Blast from the past…
Last summer, we rolled out Jute PublicMaps (which is no longer available…).
I was cleaning out our YouTube account to get ready to post some new videos and I found this old video still up there. PublicMaps was pretty cool if you ask me…
Enjoy!
Sean
Using Meetup.com in the Los Angeles Area
Sean McDonald here, co-founder and sales guy for Jute Networks. Among the many big changes at our company in the past couple months is my move to California to seek new relationships for the company. (And, admittedly, enjoy some time at the beach…)
I’ve spent the last ten years in Asheville, NC, which as I know it, is one of the greatest places a person could ever live. From mountain biking to microbreweries, if you like adventure and progressive culture, Asheville is a wonderland. However, it’s a small town, with less than 100k people in the greater metro area. While there is an emerging culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, it’ll be a few more years until it catches up with Los Angeles…
Things are different in Southern CA. New to town, knowing only a handful of people, I’ve successfully started networking with peers in the technology industry (as well as fellow mountain biking enthusiasts) with a good deal of success. Meetup.com has been the hub of connection for me, but I’ve also used Facebook and Twitter to connect with people in the area, in-person and virtually. These tools, which in this case are connecting complete strangers, do a great job of sparking connections–and it takes just minutes to get involved.
The people I’ve met have been not just amiable, but downright helpful, going out of their way to welcome a new guy to the area. In a town known the world round for a pretentious attitude, I’ve found most people to be friendly and fun to talk to.
I was listening to a podcast from the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders featuring Sheryl Sandberg over the weekend. She said the big vision of her former employer, Google, was to “organize the world’s information and make it useful.” She said the big, giant vision of Facebook, where she is now COO, is to make the web “real” — to give people real identities, honest interaction online. Meetup is in that vein–real people having real meetings with real results. All accomplished in less than a minute of searching a free-to-use ($$ to host a Group) online tool.
That’s a big deal.
If you’re in the LA area-specifically Santa Monica or Venice where I am–contact me. Let’s meetup meet up.