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TechCrunch Boston

Mike Arrington organized TechCrunch Boston on Friday night, attended by 800 tech people, and sponsored by IDG Ventures. It was the best tech party of the year in Boston.

 

 IMG_1031 The IDG Ventures Boston team was out in force.  I talked with Michael Greeley, Chip Hazard, Jeff Bussgang, David Aronoff, and Kate Castle. Pictured here is Mike Ford (TownConnect), Mike Arrington, and Michael Greeley (IDG Ventures).

 

This was definitely an event for startups and entrepreneurs but I did talk to some other VC's including; Michael Skok (North Bridge), Lucy McQuilken (Intel Capital), Steve Schlafman (The Kraft Group), and Charley Lax (Grandbanks Capital).

 

Punchbowl Software was one of the startups doing demos at TechCrunch Boston. Matt & Mike Here is David Aronoff (IDG) and Matt Douglas, CEO of Punchbowl (center) hamming it up with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch.

 

Mike was like a Rock Star. There were entrepreneurs and pretty women crawling all over him. Towards the end of the night Mike made me his manager/agent in charge of all photos and  meet/greets. I was sitting at Mike's table at the after party eating a late night dinner and Mike could barely get two bites before someone else approached. Mike was actually loving it. He is a great guy and will talk to anyone anytime.

 

I went to the bar to order tequila shots for the table...Mike insisted on Patron. Only the best. Mike shouted to  Heather Harde, the brainy beautiful CEO of TechCrunch, that he had managed to spend $1,000 in the first 45 minutes of the after party. He was loving it!

 

On the way back to the table I bumped into Steve Schlafman (Kraft Group), Eunice Chou (Massive), and Danny Moon (UpNext). By the time I finally got back to the table they were on the next rounds of tequila.

 

There were some press people and lots of bloggers at the event. Scott Kirsner (Boston Globe) was interviewing and doing video. I also talked to Nick Carr, Francois Gossieaux, Halley Suitt, Doc Searls, and Wade Roush.

 

I talked to over 200 people at the event and saw another hundred or so with a quick wink or nod. It was a wild night. Startup entrepreneurs were everywhere. Off the top of my head I remember talking to; Ben Saren (CitySquares), Reed Sturtevant (Microsoft Labs), Doug Levin (Blackduck Software), Shawn Broderick (TrustPlus), Jeremey Allaire (Brightcove), Matt Douglas (Punchbowl), Mike Ford (TownConnect), Pito Salas (BlogBridge), Chris Herot (Zingdom), Danny Moon (UpNext), Eduardo Saverin (Firefly Health), Michael Kokernak (BackChannel Media), Mark Pascarella (Gotuit), John Zib (GetMemo), Scott Durgin (OffshoreTP), Nikhil Roy (Spendview), Sarah Meyers (PopSnap), Sean Ammirati (FeedHub), Dave Evans (TheProgressBar), and Ted Morgan (Skyhook Wireless). IMG_1030

 

I know I talked to more people but after several Martinis my memory was a little foggy. Here is Jeff Bussgang (IDG Ventures) and me towards the end of the night.

 

Next stop for the TechCrunch Party tour is Los Angeles in December. See you there!

Published Sunday, November 18, 2007 9:22 AM by Don Dodge

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Doug levin said:

Don - Nice to see you on at the pardee. Great pix and comments.

Someone said the party had the same "feel" as the parties in 1999, referencing the pardees during the Internet bubble. One piece of evidence of this were the plastic rings with blinking lights. I disagree. This was a great social networking event in the best sense that it was an opportunity to socialize and talk shop on a Friday night -- a rare thing in the Boston area. Kudos to the IDG partners for sponsoring it.

For more, see my blog posting on: http://bduck1.blogspot.com/.

-Doug

November 18, 2007 12:45 PM

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About Don Dodge

I have been in the software business for more than 20 years. I started my software career with Digital Equipment Corp, aka DEC, in the database group. I worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform. Now I am at Microsoft...the biggest start-up in the world... working with VC's and start-ups in the greater Boston area. The goal is to help VC's and start-ups be successful with Microsoft, and together, provide great products for our customers.
Don Dodge
Information Worker Productivity
I have been in the software business for more than 20 years. I started my software career with Digital Equipment Corp, aka DEC, in the database group. I worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first sear...

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