The Greater Baltimore Technology Council recently announced a shift in leadership, from Sharon Webb to Jason Hardebeck. On the surface, this looks like a great move. Jason, by all accounts, really gets the startup perspective and knows how to start shaping the GBTC into something attractive to emerging companies.
That said, I was very surprised to learn recently that the GBTC’s board is made up of thirty people. For a city as small as Baltimore, there is no need to have a board of that size. It just means agreeing on a strategy to move forward takes years instead of weeks. I really hope the board’s decision to appoint Jason was unanimous, because they need to be completely behind him if radical change is going to come to the GBTC.
Such a massive board size explains a lot of things, including why GBTC’s recent announcement about “startup focused” initiatives completely misses the mark.
To start, here’s a graphic that compares the (recently revamped) tiered membership costs of the GBTC:

Here’s a list of what the GBTC offers the startup community, how they compare to free offerings developed by the community itself, and some constructive criticism.
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Peer-to-Peer Roundtables
- Here is one area of the GBTC that I feel currently has a leg-up on the grassroots community. I’ve heard some great things about the GBTC roundtables, with some good collaboration coming out of it. The grassroots
Searchable Member Directory
- The Baltimore Tech Facebook group has a pretty solid membership. You won’t find the CEO of Under Armour on there, but anyone who’s truly interested in the community and helping it grow is already there and contributing.
Jobs & Gigs Board
- I’d be curious to see the overall reach of this. I’m not sure how many potential employees know about it. From the employee side, employers have just as much incentive to spread the word about a position opening, so if it’s on the GBTC board, it’s probably also on LinkedIn, the Facebook group and the BaltimoreTech.net jobs board.
GBTC & Community Calendars
- A calendar for paid GBTC events only, not an accurate snapshot of all the great tech events happening in Baltimore. We’d love to help solve this. The GBTC should also host (or sponsor) more free events to attract new prospects. Work with the community instead of competing against it.
Weekly eNewsletter
- How truly substantial are these newsletters? From what I’ve seen, these are just marketing missives that most folks subconsciously delete. It’d be awesome to see profiles of new GBTC members, fostering connections for them out of the gate.
Online Forums
- I’d be interested to see how active these forums are. I have a feeling the Facebook group is much more vibrant.
GBTC Collaborators
- I’m not sure how you couldn’t get access to these people outside of the GBTC. What’s a GBTC collaborator? Other members?
Regular Event Tickets
- I’d be interested to see more “regular” GBTC events happen throughout the year.
Special Event Tickets
- So, as an entrepreneur, you would have to shell out $1,200 before you don’t have to pay to get these. There are many startups who would rather spend $1,200 on some solid PR for the next few months vs. attending a networking event.
Premier Event Tickets
- Again, you have to shell out $1,200 before you don’t have to pay to get these, and even then, only two folks in your company can attend.
Educational Content
- It’d be interesting to see what exactly this contains. Some substantive free alternatives: Quora, Hacker News.
Online Ad (1 month run)
- If you’re registered with the GBTC as a startup, this option isn’t available to you. Shouldn’t the GBTC be highlighting new companies in the area for free, to show that they’re aware of everything cool coming up?
Online Video Profile (1 month run)
- Again, if you’re registered with the GBTC as a startup, this option isn’t available to you. Again, the GBTC should be a champion of startups in the community.
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My ultimate suggestion to the GBTC: if you really want to attract startups. Don’t tie all your services to memberships. Host an event every once in a while where if a company is less than a year old, it’s $15 per ticket. A person needs to know what kind of value they’re getting before they commit.
If an entrepreneur is going without a paycheck month after month until their company gets off the ground, they’re not going to spend $1,200 to see if the GBTC might be useful for them.
All this said, I am very encouraged by the recent appointment of Jason and look forward to seeing where he takes the organization.