Baltimore Is Getting Its First Startup Incubator | Hacker News Reader

Baltimore Is Getting Its First Startup Incubator

bmoremedia.com

72 pointsllimllib62 comments

I know there are a lot of incubators starting up now, but there aren't so many on the east coast. I wrote in more detail about the vision of this project and why we're doing it in this Google Doc, if anyone is interested in starting something in their own city:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdPdQktVsPezZGp0bW1jNF8xN...

Baltimore's a good target. You generally would expect something like this to happen in the (nearby) DC area, but between Fort Meade and other Maryland-area institutions, there is some AMAZING talent in or around Baltimore, and it's much more pleasant getting into and out of.

Mike, if you need any help with anything technical, please feel free to let me know -- contact info is in my profile.

thank you, I definitely will reach out. The main thing we're gonna need is people to help advise these companies (not too time-consuming, just answer some questions here and there). I agree with your assessment. There are a lot of under-the-radar companies and people hanging out in this area.

Could you drop me a line, contact information in my profile? I'm in need of advice and support in some areas, may be able to offer it in others.

will do! I'm mike@subelsky.com in case something gets lost in translation

I don't see contact info in your profile, but email me and we'll talk!

I would agree with all of this. I'm still amazed that I can get from my house outside of Laurel to downtown Baltimore in 15-20 minutes even during the morning commute. There's also such easy and cheap access to DC, Philly, NYC and Boston via Amtrak.

We have a crop of good schools around here too. There's Hopkins and UMBC in the city plus UMD College Park has a top notch CS program.

Well, in my limited experience, Reston VA is a center for a lot of smaller tech companies. But they have a different environment. While they are entrepreneurial, they are not oriented around angel investing / venture capital to the same extent than places like San Francisco. This is because they have government funding and government contracts in lieu of private funding.

Now, obviously there is still a significant amount of VC funding in Reston, but government money plays the role that initial incubator money might in other regions. I, for instance, worked briefly at a startup that was developing technology spun off from a DARPA initiative. My uncle, a VC, was a Vice President there.

Like most things in and around Washington DC, the presence of the federal government changes the political/economic/social/cultural environment in ways that you won't see in other parts of the country.

Baltimore makes more sense, because there's a greater need for startup cash and startup cash will have a greater effect here, since it's not going to be crowded out by government money.

Thanks so much for sharing this.

The article says July 1 to Aug 30 but later mentions 12 weeks and your doc says Sept 30 -- which is right?

If you allow students who would have to go back to school in Sept. you might get a bigger response.

I know, I thought about that too. We're constrained by the availability of the space and the time needed to arrange all the financing. We're going to be doing this at least once a year though and next year I definitely want to do it that way.

This is great news! As a Baltimorean I am extremely excited to see something this ambitious come to the East Coast, and better yet my neck of the woods.

I will most definitely be making an effort to participate in this. Great job, Mike.

oh awesome! I'm really glad to hear it. See my comment to Kovar about all the other things you should check out if you like this :-)

Right on. I have lived in Baltimore almost my entire life. I'm a PhD candidate at Hopkins now, but if I do a startup when I finish, I'd much rather stay here than move to California.

you guys don't even know how motivating it is to read stuff like this. I am forwarding these comments to folks I know in the economic development community. Perhaps we can get a bit more institutional backing for things like this so we can provide more resources to people in your exact spot!

The Wire (while being an incredible show) definitely hurt Baltimore in terms of its reputation. There are some fantastic areas around, and the culture is very inspiring.

Baltimore already had that reputation thanks to Homicide, and also the fact that there really are hundreds of murders every year. I'm a Baltimore native, and there is really no hiding the fact that Baltimore, while a great city, still has some serious social problems and the Wire nailed them perfectly.

I have to admit, the first thing that popped in to my head when I saw this headline was "Body-more Murda-land" from the opening credits of The Wire. Great show, though.

I think it's the consistent 200-300 homicides per year that hurt Baltimore's reputation.

yes but how many other cities have had their homicides so dramatically portrayed to the world cognoscenti?

Ever watch Law and Order? CSI?

Every major American city has its share of violent, drug- or gang-based crime. That's not to diminish it, but unless you are actively involved in those trades or unfortunate enough to be caught up in it by proximity, it likely will never visit you. It's a shame because there are risks everywhere (suburbanites think nothing of climbing in their cars everyday to hop on the highways where 30,000 people die every year) but we're so bad in general at evaluating them.

