TechCrunch Meetup in Boston

TechCrunch did its first Boston Meetup last night and I will say it was a big success.  While we on the East Coast may occasionally envy Silicon Valley with its seemingly constant parties, last night had all the key ingredients:  food, drink, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, press, and of course charming and attractive PR people.  It was a good mixture of industry veterans and newcomers. The key topic of the evening was whether or not we were in a tech bubble.  (Leave it to our puritan heritage to worry when we are having fun.)  Scott Kirsner was gathering video interview on the question.  My answer was that as long as we weren't seeing Fedex shipping bags of concrete or pet food, and as long as real money was being made, we at least had a few years to go.  Don Dodge added that the speculative money this time was not coming from the IPO-buying public but from professional investors who presumably were well aware of the risks, a sentiment later echoed by some of those same investors at the event.

Jeff Bussgang declared our independence from Silicon Valley in a colorful way that I won't repeat here.

Other people I had good conversations with out of the 700 that were there:  Mike Arrington, Chris Brogan, Dave Evans, Mike Ford, Neal Goldman, Chip Hazard, Tim Hurley, Doug Levin , Jeanne Logozzo, Alison Moore, Charles Moore, Christine Perkett, John Prendergast, Pito Salas and Reed Sturtevant.