[Hidden-tech] Software firms in the valley

[Chas Emerick]

Greetings,

As for software-focussed groups in the area, there's always the  
Western MA Developer's Group:

http://developer.nervestaple.com

We meet every two Thursdays (including this Thursday at 7PM at Panera  
Bread in Hadley); anywhere between 4 and 10 people show up on any  
particular night.  We were originally conceived as a Java/Python  
group three years ago (to align with the respective meetup.com groups  
at the time), but we always discuss a much broader range of topics --  
Java, python, ruby, perl, lisp, programming techniques in general,  
business/entrepreneurial topics, video games, movies, family, and  
whatever else comes up.  We'd love to have you come by.

The group also has a mailing list, which is very low-traffic (mostly  
to remind ourselves of the next meeting, or follow up on topics  
discussed at the last meeting):

http://developer.nervestaple.com/mailman/listinfo/java-python-dev

As for the software companies in the area, there's always Snowtide.   
Someone mentioned "5 or more developers" (perhaps as a threshold of  
perceived legitimacy), in which case, Snowtide doesn't count  
(although I have hired 8-9 other developers over the past 18 months  
or so for short-term work, some local, some not, many of whom I've  
met through the software developers' group meetings).

Cheers,

Chas Emerick
Founder, Snowtide Informatics Systems
Enterprise-class PDF content extraction

cemerick at snowtide.com
http://snowtide.com | +1 413.519.6365


>> 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
>
>
>
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