Frankly, it doesn't bother me that Baltimore's reputation is somewhat tarnished, because that just makes it all the more appealing to live here and know that there is great art, great music, a vibrant technology and hacking scene, lots of smart young people, and friendly neighbors to enjoy. Now if we could just get more bike lanes and some better frickin' public transit ...

To put it in context, Baltimore's homicide rate is six times that of NYC, which itself is also over the national average.

Austin, Texas which is slightly more populous than Baltimore has about 20 homicides per year. This is a similar per person rate as Edinburgh and lower than Dublin, but higher than London. Austin isn't amongst the safest cities in the US. It's just a major city I chose at random. I think it's fair to say that on the whole the US is dangerous for a rich country, but the average is definitely being pulled up by outliers such as Detroit and Baltimore.

Boston, which is almost exactly the same populations as Baltimore, had 72 murders last year.

If New York had the murder rate that Baltimore does that would mean over 3000 people murdered in a year.

Baltimore has a serious violence problem no matter how you try to rationalize it.

who's trying to rationalize it? There's not much I can do about it; it's still an awesome place to live. Good luck buying a house in a nice part of Boston or NYC as a working-class or middle-class person. Meanwhile I'm hacking code, running a startup, and I live in a super nice house in a walkable neighborhood that's very different than the one narrow slice you saw in that show.

I am criticizing as only a family member can (or should.) I grew-up outside Baltimore and lived in the city for 10 years in Federal Hill, Canton, and Homeland.

My wife and I decided we wanted to raise our family in Boston and when we were looking for a place in 2004 I was shocked to find out there were only 39 murders in Boston in 2003.

The status quo in Baltimore is not acceptable and is not what is tolerated in other cities.

However, I will be applying and I would love to spend 3 months back in Baltimore.

What neighborhood? (Charles Village here.)

We haven't locked down the space yet but are hoping for a spot in Fells Point. I actually also live in Charles Village, let's meet up for coffee sometime! (mike@subelsky.com)

That's irrelevant to what Paul said; he didn't say that Baltimore's murder rate wasn't outrageously high.

What he said is:

> unless you are actively involved in [drug] trades or unfortunate enough to be caught up in it by proximity, it likely will never visit you.

Baltimore undoubtedly has a serious drug violence problem; much more serious than Boston and NYC. (Fortunately our government's Drug War is on the verge of eliminating that problem any day now!)

What Paul is saying, though, is that this problem has remarkably small collateral damage considering its severity; almost nobody who's not involved with the drug trade ends up in those murder statistics.

(I know it's not nobody, but I suspect that the rate of "unrelated to drug trade" murders in Baltimore is similar to that in Boston and NYC.)

Yes but The Wire did not take place in Fells Point or Canton. Which is the Hoboken(yuppie) of Baltimore.

Every city has its west baltimore components to it.

I actually don't mind The Wire reputation, because I loved that show so much. Lest anyone think I don't have a sense of humor about it, here's a tour I wrote up for seeing all the sites from the show, for people coming to RailsConf:

http://www.subelsky.com/2008/12/wire-tour-of-baltimore.html

I grew up in Bethesda, MD and for personal reasons would like to get back there. Some of our early adopters are likely to be DC based lawyers and we were considering setting up shop near DC but we also want a supportive entrepreneurial environment. You may have solved that for us.

Baltimore is a great city for this. Close to DC, access to NYC and Boston, lower cost of living, enjoyable place to live, some great schools near by.

this is music to my ears! We actually have a very vibrant innovation/startup community in Baltimore. Check out our Facebook Group to get a quick firehose: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_160612380624897&#...

Also check out http://startupbaltimore.org/, http://www.baltimorehackathon.com/, and the http://baltimore.startupweekend.org/

I shall definitely check out the last three links. I'll look at the FB group but I, unfortunately, use FB only for personal stuff and am very disinclined to mix my professional and personal life on FB. Just me, not a critique of you!

it's a fair critique and you aren't the first to mention it. But I will say it's vastly accelerated the exchange of ideas and feeling of community in Baltimore so overall it's a net win. There's also a network of twitter accounts to follow if that's more your taste (@startupbmore @ignitebaltimore @bmorehackathon @startupdigestmd @bootstrapmd @innovatebmore etc etc)

I live in Baltimore and I approve this message =)

Now, my CTO can stay as a CTO because he loves Baltimore and doesn't want to move to San Francisco!

