Community Corner

Princeton Tech Meetup Brings Like-Minded Techies Together

The group features demonstrations new iOS apps, keynote speakers from Princeton professors to local entrepreneurs, and informal networking.

Written by Megan Malloy

In April of 2012, two techies-turned-entrepreneurs put their heads together and founded the Princeton Tech Meetup.

Self-described as a “community of techies, entrepreneurs, nerds, creatives, and investors around Princeton,” the meet-ups have swelled to over 200 participants. Each meeting features demonstrations of new iOS apps, keynote speakers from Princeton professors to local entrepreneurs, and informal networking.

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The group’s co-founders, Venu Moola and Chris Boraski, wanted to create a community of techies like those in North Jersey and New York, and estimated around 30 people to show up at the group’s inaugural meeting.

“We had over a 100 people at the first meeting, which was at bar,” said Moola. “We needed a bigger space.” The Princeton Public Library offered space, and every meeting since then has been held at the library.  The Princeton Tech Meetup is now the second-largest meetup in New Jersey with 1,500 members.

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“Our primary objective was to build an entrepreneurial community in the Princeton community, and to bring up the morale in Princeton,” said Moola. “From Princeton Junction train station, there are 3,000 to 5,000 people that go into New York City every single day, and I was one of them up until a few years ago. Most people have to go to New York or other places, but we wanted to have [meetings] locally. So why not create that community right here?”

At the group’s most recent meeting, attendees milled around, swapping notes about their latest projects. One attendee, Trishul Patel, quit his job to devote himself to developing a website to help brides-to-be find the perfect venue for their wedding. The site, Mira, filters venues based on location, budget, and capacity, and aspires to become a one-stop-shop for wedding planning.

Patel sees the Princeton Tech Meetups as a way to network with like-minded people, and to hear from speakers at the frontiers of technology.

“Initially, it was just to network and see what other people are working on and see if there’s people to collaborate with,” said Patel. At last Wednesday’s meeting, he was on the look-out for a product manager, preferably a woman, who might contribute a different perspective to his current team of “four straight guys.”

Keynote speaker Nihal Mehta implored the audience to quit their jobs and become an entrepreneur as he did after college, recounting the many failures and setbacks he endured before finding success.

“There’s a high probability that three to five of you are going to leave your job after this talk, so watch out,” said Mehta.

Mehta got his start in mobile advertising, and is now the founder and CEO of Local Response, which integrates digital advertising with social networking.

“For example, if you tweet, ‘Just went for a run’, you might see a Nike banner on your desktop minutes later,” according to Local Response’s website.

The Meetups’ co-founders, Venu Moola and Chris Boraski, each quit their jobs to start their own companies as well. Moola started as a developer and progressed through ad agencies as the director of technology before starting his own company, Fleet Studio, in 2008. Boraski worked as a senior web developer for Java, before catching the start-up fever as well.

“I quit my job around the same time we started the meetups,” said Boraski. “I was getting inspired by all the entrepreneurs in the tech community, and [the meetups] were a bit of a catalyst for it, too, so I decided to start my own business.”

Both Moola and Boraski see the meetups as springboards for collaboration—some formal, but oftentimes more informal mentorships and skill sharing.

“Since we’ve started, we’ve seen a lot of people who are more than willing to quit their day jobs and start something on their own,” said Moola. “Most of the demographics are people who are working and who have an idea but don’t know where to start.”

The meetings’ ultimate aim is to connect people who often work in isolation, according to the co-founders.

“It’s really critical to get people physically together,” said Boraski. “Very few people can do something on their own. To do successful start-ups, there’s a lot more to it than just good programming; you need to have people with different skill sets coming together. Most of us are working pretty independently, so this provides a great way for people to make those connections.”


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