| You may not notice it, but you have some entrepreneurial and hacker spirit there already. Ever read about projects like TheGlobe.com or people like Robert Tappan Morris and pg? (Go Big Red!) Here is some advice, but I can't tell if you're trying to start a company, or encourage others to, so this is a bit of both. 1. Go ask Student Agencies if they need any tech problems solved. I think they run TakeNote, those coupon books, and a bunch of other student-related services. They may have an idea for a student-related service that you can implement and run yourself or eventually sell to them. Since they're sort of a student-run organization, they would be a good way to bring together some problem-solving students and more open to eventually paying you for starting a project for them. 2. show up to the cslug or acsu meetings and mailing lists. Ask others what they're working on, or ask them for help or advice on your ideas. Show them that you have a commercially viable project, and they'll start following your lead either by participating with you or by starting their own. Cross-pollinate these groups with the Ithaca Perl Mongers, Ithaca free software group, Ithaca linux users, and whatever other small, niche user groups are around there these days. One activist per year can completely change any of these organizations. 3. If you can't consistently steer the meetings for one of those clubs towards the topics you would like to hear more about, start your own. Meet monthly someplace nearby off campus where they serve beer, but you don't have to be 21 to enter. Select someone at each meeting to talk for a few minutes about their idea or project at the next meeting. 4. Find the professors who are actually doing things. Sure Tim Teitelbaum's company is pretty academic and different from the general YC startups, but at least he has a company. There are others. Ask him for advice on starting a company in Ithaca. Have a professor speak about starting and running a local company at the meetings discussed in steps 2 and 3. 5. I don't know what the "Center for Advanced Computing" is like these days, but it used to be that hanging out by the coffee cart in the Theory Center was the best way to meet folks who were actually using computers to solve problems. Go hang out with those guys. 6. Sit in on some classes at the Johnson School. Eventually, you'll figure out which of those MBA students actually want to start businesses. Invite them to your meetings, or join theirs. Offer your technical services to any of their pipedream projects. They need you. I'm glad to hear you're interested in this. You can make a large difference just by consistently beating a drum. I'm serious, one dedicated person in a community like that can change a lot. Good luck! |