Today, we’ll speak with someone who is helping build strong startup communities across the nation.
Our guest is Ron Schmelzer, the Founder and Chief Event Wrangler of TechBreakfast, which is the largest monthly morning tech meetup in the nation, with over 14,000 members across Baltimore, Washington DC, New York, Boston, Austin, Silicon Valley, and more.
Ron talks about how TechBreakfast was born out of him not knowing anyone in the Baltimore startup community after moving there from Boston, and how important community is to startup success.
He highlights his past experiences of growing very different types of companies and how he’s applying those learnings to growing TechBreakfast.
Ron’s enthusiasm is infectious and it really comes through in this conversation. Check it out!
In this episode, you’ll learn from Ron:
- The difference between building a large, venture-funded e-commerce company and a smaller, niche, bootstrapped company, and how the latter can be more beneficial.
- The inspiration for starting TechBreakfast.
- How important being part of community is in turning your idea into a viable business.
- The three things a startup needs to succeed – money, talent, and expertise – and why it’s important for startup ecosystems to be able to provide these.
- The growth metrics he tracks to judge TechBreakfast’s success.
- Which cities and regions have thriving startup ecosystems.
- How working with partners has helped immensely in growing the TechBreakfast attendee base.
- What he looks for in an ecosystem when expanding to new cities.
- The different types of events in the TechBreakfast portfolio and what he has in store for future growth.
- The tough balance of growing your company while not running yourself ragged.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
Answers to Quickfire Q&A:
- If you could chat with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
- Elon Musk, Andrew Carnegie, or Benjamin Franklin.
- Name a tool, app, or website that you can’t live without and why.
- Tell us something unique and interesting about you that not many may know.
- He used to be a competitive swing dancer.
- What are the top three skills or characteristics that you look for in people you work with?
- Reliability
- Enthusiasm
- Experience
- What is something you believe, but few others agree with you?
- More venture capital is not necessary to be successful.
How to contact Ron
Website: TechBreakfast.co
Email: ron@techbreakfast.co
Mobile app: TechBreakfast To Go on iTunes and Android
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