Build & Grow A Community, Rachel Arst McCullough
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This document summarizes a presentation about Tahoe Silicon Mountain (TSM), a nonprofit organization that aims to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Tahoe region. TSM connects local entrepreneurs through monthly events, online channels, and personal assistance. It offers opportunities for networking, learning, mentorship, and community. TSM is volunteer-run and provides all events either free or for $5 to be inclusive. It has grown significantly since starting in 2010 and now has over 1,000 email subscribers. The presentation outlines challenges TSM has faced and discusses plans to further support entrepreneurs and shift the local culture and economy through collaboration.
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Build & Grow A Community, Rachel Arst McCullough
- 1. Tahoe Economic Summit | October 30, 2017 Rachel Arst McCullough Build & Grow A Community #tpcsummit
- 2. What Is Tahoe Silicon Mountain? (TSM) Why Do People Come?
- 5. Talk About Something Other Than….
- 8. What Do Members Get Out Of It? • Get dressed & get out of the house! • Be a part of a community • Good conversation • Peer mentoring • Find talent / find a job
- 9. Member Stories - Josh Miller EVP, GM Americas at Zapper.com My family had imagined living full-time in Truckee, but I was concerned it would be professionally irresponsible.
- 10. Member Stories - Josh Miller EVP, GM Americas at Zapper.com Through TSM, we realized Truckee is abundant with highly ambitious, talented and successful entrepreneurs.
- 11. Member Stories - Josh Miller EVP, GM Americas at Zapper.com TSM's events and ambitious direction are part of the catalyst that fully alleviated our hesitation to be full-time locals in Truckee.
- 12. How Do We Connect at TSM? • 3 Events / Month • Special Events • Online Channels • Personally Help People
- 13. 2nd Monday of the Month Pizza on the Hill, Truckee 6 pm – 8 pm // Live on YouTube Nov 13: Why Snow Scientists Study Fire
- 14. 1st Friday of the Month The Lift, Truckee 5 pm – 6 pm Nov 3
- 15. 3rd Tuesday of the Month The Lift, Truckee 6 pm – 9 pm Nov 21
- 16. Tahoe Pitch Camp & Showcase
- 17. Programming Classes for Kids
- 18. What Does Tahoe Get Out Of It?
- 19. We Have Some Challenges OR
- 20. We Have Some Challenges Tourism High Seasons Summer Winter
- 21. We Have Some Challenges Tourism Shoulder Seasons FallSpring
- 22. We Have Some Challenges Weather Dependent Business
- 23. Full-Time Year-Round With Benefits We Have Some Challenges Shouldn’t Be Rare!
- 24. So What Do We Do? Reinvent Our Future YouTube: bit.ly/EntrepreneurialEcosystem
- 25. What Is An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem? • Coworking • Business Accelerator • Angel/Mentor Networks • Internet and Cell Service • Government Participation • Narrative • Talent • Culture • Existing Ventures • Density YouTube: bit.ly/EntrepreneurialEcosystem
- 26. What Makes TSM Different? • Community/Helping 1st, Networking 2nd • Support 1st, Sell 2nd • Learning
- 27. All Events Free or $5 Can I Come Too? What Makes TSM Different?
- 28. We Go Overboard to Connect People What Makes TSM Different?
- 29. How Does It All Happen?
- 31. Volunteer Leadership Johannes Ziegler Miaplaza TSM Co-founder Rachel Arst McCullough McCullough Web Services TSM Co-founder Garrett McCullough Build.com TSM Co-founder Ellen Raynor KeepOnMovin’
- 33. TSM History Look Where We Started 2010
- 35. How We Got Here (not the top)
- 36. How We Got Here – Core Elements • Accessible • Valuable • Consistent
- 37. How We Got Here - Leadership • No Fear of Failure • Be Stubborn & Committed • Learn As You Go • Passion
- 38. It’s Not Easy A Few Challenges: • No Roadmap • Finding Sponsors • Finding Volunteers
- 39. You Can Do It Too I’ll send you my blog post series: http://bit.ly/TahoeEvents
- 40. What’s Next?
- 41. Rachel Arst McCullough Tahoe Silicon Mountain McCulloughWebServices.com Instagram: @rachelmcphotos Rachel@McCulloughWebServices.com TSM Email List: http://bit.ly/TSMEmail TahoeSiliconMountain.com
- 42. Questions For Discussion • What needs to be done next to support entrepreneurs? • What collaborations will be key for building this support system? • How do we shift culture faster?
