netpreneur in the news

"Netpreneur.org’s online resources, interactive chats and signature Coffee and DoughNets events are a haven for entrepreneurs. The group provides information and a place to meet that is not dominated by service providers, which can be the case at some of the many tech events."

from Potomac Tech Journal, 6/24/2002

"Netpreneur … is the region’s premiere group for working with startups and hosting networking events."

from Washington Business Journal, 3/29/2002

"Just about everyone who remembers the regional tech scene in pre-Netpreneur days is effusive with praise about the organization. 'It forever helped change the landscape in Washington, D.C.,' says Raul Fernandez, chief executive officer of Dimension Data North America, whose former company Proxicom grew up in the same building as Netpreneur." "'What do you want me to say? All I have is praise for the organization,' says John May, founder of the New Vantage Group and several angel investor funds."

from Washington Techway, 12/10/2001

"Identifying which soirees will cull the right mix of startup CEOs and investors or partners requires looking for either outstanding substantial educational content or a host with a gold-star reputation. They don’t come much more stellar than philanthropic legend Mario Morino, a 30-year tech veteran based in Washington, D.C., who sold his software company to Computer Associates in 1995 for $1.8 billion. His Netpreneur Program nurtures technology entrepreneurs and catalyzes the businesses they create, offering an egalitarian alternative to the inside connections that you’d otherwise need to get access to Morino’s network of contacts."

from Fortune Small Business, 10/2001

"Netpreneur has been one of the region’s most successful programs for cultivating the tech entrepreneur community. It sponsors networking sessions, education programs and helps line up young tech companies with potential investors.”

from Washington Business Journal, 3/16/2001

"Hundreds of people show up for 7 a.m. ‘Coffee & Doughnets’ and for evening get-togethers. If you want to meet other start-up execs, this is where to go. The excitement about starting something new, the worry about the market and the stream of questions will be familiar. Panel topics range from angel investing to protecting intellectual property. Hang around afterward to hear the latest from the front lines.... It’s the original tech networking group in Washington."

from The Washington Post, 10/12/2000

 "If there’s a community for Internet entrepreneurs in this region, the town square is http://netpreneur.org…."

from Washington Techway, 5/8/2000

“Sharad Daswani joined the Netpreneur program four months ago, shortly after launching his event-planning Internet business at www.pleasersvp.com. In April the 26-year-old quit his job at Andersen Consulting and began tapping his Netpreneur contacts to help him transform his business plan into a working company. ‘When you go to their monthly meetings you meet people who have worked in public relations, intellectual property or software development,’ Daswani said. ‘Whatever piece of the puzzle you are looking for, someone there can help you.’”

from The Washington Post, 6/27/99

 "The organized bar's old-fashioned ideas are in sharp contrast to the modern business world's view of how to help start-ups. Take, for example, the Washington, D.C., area's nonprofit Morino Institute, which helps entrepreneurs who want to create Internet-related businesses. The institute is for ‘netpreneurs’ what bar associations are for lawyers. Unlike the bar, however, the Morino Institute doesn’t just passively hand out advice. It promotes start-ups and acts as a business incubator. While only 40 people attended the institute's initial event two years ago, the total attendance at the events it has sponsored since then totals 12,000. It now boasts that it distributes its weekly newsletters by e-mail to 6,000 and claims 'a growing, collaborative and connected community of netpreneurs.'"

from Legal Times, 6/21/1999

"Netpreneur's "Coffee and DoughNets" gatherings bring business people together in informal settings, hooking up start-up companies with potential investors, and large companies with small ones."

from The New York Times, NY Times, 5/31/1998

"While localities from Texas (Austin's "Silicon Hills") to the United Kingdom (Scotland's "Silicon Glen") are intent on actively marketing themselves as the second city of technology, D.C. is quietly focused on cultivating its technology community. But unlike many of Silicon Valley's emulators, D.C. actually has a chance to build a sustainable technology economy."

from Red Herring, April 1998

"The brainchild of the Netpreneur Program, the gathering was designed to draw in new telecom entrepreneurs with the success stories of their predecessors, but the evening had more the feel of an adult alternative rock fest. The battle against the status quo and the search for the next great hit were central themes woven through the speeches of upstart telco tycoons rallying the next generation of
entrepreneurs to action."

from Wired News, 11/14/97

"Some companies even credit the program for the bulk of their success. superSonic BOOM, a Web site that custom-designs CDs, in late October received nearly $500,000 in first-stage financing from an angel investor located through Netpreneur’s NET-INVEST -- a Web-based service that matches netpreneurs and investors via E-mail…. 'We would have never found the financing without the Netpreneur program,' says partner Julie MacKinnon. Their angel investor now serves as chairman of the board."

from Business Week, 11/7/97

"Bob Nelson, president and chief executive of CrossMedia Corp., which provides wireless e-mail, tells the story of a visiting Japanese journalist who contacted his company through the network. When the story appeared in Japan, the chief executive of a Japanese telecommunications company asked for a meeting. But instead of keeping the contact all to himself, Nelson set him up with another Netpreneur company, Torrent Networking Technologies of Landover, Md."

from The New York Times, NY Times, 10/24/1997

"The Morino Institute, based in Reston, Virginia, is building a community of 'netpreneurs' through a Web site that maintains databases of Internet innovators, hosts online discussion groups, and links businesspeople with potential mentors, investors, and partners. 'There's an entirely new model of entrepreneur being created around the Internet,' explains Morino. 'We're trying to create a social fabric for this new entrepreneur.'"

from Fast Company, Aug/Sept 1997