After speaking with various entrepreneurs from different industries here in New York, one topic that comes up over and over again is that of “New York.� There are mixed feelings about creating a business here as some people think that San Francisco (and surrounding areas) is the Mecca. For an early stage software company, that may be true, but not everyone here in New York is building software, actually, far less than in San Francisco. If you have a business model that includes advertising, creating the next fashion label, writing a book and trying to find a publisher, or using technology as an enabler to do things, New York may be the best place for you to plant your roots.

I’ve been around throughout the bust/boom of the dot com era, worked on early projects that never got off the ground (but learned a tremendous amount), created value for shareholders in subsequent projects, and in most cases, had to find my way around this amazing city as an early stage entrepreneur with limited resources (pre-funding, seed funding, Series A, etc). On the side, I do quite a bit of consulting and advising to entrepreneurs and in the following paragraphs, I may give out some of my secret sauce, but after thinking about the power of letting it be free and to help many other entrepeneurs, it was a no brainer to let it out.

One of the first things people ask me is, “where do I find office space, now that I have a company.� I feel that many entrepreneurs jump the gun here and try and get space well before they need to do so. Why create overhead for yourself when that money can best be used elsewhere? One of the best deals here in New York is Sunshine Suites, recently featured in a BusinessWeek article about alternative office space. They have an extremely collaborative environment, but separate enough that you have your own area with walls around. There are shared facilities such as photocopying machines, printers, faxes, and great conference rooms, and with their pricing, an early stage seed funded company could exist there (~$300-800/mo).

If you do not have the resource to afford the above pricing (which many companies do not, or do not want to spend on space), there are always Internet enabled café’s that just cost a latte, or you can go and check out some co-working spaces that foster community conversation. One of my favorite spaces to work in is down in the West Village, called Soy Luck Club. While I am not a vegetarian, I do enjoy my Soy once in a while and their Soy peanut butter and banana sandwich is fantastic. I have worked there many days and utilize their free WiFi which is generally pretty good. Starbucks is always another option, however, if you find yourself going more than a few times per month, it makes sense to subscribe to T-Mobile’s plan so you only pay $39.99 for Internet… and you do not have to order the food there (to keep costs lower). I actually have a Starbucks/T-Mobile account even now as I find myself on the road quite often and need to have access to email and there is generally always a Starbucks within reach.

For meetings, there are a few places of choice that I like to visit. If they are ‘light’ meetings that do not go into too much confidential detail, I prefer to head over to Le Pain Quotidien which is by my apartment on 77th between 2/3rd Ave. There are many scattered throughout the city and they offer a relaxed atmosphere that fosters communication and has some great green-tea and hearty snacks.

If it’s a power breakfast meeting or needs to be more formal, I’m a huge fan of Pershing Square Café on 42nd Street, right by Grand Central. This is a hot spot for many investment bankers, venture capitalists, ad agency folks, and media types – and I am always bound to run into someone else I know there. The place heats up from 6:30am-9:00am and doesn’t take reservations so make sure to arrive early to put your name down and to get situated.

For lunch, if you’re meeting for financing and looking to impress, I find the Blue Water Grill in Union Square to be a good bet. It’s a very upscale place with generally a ‘jacket/blazer’ crowd, and allows you to talk fairly privately. The menu is obviously more expensive than a pizza or hamburger joint, but will not break the bank as long as you do not go here too often. It’s also extremely convenient as many Subway lines come in the vicinity of Union Square (4/5/6/L/ others). If you want to still be in the Union Square area, but want something much more low-key (a brainstorming session with your founders/employees), check out Piola (great find Andrew!) on 12th which is a pizza bar.

Now that we’ve got places to work and meet/eat out of the way, you probably may need legal counsel or accounting help. I have recently met Ms. Imke Ratschko who works with early stage businesses in business formation (LLC or S-Corp type questions and Founders Agreements, etc) and is located down in the Wall Street area. I have worked with the extremely large law offices such as Wilmer Hale, Greenburg Traurig, and others – but for simple things like company formation, founders agreements, shareholders agreements, you may be better off working with a boutique or sole practitioner who has had a lot of experience as it’ll generally be cheaper. I have found early stage lawyers to cost around $225-400/hr and the larger firms well above $500/hr. It adds up fast… and some early stage lawyers will work project based, not hourly. If you want to setup a business without using a direct legal associate, you can turn to BizFilings.com – and have done that personally in the past for three ventures. There are pros and cons to doing this, but most of all, it saves a bit financially.

Once you’ve got your legal structure taken care of, you may be looking for outside financing. There are a few offices here in New York that may be of assistance such as the all-stars over at Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, SJF Ventures, Vantage Point, and others, but also investment banking boutiques like Tipping Point Capital. While not every startup needs an investment banker (and most investment banks wont work with one as the money raise is too low), boutiques like Tipping Point can help the company grow by filling in holes where the company is weak.

If you’re a social butterfly and looking to mingle with other entrepreneurs, check out nextNY, a group of digital media folks and entrepreneurs who get together monthly at different locations around the city to not just drink alcohol, but to chat about certain topics and network. The NY Tech Meetup is also another fun scene which features folks from the all-mighty Google to the little startup in the corner, but Scott and his team keep the NY Tech Meetup moving and growing with over 250-300 folks coming out for each event. If you’re a Web 2.0 fan, Peter puts on a great Web 2.0 Meetup, so check that out as well.

I hope that this was helpful to you – there are obviously many more people and companies within the NY early stage scene that exist, but it’s impossible to write about everyone. In full disclosure, I have worked with some of the folks listed, and haven’t worked with others. None of the companies above have incentivized or paid me to write them into this article and this was purely done to help other entrepreneurs get through the early stages of their companies here in the Big Apple. Keep on innovating in NY!

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under Startup & Venture Capital. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.