Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AFTER-PARTY

In many situations, the real party happens after the official party ends. This is strongly the case in a robust startup community, where there are many events happening all the time. Although some of these events have lots of room for socialization, especially at the grassroots level, others don’t, or it’s an awkward environment for this kind of interaction. This leads to the value of the after-party. Following are a few examples.

Each month, after the Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup, various groups informally descend on downtown Boulder. The event usually ends at 8, so by 8:30 there are clusters of folks having dinner throughout Boulder and they all know that if they want a final nightcap after dinner, the Bitter Bar is where they’ll all meet up. According to Bruce Wyman, who was at many of the after-parties:

The Bitter Bar was easily the place with perfect after-party-like feel that catered to a deeply engaged crowd of geeks. The same care and passion that we brought in our respective fields and areas of expertise, they brought to drinks and cocktails. At the bar, there’d be a shared discourse on the bitters being made in-house that week or the sourcing of small batches of select bourbons while at the other end, it was easy to hear a deeply detailed discussion around the esoterica of load balancing and database duplication. The Bitter Bar provided the fuel and enthusiasm that propelled many people to meet, talk, and dream. Over time, people ...