When I spoke at develop.idaho last week, I announced that Ryan Woodings (Founder and CEO of MetaGeek) and I would be co-founding the Boise Open Coffee Club which we’ve since decided to fold under the TechBoise umbrella. TBOCC will occur the last Friday of every month at Cole Marr Coffee House in Bodo from 8:30-10:00.

There’s been quite a bit of chatter and anticipation of TBOCC on the internets in the last week,  so Ryan and I thought it would be a good idea for us to articulate what to expect. First and foremost, this is not Ryan & Mark’s Club, it’s yours Boise. We’re here to guide it through its infancy and get it off the ground. We expect it will take on a life of its own and then it’s up to you to run with it.

What are our expectations for TBOCC? That as a result, the motivated folks engaged in the startup and creative communities of Boise will gather regularly and more frequently, share ideas, build strong relationships and work more closely with each other. IF TBOCC accomplishes nothing more than that, it will be a terrific success from our perspective.

Who’s welcome? Anyone who wants to contribute to a more vibrant startup community in Boise. That’s the only requirement of membership. Geeks, freaks, lawyers, students, investors, marketers, and even government types are welcome. If you’ve got an genuine desire to see Boise develop a better ecosystem for startups to thrive and a have positive attitude, consider yourself welcome. Who’s not welcome? Anyone looking to see what’s in it for themselves or to push their own agendas. Frauds will be sniffed out and shunned.

What will we talk about? Anything and everything. How to start a business. How to launch a product. Why is Apple tracking us.  How can I learn Ruby on rails, Should I raise capital for my business? There is no agenda for our meetings and everyone is welcome to forward Ryan and I topics that they’d like have discussed and we’ll moderate.

What are the ground rules? That everyone feels comfortable sharing their hopes, dreams, fears and ideas knowing that the room is filled with interesting and smart people who care about making our community a better place. Thinking about raising money for your business? Practice your pitch at BTOCC. You’ll get quality feedback from people that care about you and want to help. Want to get involved in the Tire Swing project and don’t know how? Ask Jonathon Fishman how to get involved. Want to see a baseball stadium built downtown like I do? Here’s where we can gather and figure out how to make Boise the place we want it to be.

Most importantly, what happens at TBOCC, stays at TBOCC. Ryan and I want to cultivate an environment where people feel safe and secure to discover and begin to chase their dreams. Please come and participate, but with a similar outlook. Ryan and I are really looking forward to seeing both old friends and new faces on Friday and we know this is going to be the start of something special.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Boise, TechBoise Open Coffee Club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.