Masschusetts is a hotbed of entrepreneurship. That’s the truth and we need to say it more often.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is honoring BYE presenters Emergent Energy Group on Thursday, February 25th, alongside SCVNGR, Wistia and IdeaPaint, for their entrepreneural spirit, intelligence and determination.

We hope you can make it!

Here’s the info:

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Cort and Jake from DartBoston have a great program on Pokin’ Holes tonight featuring Jason Evanish and Greenhorn Connect.

They’ve also been kind enough to invite ME to sit on the panel. I’m honored and excited and I hope you’ll come support Greenhorn, Dart and BYE by joining us tonight at the NERD Center in Kendall Square.

Find out more on the Dart blog and reserve your spot here. Please make sure to be there no later than 6pm.

On Thursday, November 19th, Boston Young Entrepreneurs and ACCION USA co-hosted a panel discussion on alternative financing for small businesses.

Andrew Prescott of Urban Adventours and Marty Walsh of Geekhouse Bikes provided their financing histories, and Sherri Lane of ACCION USA chimed in regularly to provide insight into the funder’s point of view.

After the panel, we heard feedback from several attendees that a primer on financing would be helpful. Both Andrew and Marty relied on several different funding streams and the success of their businesses rests on their ability to navigate these streams successfully.

With that in mind, if you have any questions about your options in terms of financing, please take a look at the following ACCION resources:

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOANS AND LOAN OPTIONS

THE PROS AND CONS OF USING A CREDIT CARD

A BASIC GUIDE TO FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Please ask any questions you have in the comments field and we’ll be sure to answer them!

Young Entrepreneurs Initiative is the French Embassy’s effort to support startups with global ambition and potential. Yann LeBeux, the YEi program manager, has been a regular Boston Young Entrepreneurs participant for quite a while.

YEi is free and focuses on the key issues that young entrepreneurs everywhere face, including team building, patents, funding and more. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for France, getting into the YEi program is competitive and, yes, being a government run program there are rules for applying.

So, here are the BYE words of wisdom: if you fit their rules and regs, definitely apply. It’s a great program and this is your opportunity both shift your business into international high gear AND start taking fantastic, long lunches in Parisian brasseries with red wine.

Young Entrepreneurs Initiative Online

Rules of Entry

AND FINALLY

Everyone apply!

I just had a conversation with Brian Shaw from the excellent BYE company Social Boston Sports. Among other topics, we discussed the pressing need that startups in Boston have for office space. As Brian said, you can only work in your living room for so long before going insane.

Brian’s been looking at all kinds of options, from striking out on his own with his SBS co-founder Justin Obey to joining up with 2 or 3 or 4 other companies from BYE to lease a bigger space. There are some issues with both approaches and Brian hasn’t been able to figure out the best way to navigate them.

So, I’d like to throw it out there for the BYE community to respond with your thoughts.

First, have you had success finding space as a startup? Where and how? What are some options out there?

Second, would you be open to co-leasing with another BYE company in order to get space?

Third, do you have any outside the box ideas about how we, as a community of entrepreneurs can solve this problem?

And last, since BYE is part of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, do you have any outside the box ideas for what the City of Boston could do to support you?

Please use the comments thread as a discussion forum for startup space related thoughts.

Just a reminder that tonight is our Alternative Financing Panel with ACCION USA. Don’t miss out!

All the info:

Please join us on November 19th at 6pm for a special BYE event in partnership with ACCION USA, where we’ll be exploring traditional and non-traditional financing options for young entrepreneurs

Come meet ACCION USA’s Sherri Lane, along with two excellent BYE entrepreneurs: Urban Adventours Chief Wheel Office Andrew Prescott and Geek House Bikes founder Marty Walsh. Hey look at that! Last month we had a beer theme, this month it’s bikes…hmm, well don’t drink and bike, people.

And, in case you need more of a draw, BYE superstar Morgan First of The Second Glass will be our moderator. You know this will be awesome.

Oh wait, there’s ANOTHER draw. Thanks to our friends Chase and Kevin from Pinyadda, we get to check out some great co-work space in the former offices of Hangout.net on Chauncy Street. If your company needs a place to set up shop, this is your opportunity to see a great spot.

Date: Thursday, November 19th
Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: Pinyadda, 110 Chauncy Street, Downtown
RSVP: Devin.Cole.BRA [at] Cityofboston.gov or on Facebook

Photos and video below the fold

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 Remember how Emergent Energy Group, who presented to Boston Young Entrepreneurs this month, was in the running forBusiness Week’s 25 Under 25 competition? Well, yeah, we were pretty excited about that and so were Jayson and Jesse from Emergent.

Turns out there was plenty more excitement in store for us: Emergent has WON the competition!

That’s right, Jayson and Jesse (aka Windfarmer and Gentle Breeze) and their partners Chris and Pat (aka Bro and “Where’s the Money”) are the top entrepreneurs under 25 in the United States.

So, please, offer up your congrats to the lads from Emergent in the comments. They are top class and they made all of us very proud…oh and they also have a pretty excellent company to go with their newfound fame.

Anyone who follows Boston Young Entrepreneurs has figured out that we like Greenhorn Connect a lot. Well, they’ve gone and enhanced their website with a new blog, which promises to be a great hub of entrepreneurial conversation for Boston.

And hey guess what. I got to be the first “Guest Expert” so go check out my post on Boston’s entrepreneurial community and some great government resources you can tap. Thanks to Jason and Ashkan for putting BYE front and center!

Northeastern leads the way on Boston entrepreneurship this week with their Global Entrepreneurship Week events.

Be sure to take a look at their Calendar and if you can’t make it to any of their events, you don’t have to miss out. Northeastern has streaming audio and video of the whole week of events here.

Matt Webster, Supreme Chancellor of Beer and Founder of Drink a Better Brew, presented his business plan to Boston Young Entrepreneurs. Here is his reflection on the experience:

I sort of stumbled on the BYE - well the BYE sort of stumbled on me - a few months back and I really had no idea what to expect.  All I knew was that a group like this would be great to be around if only to gain ideas, information and network.  After a couple emails and phone calls back and forth, I attended my first meeting in Boston at the Boston Public Library.  Making the voyage from Shrewsbury into the city is not always the easiest thing to do time wise, but I wanted to give the group a look to see what they had to offer.  Boy was I pleasantly surprised.

The meeting was attended by close to thirty young professionals, students, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and some others that were just looking to meet people in their community.  People took notes, offered poignant advice, feedback and suggestions on where they thought the business could benefit, what channels of communication the business owner may have overlooked and expressed an open-minded opinion regarding what they saw as the positive and negative side of the business.  It’s like a free mastermind session.  Absolutely amazing.

Knowing they asked people in the group to present on a monthly basis, I put my name in the hat and finally had my presentation a few weeks back.  Knowing a little bit about the group, I went with as much information - and beer - to provide the best understanding of my business. 

Presenting in front of the group was one of the most humbling experiences I will ever have.  You see, when you have an idea and you believe it can move and you have already gained some momentum around it, why would you need help?  That’s why this group is so powerful - they give you what you didn’t know you needed.

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