45 quotable quotes from 2014’s New York tech meetups

NEW YORK, USA — New York can have too many things going on simultaneously, and it’s no surprise for people to forget what happened last week, let alone the entire year of 2014.

As a refresher before the New York tech meetups of 2015 start picking up, here’s a roundup of the most helpful tips and interesting sound bites from the startup presenters, investors, lawyers, authors and other personalities this writer covered in 80 tech meetups last year.

You can draw inspiration from it whether you are a startup in Asia, Africa, Europe or in the Americas.

On ideating

“Invention overlaps with innovation but it’s almost the same thing. Don’t assume technology has its own deterministic logic. Ideas become imaginable at a certain point in time. When you are pushing the envelope, you get extraordinary insights.” Steven Johnson, author of “How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made The Modern World

On thinking of and starting a business

“Until you can implement and you can prove your concept a) works b) there’s a market for it and c) you can do it on profitable basis, you have to think about what your startup is really worth.” David Sorkin, head of the Venture Capital and Early Stage and Emerging Companies practice at McCarter & English 

“There’s a danger with build, measure and learn. You do this you start in the worst possible way to test your ideas.” Alex Osterwalder, lead author, Business Model Generation, inventor, “Business Model Canvas.”

“On day one of your startup, do research; the best companies take a lot of time with their idea and research before they start building; have a real understanding of the market; If you have a startup similar with another (competition) and you don’t have the culture (in place), you lost already; and ask yourself why you are the best person for an idea.” David Tisch, chair of Spring, former managing director of TechStars NY

“When do you need to ask money? If you need to accelerate faster. Money is fuel. How much money do you need? Base it on your milestones.” David Tisch

What is the most important quality for a startup to have?

“Leadership!” David Tisch 

“A startup is rebellious by nature yet so many founders spend a lot of time conforming. Those who are ready will be able to accelerate.” David Tisch

Investors on choosing startups to fund

“Value is in the eye of the beholder…not in the spreadsheets. Make (investors) like you. Establish value then negotiate.” Kamran Elahian, chair and co-founder, Global Catalyst Partners 

“We (investors) look at those who have built stuff before. We have to see something, especially (one that matches) your background.” David Tisch

“We (investors) don’t even need to see the idea; we don’t even need to see the product. (We look at) the team and the market, because they are easier to identify.” David Tisch

On finding, picking and pitching to the right investor

“If your investor takes lot of your time and they have no control, stop spending time with them. Avoid those focused on deal terms, focus on those that are aligned with your principles and values.” Nikhil Kalghati, VC of Vast Ventures 

“Pitching to me in meetups is not a good idea, because it’s unfair for the person seeking funding. He may have worked on it for many years and for him to squeeze in 15 seconds of his time (is not worth it).” Charlie O’ Donnell of Brookyln Bridge Ventures

“Create momentum in your fundraising. Don’t take meetings sequentially, book all of them as close together as possible.” Nikhl Kalghati, nodding to audience who said aim for 100 meetings in 30 days

“Build real relationships that will last years. Find 5 people, not 150 people, and not because they are on a list.” David Tisch

“The ultra wealthy are far more accessible than we think. You’ve got to be where they are. Host coffee talks at Four Seasons. Find their sweet spot. I helped their kids.” Nikhil Kalghati

“The best events are not posted on social media. It’s in private events.” Nikhil Kalghati

On gaining customers/users

“Do you know your user or customer’s internal trigger? Find your user’s itch. People always look for associations, solutions and patterns. It cues the user for the next action, telling what the user what to do next. Ask yourself, when you are bored, what do you do?” Nir Eyal, author of “Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products.”

On the peer-to-peer sharing economy

 

“It will expand consumption through variety, raise productivity and inspire innovation and entrepreneurship.

