[Hidden-tech] Software firms in the valley

[Charlton Wilbur]

On Jan 23, 2007, at 4:44 PM, Charlie Heath wrote:

> Who out there is contemplating any sort of technology startup, for  
> what
> marketplace, and what sort of structure?  What are the barriers and
> opportunities that differentiate the Pioneer Valley from other  
> areas?  I've
> got some ideas about these but I'd like to hear other people's ideas.

I'm contemplating a startup, but I'd just as soon not go into too  
much more detail.  It's a software product, with one tentacle on the  
web and one tentacle on the desktop and all kinds of buzzworld- 
compliant social features and convergence.  It will in all likelihood  
be an LLC before I spend any money or pay anyone to do anything, if  
that's what you mean by structure; it's the sort of idea that a  
couple of people (possibly one person) can get off the ground.

The two major problems with the Pioneer Valley, from my point of  
view, are the cost of doing business (but that's Massachusetts, not  
just the area) and the sparseness of technical people.  In Boston and  
NYC, you can pick any random technology and find a dozen people or  
more who are willing to get together once a month and talk about new  
developments.  You can probably find that in the Pioneer Valley, but  
one will be in Greenfield and one in Longmeadow, and there will be  
one in Pittsfield which isn't technically part of the Pioneer Valley  
but are you really going to make the poor Pittsfieldian travel all  
the way to Rensselaer for technical companionship, and committing to  
a monthly get-together is hard with those distances involved.

I mean, I'd love to find a Perl users' group or a technically- 
oriented Mac developers' group (Cocoa anyone?) but I'm not sure  
there's sufficient interest in the area.

And the cost of doing business -- I'm trying to bootstrap this on a  
shoestring, and the $2000 or so it is likely to cost to get set up as  
an LLC means I'm delaying that step until I've got a mostly-working  
prototype on my own.  I'm also trying to figure out how to deal with  
the health insurance issue; when there's a legal requirement that I  
have to carry health insurance, that makes the barrier for abandoning  
my day job that much higher and the barrier for hiring an employee or  
two higher still.

Charlton


-- 
Charlton Wilbur
cwilbur at chromatico.net