Welcome to the Venture Cafe Cambridge Thursday Gathering

“Is there someone who can help me develop a Go-To-Market Strategy”?

“Who would I talk to break into Social Impact Investing?”

“Any leads on any companies looking to hire Project Managers?”

These are all questions we’ve heard and answered at Venture Café. The flagship Thursday Gathering is Boston’s weekly meeting point where entrepreneurs, researchers, mentors and investors connect to make things happen.

1:30 - 2:00 PM (ET): Make Things Happen: Innovation and Opportunities Around Cambridge

Every week we’ll kickoff the event for a half hour of informal conversations to highlight opportunities in the ecosystem, help connect you with the right people or just say what’s up!

Presented by Shaheen Hakimi, Director at Venture Café Cambridge

2:00 - 2:45 PM (ET) : Recruiting For Startups

Recruiting the right team members is one of the top priorities for most startups. Getting the right team in place on schedule will keep you on track to meet your investor milestones. Hiring the wrong person as part of a small team can have a far-reaching impact.

In this session, we will cover the process for recruiting a great team, the six basic recruiting models, and when to best apply each model in a startup’s growth. We will also go over potential selection criteria to identify the best approach for your startup.

By the end of the session, you will have a model that you can use right away to increase your chances of creating a successful recruiting strategy.

Presented by Nick Bliamptis, President at Facet Search

3:00 - 3:45 PM (ET) : What Makes a Good Mentor

Is it deep expertise, willingness to help or a profound ability empathize that makes a good mentor? Or is it all of it or none of it? What makes one person a mentor everyone wants to talk to and what’s more important, listen to? Venture Café’s longest-running mentorship program, the Office Hours, offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to meet the ecosystem’s brightest minds and most generous supporters of entrepreneurship every single week. Join us for a discussion what it means to be a mentor and what qualities and qualifications a mentor should possess, and discover the secret ingredient of a GOOD mentor.

Presented by Chuck Goldstone and Angela Pitter

4:00 - 4:45 PM (ET) : Workshop SERIES - Effective communication 101 (1 of 5): Language of Success

Have you ever been at a loss of words when you really needed them? Have you ever wanted to master language enough so you could influence easily when you wanted to?

Well this is the workshop where you can learn to ​master the Language of Success​. Yes! There is a Language of Success, not only for what you say to others, but for what you say to yourself as well.

This is the basis of the language skills used by people such as President Obama and President Clinton.​

In this workshop you will:

• Learn the language patterns that you need to be successful when speaking to others.
• Learn how to identify specific words or phrases that others say and how to properly challenge them when needed - master the art of debate.
• Learn the how your words influence yourself and your goals

When you walk out of this training you will be armed with the strategies you need to become extremely influential when you speak.

Presented by Kevin A Martin and Lisa Schermerhorn

Connecting Innovators to Make Things Happen