Am I a strange duck?
I speak via hashtags. The public sees hashtags as sarcasm, recap, repetition or the punctuation for a random point. For example
“That Stramgt 353 class needed more HBS case studies
#Not”
#Stramgt353 on my twitter feed is a Firehose of entrepreneurship from inside Grousbeck’s class at GSB, “strategic management 353, new ventures and how to start one (like a boss)”
Quack differently. As a conscience strange duck, speaking-in-hashtags has a specific goal. The goal, my goal, is to hive mind with mentors, mentee’s and mentors. By hive mind, I mean tap the collective conscious of genius entrepreneurship shitake.
Hashtags original purpose were to “string together related conversations” as per the inventor of the hashtag, Chris Messina. I wanna implore, encourage, tease, cajole and motivate you to use hashtags to speak-my-language to specifically build value for you and your startup.
FTC Disclosure: Chris Messina is a friend and I financially benefit from the knowledge he dispenses.
For example, #CS183do is a sequence of entrepreneurship execution tweets. Another entrepreneurship hashtag is “#ENGR145”.
A better, more legendary, example is “#EUTWMPPM”. EUTWMPPM is critical for self-funding a product launch at an industry conference. Trade-show conferences include, TechCrunch, NYFW (New York Fashion Week), or the SuperBowl. Self funding means “How to Make Money While You Make Money #HTMMWYMM”. Think of hashtags like NFL play calling….
This Grantland article is deeply technical.
NFL play calling is parallel to the technical nature of a startup. As founder of a startup, you’ve scant resources, little direction, and “are searching for a business model” (my mentor’s, Steve Blank’s, definition of a startup).
“I’ve repurposed “hashtags” to move you to the right side of the bell curve”
— Larry Chiang
Here are 13 specific hashtags meant to get VCs excited and wet to meet you: