Wannapreneurs what's next?
Just throwing this out there as I was inspired by reading the above article, some of what follows directly relates, and the rest is just overspill from the countless hours of reading that I've done from allthings startups on the coasts.

You don't have to get into Ycombinator, Techstars, Capital Innovators, Archgrants, or Founder Institute to make it happen, though it makes things easier.

Startups are about making it happen on a daily basis, one missed opportunity shouldn't deter you from your goal of building a startup. If you didn't get the money, or get into the program you probably know why so that means you know how to be successful the next time around, if you don't then ask questions, or post your executive summary, prototype, or business plan on Start Louis and ask for feedback.

If you read Techcrunch or Mashable daily, then you know that the acquisitions are about traction, market, product, and team, while funding is sometimes about connections, . So ask yourself do you want it, what are you willing to do to get it, and how do you check off each of the areas above.

Traction: A good product with a solid value proposition can get you there, but you only need an mvp to start figuring out if you are headed in the right direction.

Market: If you are dabbling in an area where you are not the subject matter expert, find one, and ask them about your assumptions, or do research to figure out if the market is there, what it's missing, what the market leaders are not paying attention to. Most times reading the blogs will let you know if a market is growing or not.

Product: Create the mvp, and iterate until you have a core product that people want to use, and are willing to promote or pay to continue using, without either you may never get traction. Though there may be a difference between native, and other methods such as phonegap, and appcelerator it's easier then ever to create an mvp.

Team: I saw founder dating yesterday, and well dating is nothing new, you have a suitor and a prospect, and any prospect has a number of potential suitors, but you won't become the apple of the prospects eye if you have nothing to bring to the table, especially if you are looking for a technical date. So as the blogs say learn to code, learn to talk technical, figure out how to use balsamiq, or fireworks to draw up your idea, and then pick some version of learn x the hardway, to learn x, and then the prospects will find you a lot more charming. Also you can't find any prospects if you don't go where the prospects are, and I've tried online dating the good prospects don't live online, they are in the real world.

Connections: More startup events are coming, go to the ones that you can, stop in at a javascript meetup, join the WUTE group, step out of your comfort zone, and try to meet anyone that's present, you never know who you are talking to, but if you are knowledgeable, and helpful you may find a connection to the CTO, or rockstar designer that you've been looking for.

There are a lot of us here with different skill sets, why don't we work together to increase the level of startup activity here, and create some successes on the way, if nothing else if we help each other, while expanding our portfolios, and demonstrating our expertise.

I have a challenge for wannapreneurs, let's use the summer as our incubator, or startup accelerator and see where we end up. I mean let's sacrifice parties, bbq's, trips, and our tasty drinks from starbucks to make it happen. If you read the article above you can figure out what you need to create a framework for getting there, we can schedule our sessions so that mentors, and industry pros come in and help us, we can probably get some online office hours going, and have our own demo day at the end of summer.

How does that sound? If anyone's interested reply to this message, and we will get a group started, and figure out how to schedule our summer incubator.