For the very first time in my life, I’m running for a position.  The New York Tech Meetup (NYTM) is one of the pillars of the NYC startup community and they have a few board seats available and have opened those up to the general community.

I believe that I’m a great candidate for the open position, here is why:

1. The current board of directors in mainly comprised of investors or entrepreneurs, which is very important.  However, the board could be more diversified and with my background of supporting both investors AND entrepreneurs, it provides me a very unique perspective into both worlds.
2. I recently relocated to NYC, so I have unique perspective of what it means to move to a new community with limited contacts.  A lot of people are now moving to NYC to be part of the startup community and we need to make sure they have smooth transition to NYC and are feeling welcomed
3. Having spent nine years in the Bay Area, working with startups and investors, I bring a unique perspective as to what a thriving tech community has done well and not so well.   We can learn from other communities and make NYC an ever better place for startups to do business

Here are some initiatives that I would focus on if I am to join the Board of Directors of NYTM.

1. NYTM can be the platform to assist people who want to relocate to NYC.  Given how fast the community is expanding, startups need more experienced professionals and NYTM can be utilized to inform people about the opportunities in NYC and how to integrate into this community more effectively
2. Startups don’t have a collective voice when it comes to politics and laws that can positively/negatively impact them.  NYTM could create a Political Action Committee (PAC) so the voice of NYC tech community is heard in NYC, New York State and in Washington D.C.  Topics such as net neutrality, wireless spectrum, immigration laws, patent laws, etc are all topics that are important to this community and NYTM could serve as a platform to communicate our opinions
3. NYTM should serve all the sub-sectors of the NYC startup community.  Committees could be formed around various sub-sectors such as ecommerce, fintech, enterprise software, mobile, healthcare IT, etc.  These committees could be formed to highlight trends and also make sure that the NYTM monthly meetups have more diversity in terms of the presenters on stage

For more information about NYTM and the upcoming election, please visit http://nytm.org/election/