A big thank you to Bain Capital Ventures and WilmerHale for making this event possible! They are sponsoring this event which means all those beers you drink and food you eat will be because of them:

As always, it’s going to be a small group, good drinks, good food, and good conversations.

A big thank you to our PSMIX5 event sponsor:

For the newbies, PopSignal Mix is:

• Small gathering smart and innovative entrepreneurs, investors, others in the technology sector.
• Keeping the PopSignal spirit alive this is informal — no agenda/speeches/presentations. Just fun people, good drinks, and good food.
• A core group of PSMixer’s invite a +1 to each event. This core group and PSMix alumni drive the invite list.

Attendees:

* Brian Balfour, Viximo, POPSignal
* Jay Meattle, Shareaholic, POPSignal
* Andy Payne
* Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe
* Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot
* Chris Keller, HubSpot
* David Cancel, Performable
* Craig Bloem, Performable
* Waikit Lau, ScanScout
* Dave Balter, BzzAgent
* Sean Lindsay, Viximo
* Greg Arnette, Sonian
* Habib Haddad, Yamli.com
* Sami Shalabi, Zingku, Google
* Simeon Simeonov, FastIgnite
* Andrew Lau
* Drew Volpe
* Jon Pierce, BetaHouse
* Jeremy Levine, StarStreetSports
* Doron Reuveni, uTest
* Justin Cannon, Lingt
* Alex Rosenfeld, TastedMenu
* Ross Beyeler, Growthspark
* Chris Sheehan, CommonAngels
* Ziad Sultan, Marginize, Longworth Venture Partners
* Gautam Gupta, General Catalyst
* Rob Go, Spark Capital
* Deepak Sindwani, Bain Capital Ventures

What: Startup Weekend Boston 2

When: December 4th – 6th

Where: Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (NERD)

Why: Come network, learn, share ideas, hear some great speakers, and spend the weekend not just talking but building. Startup Weekend will have some amazing speakers, mentors, and tons of amazing support that will be a tremendous value to any aspiring or veteran entrepreneur.

How Much: Tickets are $75 for the entire weekend including 7 meals and drinks. Only 75 spots available, and selling out fast! Register Now with code “popsignal” for 20% off!

For more information: http://boston.startupweekend.org/

Fall is upon us (although it feels like winter) and for Boston, that means a new wave of folks who are arriving here for studies or new career opportunities.

When I moved to Boston from Silicon Valley in 2005, I had a pretty sparse network of friends in the tech and entrepreneurship scene.   I also found the tech community here a little disorganized and opaque, although I think that has been changing quite a bit in recent years.

Four years later, I think I have a much better idea of what’s going on, and I’m excited about it.  But it took a while to figure out.  So I thought I’d post a little to-do list for folks who want to get integrated into the local tech community and benefit from all it has to offer.

1. Follow this list of entrepreneurs, VC’s, and academics

• David Cancel (blog , @Dcancel)
• Dharmesh Shah (blog, @dharmesh)
• Brian Shin (blog, @brianshin)
• Don Dodge (blog, @dondodge)
• Nabeel Hyatt (blog, @nabeel)
• Furqan Nazeeri (blog, @altgate)
• Andy Payne (blog, @payne92)
• Bijan Sabet (blog, @bijan)
• Jeff Bussgang (blog, @bussgang)
• Lee Hower (blog, @leehower)
• Larry Cheng (blog, @larryvc)
• Tom Eisenmann (@teisenmann)
• Andrew Mcafee (blog, @amcafee)
• Me (blog, @robgo)

2. Follow a few journalists and news aggregators

• Scott Kirsner
• XConomy
• VentureFizz
• MarksGuide

3. Go to the follow meetups at least once

• WebInno
• Mobile Monday
• OpenCoffee Meetup

4. Hang out where you are likely to have chance encounters (ok, this isn’t really that practical, but it’s interesting to know where VC’s and entrepreneurs tend to go)

• Deisel Cafe in Davis Square
• Andala Cafe in Central Square
• Paramount Restaurant in Beacon Hill
• Henrietta’s Table in Harvard Square
• Naked Fish in Waltham
• The Marriott in Newton
• The Westin in Waltham
• Preschool OpenHouses in Wellesley, Weston, Cambridge, Lexington,  BeaconHill, etc.  (I’m obviously joking here, but this just happened to me, so I couldn’t resist.  We went to an open house at the Cambridge Ellis School, and among the group of parents, I saw 2 VC’s, an entrepreneur friend, and an HBS professor before deciding the school was way out of my price range)

5. Try to meet folks affiliated with the following organizations and companies (the reasoning being that people at interesting companies and organizations tend to congregate)

• PopSignal
• HubSpot
• Betahouse
• DogPatchLabs
• TechStars Boston
• Cambridge Innovation Center

Hopefully this is a helpful start.  Should take a few months to work through all of these.  I know I’m missing a few (I think I’m obviously missing out events and people affiliated with MIT, among others).  Feel free to add additional thoughts in a comment.

Rob Go is a Senior Associate at Spark Capital. You can learn more about him here and here.

Do let us know if we missed any!

As you know, POPSignal Mix events are invitation-only, however participation is based on merit & peer recommendations. You may request an invite for yourself or for someone else for a future event via this form.

