I like to rap about NYC startups. I’m writing a second verse, I’d love some suggestions. I already included Drop.io, Etsy, and Betaworks in the second verse.

As I go to events and visit startups, I’m amazed at the innovation and insight emanating from New York based entrepreneurs. With the decade coming to a close, I have a few resolutions NYC startups should follow to continue building the infrastructure for a successful startup ecosystem.

The NYC Startup Community:

1. “…will create products that appeal to more than just geeks.” Too many tech companies create products by geeks for geeks, limiting their potential userbase  and chances for survival. The beauty of a company like Etsy is that it built a tech company with a vibrant developer community around a marketplace for handmade items. According to CTO Chad Dickerson, Etsy developers are mostly boyfriends and husbands of Etsy sellers, increasing sales of low-tech handmade products by creating hi-tech but easy to use tools (one example is the Colormatch app by Olive Street). Many people turned their hobbies into small businesses using Etsy, a prime example of creating technology products for non-techie users. Lets hope we see more Etsy’s sprouting up this year.
2. “…will continue to treat our users as partners.” When Foursquare started allowing its most dedicated users to merge duplicate venues, CEO Dennis Crowley claimed, “it took less than 2 hours for users to go thru 90% of our merge queue.” Foursquare has been growing at such a prodigious rate because its users feel like their a part of a community. Why else would they spend so much time interacting with the service? While badges and mayorships offer small payoffs for their users. there is a big payoff in terms of user engagement. I anticipate we’ll see more and more successful businesses built on the blood, sweat and tears of their users
3. “…will create and expand open platforms.” Union Square Ventures managing partner Fred Wilson has said numerous times, “3rd party devs will show you the way.” By creating open platforms with read/write APIs, companies can continue innovating while focusing on their core products. Twitter has shown that small development teams can create dynamic products with compelling features. Many of these features, my favorite being Twitter lists, have been integrated into the core service. Boxee is another example of a strong 3rd party developer community, giving content providers from MLB.TV to Suicide Girls the capability to develop their specific applications while Boxee focuses on the platform. I can’t wait to see what the development community comes up with next.
4. “…will nurture fledgling members of the community.” One of the things I’ve noticed about the New York scene is how approachable and helpful its members are (Sam Rosen wrote a good blog post on this subject). The same way we need open platforms to spur innovation, we also need an open culture to nurture fledgling entrepreneurs and companies. The NYC Startup community communicates and works together, promoting each other’s offerings and providing excellent feedback. A bootstrapping entrepreneur with an pre-alpha product can approach the CEO of a $50 million company and solicit advice without feeling like they’re imposing. I’d like to personally thank Fred Wilson, Charlie O’Donnell, Dennis Crowley, Justin Shaffer & the guys at Hot Potato, Spencer Richardson, and all the other members of the New York startup community who have taken the time to speak with me this year.