---
title: Ruby Web Startup Panel Tonight
teaser:
tags: news,web,ruby
author: Dan Croak
published_on: 2009-08-17
---

Tonight, TechStars is hosting a panel discussion on Ruby web startups.
Panelists include senior representatives from:

* [thoughtbot](http://thoughtbot.com)
* [ZenDesk](http://zendesk.com)
* [Panjiva](http://panjiva.com)
* [oneforty](http://oneforty.com)

See [Boston.rb](http://bostonrb.org/events/95) for more information on the
panelists.

The event will take place from 7pm-10pm at [727 Mass Ave, Central Square,
Cambridge](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=727+Mass+Ave,+Cambridge,+MA&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&split=0&gl=us&ei=J42JSvbCK8KLtgeHg9jnDA&z=16&iwloc=A).

## Broad focus

The night will generally focus on:

* Tactical issues of running a startup on Rails
* Strategy issues of funding and growing a team

## A sample of expected questions

### Funding

* How would you like to see Boston’s Ruby community better interact with
  Boston’s investor community?
* How much do investors care about technology choices such as Rails?
* We've seen funds crop up around Facebook, Blackberry, and other platforms
  with the goal of furthering the cause of the platform. What about around web
  frameworks like Rails?

![Piles of Cash](http://s3.amazonaws.com/thoughtbot-training/images/piles_of_cash.png)

### Team

The famous example of the [Pin Factory](http://is.gd/2llbx) in Adam Smith's
*Wealth of Nations* argues that division of labor is the strongest way for
businesses to achieve productivity gains. Startups often consist of only a
handful of people. How do your companies divide responsibilities? How many
people are "jack-of-all-trades"?

![Pin Factory](http://s3.amazonaws.com/thoughtbot-training/images/pin_factory.png)

### Scale

* How did the hosting infrastructure need to change? Did you move to cloud
  services such as Amazon Web Services or Heroku?
* What limits of the relational database have you discovered? Do your
  applications use Postgres? MySQL? Tokyo Cabinet? CouchDB?

![Cloud City](http://s3.amazonaws.com/thoughtbot-training/images/cloud_city.png)

## Bring your business cards

There are currently [about 30
people](http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=112409993174) expected
to attend. There should be a mix of Ruby developers, Boston investors, and at
least one known designer and one known PR agent!

Hope to see you there!