As always, it’s going to be a small group, good drinks, good food, and good conversations.

A big thank you to our PSMIX4 event sponsor:

For the newbies, PopSignal Mix is:

• Small gathering smart and innovative entrepreneurs, investors, others in the technology sector.
• Keeping the PopSignal spirit alive this is informal — no agenda/speeches/presentations. Just fun people, good drinks, and good food.
• A core group of PSMixer’s invite a +1 to each event. This core group and PSMix alumni drive the invite list.

Attendees:

* Brian Balfour, viximo, popsignal
* Jay Meattle, shareaholic, popsignal
* Sean Lindsay, viximo
* Dharmesh Shah, hubspot
* Ajay Kulkarni, sensobi
* Ariel Diaz, youcastr
* Wade Roush, xconomy
* Sam Clemens, hubspot
* Jason Jacobs, fitness keeper
* Alex Grodd, betterlesson
* Matt Hodgson, youcastr
* Jon Pierce, betahouse
* David Cancel, performable
* Waldron Faulkner, graphedge
* Raj Aggarwal, localytics
* Healy Jones
* David Eisenberg
* Habib Hadad, yamli
* Sami Shalabi, zingku (acq by google), google
* Leah Busque, runmyerrand
* Rana Ghahremanpour, nasuni
* Dan O’Malley, perk street financial
* Adam Marchick, bain capital ventures
* Devesh Senapati, bain capital ventures
* Scott Friend, bain capital ventures
* Lee Hower, point judith capital
* Ziad Sultan, longworth venture partners
* Rob Go, spark capital
* Gautam Gupta, general catalyst

• Small intimate invite-only gathering of 10 – 20 smart and innovative entrepreneurs, investors, others in the technology sector.
• Keeping the PopSignal spirit alive this is informal, no agenda/speeches/presentations. Just a small fun group, good drinks, good food, and good conversations.
• We invite an initial group to each event and ask them to invite +1’s to keep fresh blood coming to the group.

Since the +1’s were a big hit last time, we’re going with it again, but with a slight change in format — we’re keeping the group to the same size as last time until 8pm. It’s going to be just us and our new +1’s, after which we’re going to open PSMix3 up to anyone who wants to join in the fun, including our +1’s from PSMix2.

A big thank you to our PSMIX3 event sponsor:

Attendees:

* Brian Balfour, Founder and VP Product of Viximo Inc
* Asaf Yigal, Founder of Currensee
* Jay Meattle, Founder of Shareaholic
* David Cancel, cofounder and CTO, Lookery
* Rob Go, Spark Capital
* Sunil Nagaraj, Founder of a stealth data analytics
* Sean Lindsay, CTO of Viximo
* John Piekos, Entrepreneur
* Ariel Diaz, Founder of YouCastr
* Steve Schlafman, The Kraft Group
* Gautam Gupta, General Catalyst
* Dana Lampert, Founder of Wiggio
* Mark Doerschlag, MarksGuide.com
* Brian Silverstein, co-founder, YouShoot
* Ziad Sultan, Longworth Venture Partners
* Ham Lord, Launchpad
* Healy Jones, Entrepreneur
* Shawn Broderick, TechStars
* Peter Shannon, Atlas Venture
* Max Niederhofer, Atlas Venture

• Small intimate invite-only gathering of 10 – 20 smart and innovative entrepreneurs, investors, others in the technology sector.
• Keeping the PopSignal spirit alive this is informal, no agenda/speeches/presentations. Just a small fun group, good drinks, good food, and good conversations.
• We invite an initial group to each event and ask them to invite +1’s to keep fresh blood coming to the group.

Attendees:

* Brian Balfour, founder and vp product of viximo inc
* Jay Meattle, founder of shareaholic
* Habib Haddad, cofounder of yamli
* Jon Sugihara, cofounder savvy circle
* Matt Nichols, highland capital partners
* John Silva, entrepreneur
* Gautam Gupta, general catalyst
* Durjoy (ace) Bhattacharjya
* Chris Keller, cofounder of fafarazzi.com
* Ziad Sultan, longworth ventures
* Rob Go, spark capital
* Lee Hower, point judith capital
* Sean Lindsay, cto of viximo
* Jay Ziskrout, founder of dympol
* Matt Witheiler, flybridge capital
* Alex Bain, business development at crowdsprout
* Ariel Diaz, founder of youcastr
* Jason Gracilieri
* Matt Lauzon, founder of paragon lake

• Small intimate invite-only gathering of 10 – 20 smart and innovative entrepreneurs, investors, others in the technology sector.
• Keeping the PopSignal spirit alive this is informal, no agenda/speeches/presentations. Just a small fun group, good drinks, good food, and good conversations.

Attendees:

* Brian Balfour, viximo & socialdegree
* Jay Meattle, lookery & shareaholic
* Rob Go, spark capital
* Ariel Diaz, youcastr
* Matthew Witheiler, flybridge capital partners
* Chris Keller, fafarazzi
* Habib Haddad, yamli
* Peter Shannon, atlas venture
* Healy Jones, atlas venture
* Sean Lindsay, viximo
* C. Spencer Jackson, crowdsprout
* Mark Doerschlag, marksguide
* Gautam Gupta, general catalyst