Ariel Diaz

I just wrote on the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Conference in Chicago that I went to. Overall it was great to help spread the word about YouCastr, and to meet other people in our industry. Outside of the panels, I went to a Cubs game with Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Yardbarker, and DJ Burdick and Mike Sroka from One Season, and Terry Neofitos from The Fantasy Sports Forum. We had some good clean fun at the game and after at the bars in Wrigleyville.

We also were able to compare notes about our various funding, startup, sports, and marketing experiences. Even brief informal conversations provide a great opportunity to get a feel for what you are doing. Yardbarker is about a year and a half further down the path from us, and Pete had some great insights about heading down that path.

Mike, DJ, and Pete are based in the Bay Area. We talked about the benefits of being out there, versus here in Boston. I’ve got my thoughts about that issue, and that is something I will probably dedicate an entire post to. The density of startups out there (especially Web 2.0 companies in SoMa) is really incredible. Where we are in Cambridge is pretty dense, but still doesn’t compare.

DJ and Pete had only been to Chicago once before, but Mike grew up on the north side of the city, so we had a chance to explain to the rest of the guys why Chicago is the best summer city in the country, but they pay for that the rest of the year.

Tomorrow we are presenting at the Web Innovators Group in Cambridge (about 1 block from our offices). It’s also my birthday. I’ll make sure to post something about that, I’ve got a huge backlog of posts.