In the drinks after the first Life Time Value conference last year, two different friends hinted that it would be great if there was a local meet up for people who were trying to start their own ‘product’ businesses. They were telling me partly because they were interested to see if I would come along, but mainly because I’ve organised various groups and events before, and they wanted me to do this one. After some humming and haaing, and checking another friend would come along, I said yes.
I’d been in a group of people trying to bootstrap their own startups before. In 2009 Jon Markwell (now co-organiser of the Life Time Value conference with Andy Croll) organised a weekly meet up for people trying to get their own product or service up and running. Even though I later burnt out on the idea I was pursuing then, I’d found the group very helpful. Even better, Jon said he’d both come to this new group and lend us part of his coworking space, The Skiff, to hold the meetings.