As the founder of a number of Meetup groups, the first of which was Silicon Valley Startup Entrepreneurs, we share your vision of creating a space to meet, dream, learn, strategize and co-create. Yes, we are fully on board that dreaming is still part of the creation process! Silicon Valley Startup Entrepreneurs began with a vision to provide startup founders access–access to educational and other information that every first time founder should know or be exposed to. This includes access to high caliber angels, VCs and “been there done that” successful, serial entrepreneurs. The Silicon Valley ecosystem is unique, and, that’s why we created new Meetup groups under the umbrella of “Access Silicon Valley,” that extends beyond the geographical borders of Silicon Valley! In fact it’s much more than just a Meetup group…it’s the opportunity to become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem or “mindshare” as we like to think of it.
Access Silicon Valley is the “virtual bridge” to Silicon Valley, where startup entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs in real time, get access to relevant content, and have the opportunity to interact with, angels, VCs and great entrepreneurs that they otherwise wouldn’t get the opportunity to see, hear or possibly connect with. In addition we have put together valuable workshops to prepare startup entrepreneurs for the roller coaster ride of the startup world! We encourage you to join us.
Access Silicon Valley is an extension of the overall global vision to build “virtual bridges” between those cities that have great startup communities and Silicon Valley. Stay tuned for an exciting journey as we deliver events, content and workshops that you won’t want to miss! We invite you to reach out and learn more about our amazing network of VC’s, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists and designers, as we want YOU to be part of the journey!
Find the Access Silicon Valley meetup in your city
About the Founder
My name is Roger Rappoport founder of Access Silicon Valley, a sometime angel, and a practicing corporate attorney based in San Diego and Silicon Valley (click here for bio), focused almost exclusively on representing emerging growth companies, and helping first time and serial entrepreneurs develop and implement strategies to build, finance, grow and, ultimately, sell their startups. I always elicit a chuckle from clients, when I tell them that the advice I provide typically falls into one of three buckets: legal advice (40%), business advice (40%) and psycho-therapy (on the house) (20%)! (The time devoted to psychotherapy is invariably higher (significantly) and seems to track closely with, the presence of a diminished bank account, an impending payroll, and the closing date of a financing that appears to be slipping.)
In addition, since virtually all of my clients are alike, in that they have no money, get money, have no money again, get more money again and, ultimately exit, there is constantly a little dash of matchmaking thrown into the mix, when it comes to helping entrepreneurs develop a funding strategy, and identifying the appropriate angels, angel groups or VC’s that we should target to fund the next “cool thing” or their “disruptive technology in that space.”
Having been an entrepreneur for a decade before becoming a lawyer (and having left a lot on the table and having learned many valuable lessons in that regard), I have what I believe is a unique perspective–the ability to view situations from both sides of the table. Whenever I dealt with lawyers in my prior life as an entrepreneur, I remember so often wanting to shout out to them “don’t keep telling me what I can’t do or give me a lecture on the law–just give me what you believe are the best alternatives to help me accomplish the things that I want to achieve!” This is one of my mantras that I try to live by in assisting my clients. Access Silicon Valley is ultimately my attempt to provide access to all of those resources that I never had access to as an entrepreneur, which I believe can significantly contribute to the long term success of a company.