John Knox is a regular Business of Software Conference USA attendee who each year offers a chance to attend BoS to someone who would not otherwise be able to come. See below a post from John, explaining his motivation for this offer, and how to apply as his scholar. Business of Software Conference USA 2015 this year is on 21-23 September 2015.
You: a student, recent grad, or college-skipper with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Us: a conference for sustainable software companies looking for someone who would benefit from the content and connections, but wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford tickets.
The Business of Software conference (BoS, or “boss” to those in the know), is a special place. The attendees range from single-proprietor shareware businesses, to Billion-dollar enterprises employing hundreds. Despite the huge disparity in the size of these companies, we’re pretty much all in the same boat at BoS.
If you’re just getting started in your entrepreneurial journey, this is a big deal.* Attending BoS means that you get to interact with a bunch of nice successful people who once were in your position of just starting out.
BoS isn’t a shark tank. The folks here are nice, and sympathetic to those who are just starting out and struggling.You can ask them questions. You can listen to them talk to each other. You will fill an entire notebook with franticly scribbled ideas, like I did at my first BoS.
Last year, I met a young entrepreneur at BoS who made a living with a single ad-supported web page. He found a nice niche with lots of demand and he was killing the search engine optimization for it. He attended BoS looking to get to the next level.
I’m not sure he had told more than two people his story when a successful entrepreneur tackled him and dragged him to the nearest table. The entrepreneur spent at least an hour reviewing his analytics and give him some ideas on how to improve his business.
This is the kind of person who you’ll find at BoS: people so passionate and caring that they will drag you to a table and practically force you to improve your business.
If you’re a student (or the equivalent) and would like to risk the possibility of getting tackled by a successful business owner, you should apply for the Business of Software Scholarship.
Details: apply by Friday 4th September by email. The conference is in Boston, so you’ll have to be prepared to get there and find a place to crash. I hope to see you there!
*Unless you already know everything, in which case we can’t help.
Business of Software Conference – 21-23 September, Boston, MA. For regular registration, see here.
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