Editor's Notes
- Today I’ll be talking about how to Build & Grow a Community using Tahoe Silicon Mountain as an example How many of you have heard of TSM
- TSM is a community group which is the support system for: -entrepreneurs -aspiring entrepreneurs -business owners -professionals We are a 1200+ strong -People come for many reasons
- Inspiring speakers
- To learn something new
- Talk about something other than snow and skiing. There are many places for that already.
- Meet New People
- Connect in person
- Members come because of what they get out of it -Get dressed & get out of the house! -Be a part of a community -Good conversation -Peer mentoring -Find talent / find a job
- To get to know us better, here’s a story from a member. My family had imagined living full-time in Truckee, but I was concerned it would be professionally irresponsible.
- Through TSM, we realized Truckee is abundant with highly ambitious, talented and successful entrepreneurs.
- TSM's events and ambitious direction are part of the catalyst that fully alleviated our hesitation to be full-time locals in Truckee.
- The quality of the networking conversions has been consistently better than most of cattle-call Bay Area events…it helped convinced me to make the move to Truckee. This is just one of many
- Let’s get into some of the specifics of how we connect, here’s an outline: -3+ Events / Month -Special Events -Usual Online Channels -Personally Help People
- Here’s some information about our events Speaker Series 40-100+ attendees Livestreamed Come to our Nov 13th event where we’ll learn Why Snow Scientists Study Fire
- Entrepreneurs’ Roundtable for peer mentorship
- Javascript meetup for programmers of all experience
- Special events Partner with SBC for Tahoe Pitch Showcase
- TahoeJS puts on programming classes for kids With rolling robots pictured
- Covered what members get out of it Now, what does Tahoe region get out of it? To frame this, I’ll talk about some challenges
- -Our economy needs help -We have a lot of people falling in to two categories -People with 2 houses -People with 2 jobs -We are missing the middle
- Summer and winter busy seasons
- Spring and Fall shoulder seasons where the economy isn’t doing as well Some people don’t get enough work
- Weather dependent biz Last year was a problem because there was too much snow Years before an issue bc of drought.
- Another challenge. A job description that says full time, year-round with benefits should not be like a mythical creature. A unicorn is a startup company valued at over $1 billion, ex. Uber, Airbnb
- We need to reinvent the future of the Tahoe region. -We can do this by building an entrepreneurial ecosystem -This is a support system for entrepreneurs creating and growing year-round businesses -See my April 2017 talk for MMM on YouTube
- TSM is one of many pieces Here are some other pieces No detail Another chance to write down the link
- Recap: We’ve gone through: -What is TSM -What everyone gets out of it But why does it work? We’re a little different than a standard business networking group -Learning – formal or informal
- We think it’s important to remove barriers to entry: - Member = show up -Low prices = more diverse group -View livestream from home -bring young children to Pizza - Introvert/Extrovert
- -Garrett and I brainstorm how we can help connect people -Looking for employee/contractor -Looking for a job -Set the example
- How does it all happen?
- 100% Volunteer powered 10+ event volunteers at our biggest events
- Volunteer leadership
- Sponsors and community partners
- Now you’ve seen where we’re at today We have an incredible community. Here’s a little history In 2010, not too many people
- - 2010 not on there since we didn’t track - Actually even fewer people then
- Next I’ll talk about how we got here Note we’re not at the top, still plenty to do and improve
- We run our events in a particular way Accessible – price and convenience Valuable – high quality speakers Consistent – MMM same time and place for years
- Our team leads in a certain way -No Fear of Failure -Livestream -Pay What You Want Stubborn & Committed Learn as you go Passion
- You can see we’ve built an amazing strong community. But it hasn’t been an easy feat. - Deciding direction - no roadmap - Sponsors for mission vs ROI - Finding more volunteers / leadership, we have great ones! / We’re growing / Many hands light work
- Even though it’s not easy, you can do it too with persistence. None of us had experience -All we knew is that we wanted to create a community, bring people out of their home offices -See blog post series
- -Involve students more -More Special Events (Pitch Camp/Showcase // Javascript conference) -Grow community partnerships, including across the lake -501c3 -Individual supporters for longer term financial security
- Photos from Instagram Sign up for email list