Startup Underground

In SF and NYC, there are scores of entrepreneurs who are buddies with each other and they all hang out. It is a powerful network to belong to, as funding, ideas, help, link exchanges, etc all happen within here. If they don’t know you, you can’t get in. You won’t even get invited to the “cool” parties.

it would be great to go do some investigative reporting on these underground social networks of entrepreneurs. What are the benefits of being in the in-crowd? how do you get “in”? how do you get kicked out? what is the typical person like, ie. ex-paypal person, rich or poor, serial entrepreneur, etc etc.?

About David Shen
David Shen is the President of David Shen Ventures, LLC, and advises entrepreneurs of early stage Internet startups in the areas of user experience, product strategy and development, and online advertising. His experience spans over 14 years in product design and development from Apple, frogdesign, and Yahoo!.

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Vineet Sinha
(9 points)
April 15, 01:04 pm

David, this can be interesting. But some thoughts: Not really knowing if I am part of the in-crowd but isn’t getting “in” the first test of your networking skills? And, is there really a single underground, or isn’t there likely multiple undergrounds with each having different biases?

Angie Chang
(2 points)
April 16, 10:04 am

This sounds like fodder for Valleywag.

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