“Escaping success is how I stay in a state of wonder”
– Joshua Davis

I just got back from the 99U Conference, which was filled with amazing speakers, but my absolute favorites were the ones who stood out as the scrappiest of the lot. The ones who stood on stage and you wondered briefly if they’d ever presented before as they stood up there so raw and authentic.

At the end of the second day, after hearing from a number of well-known authors and founders, this big, biker looking dude walks out on stage in jeans and a t-shirt, tattoos down his arms, on his neck – starts screaming "HEY!" … "HEY!#@$!" and then laughing with this total little kid’s smile and screaming some more.

And then proceeds to tell us that he’s going to talk to us today about… Escaping Success.

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I am incredibly proud to have launched hack/reduce, Boston’s Big Data hacker space, which will be officially opening it’s doors next week. Everything about this process has reinforced why I love the Boston startup community. The upswell of support from every corner of the community has been amazing. People reaching out that I’ve only met once – or perhaps merely seen from across the room at an event at NERD – came forward to help with everything from readying the space to making connections to offering to teach classes, provide data sets, and mentor the amazing members hack/reduce will soon be welcoming in.

And the people who applied completely blew my mind. From biotech and life sciences experts who want to use data to improve our health, to an MIT robotics student with a passion around using real time data for autonomous cars, to a Media Lab researcher using data to study gender equality, to a weather geek who wants to use real time weather data to keep people safe while fighting wild fires!

It reinforced everything I believe about the brilliant and passionate people we have here in Boston and how much amazing potential there is in this community.

And so I’m incredibly proud to have been hack/reduce’s Founding Executive Director to bring this community space into being because I believe that if we can provide resources and infrastructure to bring people together to create, that only more greatness will ensue.

It is therefore with some sadness that I write this post announcing that I’m moving on from hack/reduce. In the end, it seems we had different visions for what the space will become and how the to bring in the community.

Not to fear though, as Boston’s startup guardian angel and crazy child, I believe there is more great work to be done. And so, I wish hack/reduce the very best of luck as I look forward to my next endeavor. Have some awesome ideas bouncing around – if you have some thoughts, I’d love to hear from you too. In the meantime, keep pushin’ the edge & I’ll see you around the community (Boston Startup School, Babson Enterprise Forum, TechStars Demo Day, MassTLC unConference, Lean Startup Circle… well, you know where to find me ;) ).

Elise Kovi from SoftArtisans interviewed me for their Women in Tech series. Reposting here with their permission:

This is the ninth in a series of posts exploring the personal stories of real women in technology. Every woman in tech overcame, at the very least, statistical odds to be here; this blog series aims to find out why, and what they found along the way. This time around we chatted with Abby Fichtner (t|ln), better known as Hacker Chick for her devoted work with Boston startups. Recently named Founding Executive Director of hack/reduce, a non-profit big data hacker space, Abby is in constant search of shaking up conventional wisdom and finding out what lies beyond. If reading her story inspires you to share yours, please feel free to email me.

Hi! I’m Abby Fichtner – although more people probably know me as Hacker Chick. I write The Hacker Chick Blog on how we can push the edge on what’s possible, and I’m about to launch a non-profit hacker space for big data called hack/reduce.

Prior to this, I was Microsoft’s Evangelist for Startups where I had the most incredible experience of working with hundreds of startups. I’ve been alternately called the cheerleader and the guardian angel for Boston startups. I love this community and am super excited to launch hack/reduce to help Boston continue solving the really hard problems and keep our title as the most innovative city in the world.

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After an amazing couple of years at Microsoft as their Evangelist for Startups, I found myself ready to move on. To step it up. I fell in love with Boston’s startup community and wanted to do more.

I spent months trying to figure out what my next thing would be. Talking to to people, brainstorming ideas. I wanted to help the community – but how? What did I know? What could I possibly do as an individual that would make more impact than what I could do with the resources of a big company behind me?

And then, when I figured it out, it was so obvious:

I need to build a hacker space!!

And so, I’m crazy excited to be launching hack/reduce. hack/reduce will be Boston’s big data hacker space with the mission of helping Boston create the talent and technologies that will shape our future in what I believe will be a very (big) data-driven future. A non-profit that I’m creating in partnership with the State of Massachusetts and a kick ass board, whose sole mission will be to help Boston retain it’s title as the most innovative city in the world.

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