This is what makes Seattle Tech Startups so cool
Last night we were dealing with our experimental social book-marking site that had been taken down at the ISP level because a spammer referenced our site in a spam message. While we were searching for how other people had dealt with this same kind of experience, we put a call out to Seattle tech startups to see if anyone knew a good lawyer, to see if we had a basis to do anything other than capitulate and move to a different hosting provider.
The outpouring from the community was outstanding, and this is exactly the kind of support that makes Seattle such a dynamic startup community. If you have a question, 20 answers based on people’s personal experience will flood your mail in box, and generally end up giving you the support you are looking for.
In particular we would like to call attention to TrenchMice, John had our back all night last night and was running his own monologue right here.
We would also like to call out a big thanks to Matt Godden and Shalendra Chhabra who shared their personal stories with us last night as well, and gave us the best advice of the whole lot, which means we move the web site to a different hosting provider. While not the answer we wanted, it is the best answer of the lot that we got last night, and the one that we could actually take action on.
While we often underrate the effect of community, it is the community and the personal stories, actions and other resources that make for a dynamic startup community. That is what makes the Seattle startup community as strong as it is. We have people in the community that are willing to pick up the phone at 7PM on a Friday night and offer advice, we have people who track the stories, and provide support throughout the night on a Friday.
This is what makes the Seattle tech startup community unique, we are not throwing big parties to see who is who, we are carving our names on the fabric of the internet and trying to do cool things.
If you want to follow the startup community here in Seattle, which is populated by smart people, fantastic companies, then go here and sign up at their list serv.
A heart felt thanks out to the entire STS (Seattle Tech Startups) community from our company.
+1. I’ve been happily impressed by how often a Seattle techie will help another in a time of need. The STS is a great example of this, I agree. Other example are Nate Kaiser of nPost, who hosts an occasional group of entrepreneurs who meet to trade advice on startup challenges, and also a ~monthly startup mixer. The tidbits I’ve picked up from these events, and others, have been invaluable — and I try to give to others as good as I’ve gotten. And then there’s Seattle Mind Camp. And Seattle Lunch 2.0.
You’re spot on (of course, I’m biased…) in that we focus more on the reality of our situations than on the latest party or shenanigans with corporate jets, etc. There’s less fluff here than what I read going down in SV.
What you folks went through with the spammer was terrible. TrenchMice gets lots of spam that we filter out, and I read their nonsense I wonder what the financial gain in any of it could possibly be. Alas, much has already been written on that point. My offer to help you with the baseball bats remains open…