David Rose: Something Needs to Be Done and the NYTM is Stuck in the Middle

In a Dec. 15 interview with David Rose, the prominent angel investor as chairman of the New York Angels, the founder of Rose Tech Ventures explained why the New York Tech Meetup has become a crucial opportunity for the city. "With the financial crisis, there was a beginning of a movement, realizing that the entreprenuerial sector is really important, more than when it was when it was being drowned out by Wall Street," he told the Observer by phone.

In October, Mr. Rose testified before the city’s Committee on Economic Development that the tech industry needed a “technology community manager,” a point person to bring together city organizations and tech media types, more than money or new programming. “Although [the tech community] all know and support each other, there is no central, City-sponsored, pro-active coordinating entity to leverage all of these independent activities,” Mr. Rose told the committee. “Why? Because the City has yet to make this a priority and commit itself to answering the challenge.”

"What New York City can and should do there has been at a snails pace movement during the past ten years,” Mr. Rose told the Observer. “But there has been a groundswell among all the groups in New York that something needs to be done and New York Tech Meetup was stuck in the middle.”

Mr. Rose said the New York Tech Meetup, now with Nate Westheimer at the helm, will never replace New York City. But it can certainly help organize it.