I attended HubSpot’s San Francisco Meet Up at Julian’s at Metreon on Monday. HubSpot is the ultimate internet marketing machine powering up small to medium sized online businesses and organizations like the non-profit Future Women Leader’s (FWL) site. The Cambridge based software company is in town for the two day Inbound Marketing Summit, its co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah are guest speakers.
I say machine in a figurative sense to describe their extensive services such as marketing analytics and lead tracking…and…just for kicks, since it’s such an archaic term that represented the 1ate 18th and early 19th century when great discoveries and inventions, such as coal and electricity, transformed society and was only made possible by an entrepreneurial and capitalistic spirit. Fast forward 180 years…
That same spirit was buzzing all night at the mixer as I weaved my way through a reserved corner section of the bar. Approximately 60 or so of the mostly 25-35 year old looking crowd of multimedia entrepreneurs and startup founders were a friendly bunch. I arrived about half an hour into the event as people were engaged in lively conversations while noshing on hearty appetizers and drinks – free!
My quick eyes torpedoed in on FWL Leader and HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Expert, Erin Colbert who invited me to the mixer. We first met at a FWL happy hour social last winter so it was great to catch up a bit before she was whisked away into the thick of the mingling crowd. A hostess’ got to do what a hostess’ got to do, keep the party moving and guests happy.I met some interesting folks such as Get Talked About’s co-founders, Andy Angelos and Marty Hitzeman, a month old Chicago based startup and Castro Valley’s Crashproof Solutions, one of ten startups that CEO Leonid Knyshov is hatching. I met a young woman; I apologize for not having her information, from a London based public relations firm that has a San Francisco satellite office. Impressed by her ambition, I told her about FWL, its workshops, special events and blog (which I'm a contributor), and she seemed intrigued. It helped that I told her “I’m sharing this information with you because I see you as a Future Woman Leader!” in my poor Ed McMann (You’ve won XX million dollars!) impersonation.
Oh, and I won a t-shirt! Erin collected business cards from the crowd and she and her colleagues randomly picked, I believe, two or three winners. Glad mine fits which is rare since most shirt prizes/giveaways are large or extra large for men.
This was HubSpot’s first open to all social mixer and it looked like it was a success. I left a little more than hour upon arriving and about one third of the crowd was still engaged in each other’s ideas, plans and aspirations.
I asked my roundtable of fellow diners (Get Talked About and the PR woman) if the recession is affecting their business and their city. Unaffected, they shrugged the over used word off, saying they’re not worried, that their business is not being negatively affected by it. Actually the PR woman said her firm is doing very well. That’s the no fear spirit that consumers and businesses need to hear. That same talent and ambition that fueled the industrial revolution will only help steer this 21st century year old country upward.
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