Proximate - Blog

Proximate is events for the people. Learn more at http://proximate.com

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The MIT Alumni Arts Exchange held its second event on Proximate on Pi Day, March 14 (3.14).

Looks like it was a blast! Read the full write-up here.

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In “You Are Not a Gadget,” Jaron Lanier writes, “The central mistake of recent digital culture is to chop up a network of individuals so finely that you end up with a mush. You then start to care about the abstraction of the network more than the real people who are networked, even though the network by itself is meaningless. Only the people were ever meaningful.”

A Death in the Database

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We're excited to sponsor the National Symposium for the Advancement of Women in STEM, a great event for college women interested in these fields. If that's you, check it out!

It's enormously important to foster relationships of support and common experience for women in our industry, and we built Proximate to help with just that.

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Watching big new events go live on our map might just be the most fun we have all day.

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A handy cheat sheet via xkcd.

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Ben Chestnut, CEO of Mailchimp, on creative chaos.

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Every now and again we get invited to one of our own events.

This sake tasting with Silicon Valley Bank and T3 Advisors was right up there with the best invites we've ever scored at Proximate.

Thanks, folks!

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Check out the Experimental Tea, hosted on Proximate.

It's a new tradition for Harvard and MIT founders, hosted out of the beautiful Eliot House on the banks of the Charles.

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Dr. Monica Moore, a psychologist at Webster University in St. Louis, has conducted research on the flirting techniques used in singles bars, shopping malls, and places young people go to meet each other. She concluded that it’s not the most physically appealing people who get approached, but the ones who signal their availability and confidence through basic flirting techniques like eye contact and smiles. Just signaling your interest in someone gets you halfway there, whether you’re a man or a woman.

It's not just flirting, either - professional networking is that same dance. Signaling that you're interesting, interested, and approachable is the key to making new relationships in any context.

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I elected to form an S-corp because I anticipated the possibility of someday taking venture capital funding, which generally entails a C-corp structure. This switch is a much easier one-step process with an S-corp – you’re basically just un-checking a box on your IRS forms – versus the added expense ant time of dissolving the LLC and re-forming the entity later. Lost time kills start-ups. Although I probably do a bit more paperwork than I would have with an LLC annually, the added flexibility in that one area is worth it to me.

Robb on corporate structures on the MyCorporation.com blog.

We get incorporations questions from new founders a lot when we’re at meetups or shared office spaces.

Truth be told, continuing as long as you can with informal structures isn’t a bad idea; however when paying salaries or handing out stock, you can get the incorporation work you need done for under $200 online. Many law firms will also do the work for free if they see value in your business model and anticipate future work.

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Picking your Pricing Model, on the excellent Intercom.io blog.

Notice how nothing's in the lower right? It's a bad place to be, and building Proximate has been a continuous process of refinement to avoid that fate.

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One of the things that works really well for me is to “act as if.” Act as if I really was respected and liked by the people in the room. Act as if they wanted to hear what I have to say as much I want to listen to what they have to say. Act as if we’re old friends who are trying to reconnect. Acting as if until I am that comfortable.

LessAccounting founder Allan Branch on overcoming insecurities in networking.

[the full article here.]

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MassTLC's Unconference, an event Proximate powered last year, is back at Boston's Hynes Convention Center on November 1st.

It's a really great opportunity to do the type of conference networking that Proximate is all about - the lobby and hallway relationship building is amazing at this conference. Well worth the ticket price.

Both Evan and Robb (me) will be there, so we'll hopefully make it into this year's video. Literally all of our Boston tech friends were more photogenic than us last year, it seems...

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When making a new friend, pay attention early on to the other person's communal orientation. Does he ask about you and actually pay attention to your answer? Is she willing to do something you suggest doing, or work around your schedule? Not everyone is capable of giving at the same level. But if you are aware of who you are dealing with, you will be less likely to have expectations that won't be met.

Great article on effective friendship in today's Wall Street Journal.

Giving first - asking great questions, offering introductions - is fantastic advice for professional networking at events, too.

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Amazing visualization of Google Trends data; makes us wish we had a big-screen monitor free in the office!

Visit the Google Trends website to see the latest.

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Peter [Thiel] sat me down and he made me write down every smart person I knew in college personally. Turned out to be a list of about 30 people and we ended up hiring about 24 of those.

Really deep-experience thoughts from Max Levchin.

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The economic impact of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visualized in hour-by-hour credit card transactions by locals and visitors.

Amazing to see how an enormous conference like MWC can make a difference to a city.