Bain Capital Ventures Launches an Innovation Center

July 13, 2010 By 1 Comment

Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Bain Capital, has just launched the Bain Capital Ventures Innovation Center (BCVIC).

baincapitalventuresinnovationcenter

The site has a simple goal: turning your ideas into reality by providing the resources necessary to make that happen.  As they describe on the website:

The Bain Capital Ventures Innovation Center is about you and your startup. We want to provide entrepreneurs with a suite of resources to help them with the burning issues that they have when starting a business, including among other things: vetting a product or service concept, raising capital, building the right team, finding the first customer, networking to other entrepreneurs, and working with the right partners.

Some of the many resources that the Bain Capital Ventures Innovation Center is making available to entrepreneurs includes:

  • An events calendar with a hand-picked list of events in New England and New York that are geared towards entrepreneurs.
  • An opportunity to network through Bain Capital Ventures with companies in a range of vertical including: media, retail and restaurants, healthcare, financial services, and information technology. Also, groups and associations such as Cambridge Innovation Center, DartBoston, TechStars and many more.
  • An array of partner companies that provide services that may be helpful as you build your startup that the BCVIC help make an introduction to including angel funds, early-stage venture capitals, accounting firms, banks, law firms and recruiting firms.
  • A Startup Toolkit that has a variety of how-to guides, resources, data sheets and other useful resources for entrepreneurs.
  • The ability to submit a request for team members such as a co-founder or a CEO so that the Bain Capital Ventures Innovation Center can help match your with those of someone looking for help or if you’re looking for a new gig, matching the requests with your capabilities.
  • Office hours every Friday from 3-5p at both the VentureCafe at Cambridge Innovation Center and at the Bain Capital Ventures offices where you can schedule time to get help with your business plan, ask general questions or any other help you may need.

Besides an awesome website, there is also a BCVIC LinkedIn Group and a Facebook Page that you can join and begin networking with other like-minded entrepreneurs, start-up junkies and those looking to help.

I’m really excited by the BCVIC and look forward to seeing how it will continue to evolve. The possibilities are endless.

What say you about the BCVIC launch?

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Gary Vaynerchuk Treats People Like Goldfish

August 18, 2009 By 8 Comments

I bet if you were just cruising through your tweets or feeds, this probably caught your eye huh?  You might be thinking that I’mgoldfish just trying to create a catchy title to get you to stop on by, right?  Well, if that’s what you thought then you’re partially correct.  Of course, I love it when you stop by here and am incredibly humbled by it.  However, in a recent tweet Gary stated that you should treat everyone like a goldfish.  So, what did he mean by this?

Check out Gary explain what he means by that statement and why YOU should be treating everyone like a goldfish as well.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.

I completely agree with Gary and think that his analogy is perfect.  This is what Gary lives by each and every day and one of the reasons why he has such a dedicated group of friends, fans, and supporters.  Sure, it’s hard to scale that as an individual but as long as you’re connecting as often as possible with as many people as possible, others notice and are appreciative.  Also, it doesn’t have to be long connections.  Just a simple “congrats” can make someone’s day (trust me, I know)

But, I think you can and should take it one step past Gary’s concept.  Instead of just connecting with someone like they were a goldfish in a bowl by themselves, how about connect with them and if possible, help them jump into a fish tank where they might have an opportunity with other fish that they may not already know.  Be that connector and help others with no selfish reasons behind it.

You know who does this really, really well?  Gary definitely does.  But, also, others like Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, Amber Naslund, Brian Solis (all of whom YOU can connect with at the Inbound Marketing Summit) and many, many others, who spend most of their time connecting and helping others just because.

Are you treating everyone that you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to connect with like a goldfish?  Are you connecting with and helping your network as often as possible?  Know someone that is doing it really well and want to recognize them for it?

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Photo by: a_trotskyite

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Bringing Online Conversations to Real Life

May 22, 2009 By 8 Comments

louisvillebootcampI love attending conferences!  It’s definitely not all of the traveling that makes it awesome.  What I find so great about conferences, meetups, and other events is that it allows me to bring many of the online conversations that I have daily and continue them in real life through face-to-face interaction.  What’s even better is that since I’ve already had an online conversation with you, we don’t spend most of our short time together getting to know each other.  We’re able to pick up right where we left off online, even if it’s our first time meeting in person.

Social media provides all of us platforms where we can develop relationships.  It doesn’t matter what the platform is.  What matters is how we utilize that platform to develop and maintain lasting relationships.  It certainly takes work.  But, one easy way to maintaining these relationships is by attending conferences, meetups, lunches and any other events that you can be involved in.

Did you know that at SXSW I never attended a single session?  It wasn’t because they weren’t valuable.  It was because I was hanging out in places like the Blogger Lounge bringing my online conversations to real life.

So, who am I looking forward to meeting?  I look forward to meeting all of you.  It’s one of the main reasons why I enjoy traveling so much.

I hope to get a chance to meet, say hello and maybe even share a beer or 3. :)

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Photo by: smorty71

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WBJ Central New England Sales Summit

July 31, 2008 By 1 Comment

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the first ever Central New England Sales Summit put on by the Worcester Business Journal.  After the morning keynote by Scott Michael Zimmerman, the afternoon featured several breakout sessions.

One of the sessions which generated the most buzz was hosted by Mark Roberge and Peter Caputa of HubSpot as well as David Hurlbrink of Landslide.  The discussion focused on how to develop an inbound marketing strategy and how to utilize a CRM/SFA system to properly manage your sales funnel.

The slideshows from all of the presentations are available courtesy of the speakers and the WBJ.

Other blogs about yesterday’s event:

Peter Caputa: LiveBlogging about Blogging at the Worcester Business Journal Sales Summit
Rick Roberge: WBJ Sales Summit Feedback
Laura Briere: Our Own Personal Superstar
Betty Do: Sales Leadership Advice: Stop Selling!

The one-day event turned out to be a great event which was packed with a lot of information and provided for an excellent networking opportunity.  This event is definitely not one you want to miss next year!

Thanks to all those I had the chance to speak with yesterday and I look forward to talking with you in the future!

Filed Under: Conferences, Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,