 

(But as people) realize they don’t have benefits and pensions (could) go away, the sharing economy needs to protect its providers. Many serious regulatory obstacles will also need to be addressed. Arun Sundararajan, NYU professor 

“F—k Wall Street!” Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman, differentiating Wall Street to the sharing economy

On e-commerce

“It’s a $700-billion dollar industry with only a 6% penetration rate. In terms of potential, it’s more execution, than concept.” Even Amazon, he added, is on Day 1 with e-commerce. Ben Sun, partner at High Peaks Venture Partners

 

On accelerating sales of your startup

“Slow down to speed up. You’re better off really knowing your customer instead of just “spraying and praying” for sales to happen.” Mark LaRosa, chief revenue officer of Funnel Fire 

“Go international early to get pre-payment plus marketing support.” Inder Singh, founder of Kinsa, former executive vice president of the Clinton Health Access Initiative

“We don’t want you to change your business model based on trends, because we look for companies that come from a genuine place. If you are building something you are passionate about and you have the conviction to make it work, then we’ll take a look at it.” Will Peng, Red Swan Ventures 

On legal advice/protection

“Being (too) conscious of patent protection will only make you build walls within yourself.” Steven Johnson 

How to stay relevant?

“Constantly disrupt yourself before others can disrupt you.” Ariana Huffington 

On UX design

“Work closely with data analysts, to (design) in an honest way.” UX director Eben Levy and senior UX designer Juan Sanchez 

“Studies indicate 50 percent of a product’s features go unused, how do you make sure you don’t overdo it? You need user testing. What’s less obvious is how you go about this process.” Steven Cohn of Validately

“When done right, a card can look like a responsive web content, work like a focused mobile app, and feel like a saved file that you can share and reuse. Christopher Tse, technologist/designer on Card UI design

“Quantity is not always quality when it comes to number of user testers.” Danielle Tomson, adhering to Jacob Nielsen’s five-user test 

“Keep two things in mind: goal and hypothesis. “A goal is something you hope to achieve—what do you want the behavior to be? A hypothesis is something you think will happen—what do you believe the behavior will be?” Danielle Tomson

“Games that are too simple to work often work. So aim for too simple.” Mark Heggen, AMC entertainment applications director on designing games

On the Internet of Things (IoTs), wearables and tech hardware

“Fitness wearables are teaching us to better liars. We are using social pressure to stay fit,” she said, “but are they really changing our behavior or simply teaching us to game the system?” Krsytal D’Costa, anthropologist

 “Wearables can only be ready if you can bring it to a date.” Andrew Sugaya, senior software engineer at APX Labs

 “Wearables will work if it doesn’t end up in someone’s drawer.” Robert Genovese, VP, integrated marketing of Kenneth Cole.

 “IoTs (wearables) are a branding problem. The problem stems from the fact that most wearables made these days are based on an assumption that they can find users to define it for them.” Interbrand representative

 “Embeddables are the next evolution of wearable tech.” Andy Goodman, president of Fjord USA

 
On privacy and progress

“We can’t complain about giving up our privacy at the same time that we love the technology that comes about as a result of the information we’re sharing ourselves. Still, how safe is our quantified selves?” Journalist Amy Vernon 

 “We’re quantifying like we know where we’re going and we’ve never made a mistake before.” Mari Kussman, creative director, Nanotronics Imaging

On trends

“Geo-disruptive businesses and location-based technologies are the next hot trends.” Jason Klein, founder and CEO of OnGrid Ventures and board member of HBS Alumni Angels

“Everything we do in editorial is connected to programming. Editorial now has equal partnership with product and technology.” Patrick Yee, Refinery 29

On outsourcing work

“The essence of doing anything is making progress. You need visible work. Give a specific five-hour assignment and make sure they deliver… “(Your) target markets’ time is more expensive than developers’ time.” Amol Sarva, Peek co-founder 

On the cloud

“The cloud is at that critical point. We’re in for a major disruption. But it has to be approached from a technical, commercial and cultural standpoint.” Michael Liebow of Accenture Cloud 

On New York being the fastest-growing tech city in the world

“New York’s tech story is an underrated story.” New York mayor Bill De Blasio

“Our goal is to make New York City the most tech and innovation-friendly city in the world.” Fil-Am Minerva Tantoco, first New York CTO

– Rappler.com

The author covers the New York tech scene at reimaginetech.com. Follow @dennisclemente