In the startup world, there are those who think about ideas and those who take action on them. By definition, entrepreneurs are ones who see a problem and take the opportunity to solve them. John Petersen is one himself. He is the co-organizer (with Alec Hartman) of NY Tech Day, a science fair for tech startups that is taking place on April 19th in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. NY Tech Day will showcase tech startups of all sizes and be a great opportunity for them to interact with investors, students and the press. Over 200 startups are expected, including several Dumbo-based startups will be participating in the expo and the evening’s awards ceremony. A major sponsor, Digital Ocean was also founded in Dumbo.
We spoke with John, who talked to us about the event, how it differs from other tech events, and what to expect:
What is NY Tech Day?
NY Tech Day is a one day event that gives exhibiting startups some much needed spotlight – enabling them to set up a booth to expose their hard work to thousands of early adopters, supporters, prospective employees and investors.
Great idea to showcase startups in NYC. With the startup scene in NYC booming, this is a great fit. How did your idea become reality?
My co-founder Alec had experience in starting and running tech trade shows in Florida before he sold it. Being entrepreneurs ourselves, running several successful startups, we were looking for expos to showcase startup businesses. When we went to a small business expo at the Javits Center, most of the exhibitors cater to large enterprises. We realized there was nothing like this that helped startups. So we shared our idea with other startup businesses, friends, and industry contacts. We received overwhelming responses, so we knew we had to do it. We modeled NY Tech Day after a science fair style exhibit followed by an awards ceremony. It’s like the poster presentation from your 8th grade science fair, except your mother doesn’t have to drive you to the event.
What’s your take on the startup scene in NYC? Do you feel there’s a bubble?
There is a lot of positive momentum in the NYC startup scene. There are many great companies building some really cool stuff, and we’re excited to see many of them at NY Tech Day. Even with all the positive, there is one thing that concerns me a bit, but it is not specific to NY. There are startups who raise an initial round of funding fully planning and expecting that for the next round. I just get a little nervous when companies start expecting the capital to always be there.
What kinds of startup businesses should showcase at the event? A bootstrapped, pre-launch, or venture backed companies? Who will be attending?
NY Tech Day is open to companies of all stages. When they are accepted for a booth to exhibit, they can use the day the best they see fit for their business. Our focus will be in 3 main areas:
- companies seeking investment. If you’re pre-funded, the event is a great way to attract the attention of investors.
- press/media exposure to your company. We’re working with press contacts within the tech industry and outside traditional press coverage to cover the event and exhibitors.
- Companies looking to hire and recruit talent. One of the biggest challenges in the NY tech environment is finding the right talent. Attendees may be looking for the right companies to work for and we are working with NY area schools to bring talent who are looking to get introduced to companies.
What’s your vision for NY Tech Day?
We want to make this an annual event for NYC area and support the tech and startup ecosystem, which include investors, startups, talent, and the media. We like the idea of creating community. For example, we are planning a pre-event happy hour just for the startup companies to meet eachother to find ways to spark ideas and potential opportunities to work together. We love the idea of keeping it free for attendees and provide value for exhibitors.
With so many tech and media businesses in Dumbo, NY Tech Day is a great opportunity to show your work to a large group of people in one day. The Expo will start at 10am on April 19th and run through 4pm. For more information on NY Tech Day, go to nytechday.com.
Read on to find out about Digital Ocean, a business that started in Dumbo, how they help startups, what attracted them to Dumbo, and why they left Dumbo.
We spoke with Moisey, Head of Product at Digital Ocean.
Why did Digital Ocean sponsor the first NY Tech Day?
We were on board immediately not only being a NYC based startup but also because we had an opportunity to give back to the community. It’s a common trend amongst tech companies and it’s a testament to some of the great startups that have come out of NYC like Etsy and Meetup that really pushed the community forward. Now it seems as if the NY tech scene is finally reaching a tipping point. NYTechDay is giving the next wave of startups a great stage to show what they are up to and we’re excited to be a part of it. Who knows if one of the startups will be the next Foursquare or Tumblr.
You started in Dumbo. Do you have many Brooklyn based clients? Why did you end up moving out?
Prior to DigitalOcean we were in Dumbo for close to four years. We initially moved there because it was close to our datacenters and we vaguely knew it was a tech community. After being there for several years what surprised us was that it has a real sense of community. It’s hard to put into words. It just has to be experienced. GreenDesk, a shared office space, was our office and you never know who you’d bump into over the free coffee that they provided, it could be a web design firm or an IP lawyer.
We’re working on building partnerships specifically with Brooklyn and NYC based companies because there’s just no substitute for face to face communication. Being a startup ourselves its important to stay in communication with our users and ensure that the features we’re building really solve their problems. Being able to discuss their needs and then go back and iterate to create something that makes their lives easier is extremely rewarding. For us there’s also a real sense of pride in keeping it local.
To be completely honest our main reason for moving out was the limited food choices. Also having only the F and A/C lines was a problem. If you happend to live on the line it was great, otherwise it added another 20-30 minutes to the commute. After many years we decided it was time for a change and highest on our list of priorities was access to as many subway lines as possible and a variety of food choices.
How can a startup benefit from DigitalOcean?
We provide the simplest cloud hosting service, and we work hard to ensure the experience is something users will love. We listened to our users and came up with several features that are unheard of, from free bandwidth, to SSD based servers for high performance. It’s quite often that we’ll receive feedback from our users and push out features specific to them because overall it improves our service and we know other users will benefit. But really, the greatest value is the connection itself and knowing that together we’re helping to build the NYC tech community.
