I will be the first to admit, I have not been the biggest Michael Arrington fan. I have followed Techcrunch since its beginnings, but sometimes I have not seen eye to eye with Mr. Arrington. But this morning I came across a post that featured his talk at the recent Startup School ‘08 and was really impressed with what he had to say and wanted to pass it along to you all.
The video of his talk is below, and you should all definitely watch it, but I wanted to touch on a few of the points he made for startups that I felt were dead on.
1. Don’t be part of the noise. Make a single impact that is interesting. Basically distance yourself and stand out. Nothing earth shattering there, but good point nonetheless.
2. Be part of the conversation. This point I thought fit really well with a post from Technosailor a little while back about building relationships. Show people that you have something to give back to the community. Don’t use Twitter only as a PR tool, rather involve yourself in the conversations and build the relationships and then when you do have something to promote, your friends are more receptive.
3. Embrace the critics – When the critics come out, dont lash out, rather engage them in conversation. See what they have to say, be transparent and you will be better off for it.
Another interesting point he made was about meetups. We all find ourselves at a lot of meetups, and have a great time. Some people ask me why I go to these events, what do I get out of it they ask. Michael had a great line about this that I found very true. We enjoy being around like minded people that reinforce what we are doing is meaningful. Great point.
Enjoy the video and let us know what you get out of it.