Wonderful idea. Born and raised in Baltimore/Columbia and this is definitely more of what we need. Great work so far. Do you guys have a website yet?

just a splash page for now, designed by Mark Armbruster. The site is http://thestartupcity.com (the guy who owns startupcity.com wants a lot of $$$ for it)

> Applicants to Startup City, who will be selected based on a YouTube video they submit to the program's website

A YouTube video alone is not sufficient to make an informed selection from the applicants. An interview in-person, or on the phone at least, is essential. I hope the process was just over-simplified in the article.

it was. We're probably going to do something like Capital Factory. The video part is just to help get an initial screening done of the applicants.

Y Combinator requires a one minute video for each founder. No cute graphics, no special effects, just one minute of you talking. I did it, and thought it added value to my submission.

I'd be a bit put off by any video requirements that allowed for too much more technical wizardry than that. I present myself well, but I do so far better in person, and I'm not adept with making movies.

I'd be quite happy to come in for an in person interview, even though I'm 1,500 miles away. I want to evaluate you as well. Committing to a particular incubator is a commitment by both parties and I want to be sure I'm comfortable working with you as well.

This is great. I grew up in Baltimore, but headed to the Bay Area after college because that's where all of the action is in the high-tech space. My mom always tries to convince me that Baltimore is becoming a high-tech hub, and maybe it actually is.

For me, this may be more than just a high tech hub. Silicon Valley is great, but in a sense, the balance is tipped too far towards tech. Due to East Coast demographics, geography, and culture, I'm hoping/expecting that East Coast incubators will be a bit more diverse.

I don't want us to be a city that tries to be something it's not. We shouldn't even try to replicate what you have out there, but, I think it's a very creative place where it is possible to do great things with technology, especially if you want to avoid any possible "echo chamber" effects, and especially if you want to bootstrap or do things your own way.

The Baltimore region actually is a hub for gaming companies: MicroProse, Firaxis, Big Huge Games, etc. I'm not overly familiar with the video game industry, but Baltimore/Maryland is no slouch. Zynga has an office in Timonium now (suburbs of Baltimore) where they are hiring.

Bethesda Software too.

Mike, I have two people on my team and we live in Baltimore. Should we apply as a team or separately? Also, our product is targeting Russian market. Is that a problem? Do you only accept companies that target US to begin with? Thanks

you should definitely apply as a team. We would love to back a company targeting Russia! It's a global economy, right? Also there's a large Russian population in Baltimore FWIW

Awesome. We will definitely look into this opportunity.

Thanks Mike.

Baltimore is a tech hot bed right now. Between our Universities, culture and under-doggedness we are going to seriously crush it these next couple of years. I missed out on funding to start my mobile company 5 years ago because I didn't want to move out west. Now I'm happy to say its game time without it.

Any thought on requiring successful incubator startups to reinvest in the incubator in some way? Or at least a gentleman's agreement to do so?

Speaking for myself, I'm a firm believer in building community and in reinvesting in people and things that have invested in me.

So, that's one of the main reasons for doing this, to create that virtuous cycle, but at this stage I don't think we can require it.

Omar's-a-comin' ... and he's got 25% equity thanks to the last round.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt!

Looks like Mayor Carcetti really is turning things around.

Stringer Bell is definitely going to be applying.

Where do you think the money is coming from?! Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Oooh, there's a John Waters movie hiding somewhere in here...

Holy shit. As a local, I can't wait to see more info on this. I don't think I could beat out all those Silicon Valley hotshots that apply to YC, but for something local, I think I can get in.

This being in Baltimore is such a surprise - I'd never thought I'd see the day. I'm giddy.

glad to hear it! But this is just one small facet of the tech scene in Baltimore...Please check out my response to kovar for a list of other resources you should check out.

What is the difference between this and something like ETC on Boston St? They have The Hive which is a cheap place for startups to go (do they lack funding?).

The ETC is great but does not provide funding, and you have to pay rent for the office space (though the leases are on startup-friendly terms, graduated rates, etc). The ETC will actually be providing their services (consulting, introductions, etc) to our portfolio

Awesome cool.

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