John Collins, president of Northeast PA startup Prova Systems, splits his time between New York City and Prova’s offices in Carbondale. He noticed that while New York is home to lots of groups of technically-minded people, it’s harder for those who live in and around the Poconos to network with others who have similar interests.
“It’s very hard for little tech companies to find each other,” Collins says. “With such a dispersed geography, it’s kind of hard for people to find places to get together.”
A drive to fix that led to a group — organized on Meetup, naturally — that had its first meeting last week. Collins says about a dozen people gathered at the Scranton Enterprise Center. They included mobile application designers, builders of tech hardware and software developers.
The group is planning to conduct regular pitch days, where techies can present products they’re working on and get feedback about concepts they’re developing. Also in the works are mini-seminars on the nitty-gritty of running a business, like how to handle financial or legal issues. The group would also like to plan events where equipment suppliers can sell their goods to startups.
For now, the first startup pitch event is set for June 14.
Source: John Collins
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen