Archive for the ‘entrepreneurship’ Category
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
The following is Part I of another excellent guest post from Doug Williams and George Junginger
After seeing two Weekends in action, we have some insight to share on how to be prepare yourself for a successful Startup Weekend.
Argue with work, not words
It is very easy for so many passionate people to argue and debate endlessly. In fact, it is almost a requisite for any successful founder to be able to successfully argue both sides of a problem to objectively arrive at the best possible solution. But time is so important that it is better to adopt a Ready, Fire, Aim mentality iterating with tangible results. Results here is a loose term referring to a working prototype, sketched interface, written copy — anything that serves as a starting point to concretely move forward. Otherwise, you may be left holding a bag full of your pulled-out hair rather than a startup at the end of the weekend.
Open is better than closed
One of the inarguable goals of the weekend is to build community that lasts long after everyone has returned to their normal lives. To facilitate such growth people have to meet, they need to talk, and most importantly they need to build relationships. This can only happen if people and the facility adopt a commitment to be open. Open space. Open conversations. No one will learn or meet if everything is private, secluded, and discrete. This fosters an environment where each team is as excited about every other team’s projects along with their own. There is a lot to be gained by walking around and being intrigued by someone else’s work.
Leave with full pockets
The company you help create may never generate a single cent of profit. If you’re like all of our co-founders at dealcastr, you may fold almost immediately when confronted with the commitment required to make a startup work. So if I tell you that the weekend won’t lead to a successful exit, and that your dreams of riches are completely unfounded, why do I reference to full pockets? Your pockets should be overflowing with your own business cards on Friday night, and packed with everyone else’s on Sunday night. There is no reason you can’t leave with something equally as valuable as a buyout: a network in your pocket.
Action
Startup Weekend favors the type of person who can be in a leaderless group yet find something to do. There is more work than can be done. Design, development, and marketing may seem obvious. But what about the intangibles such as blogging, planning for after the weekend, starting a wiki to keep communication flowing, managing Twitter accounts, et cetera? You must be a self-starter, confident in your abilities. You must know what you can contribute and make that work for the good of the group.
Media
Everyone loves their name in lights and their picture plastered across the Internet. Even those who don’t enjoy their work (as opposed to themselves) receiving attention and recognition. So the more blogging, Tweeting, video recording, and photography — MEdia [sic] — that is produced during the Weekend the better. Not only does this give people a little extra something to go home with, but it helps foster community and a feeling of permanency to the Weekend’s events. MEdia is one of the major builders of community.
Stay tuned for Part II coming a bit later this week!
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Posted in Columbus, RTP, Startup Weekends, entrepreneurship |
Monday, July 28th, 2008
The next in our series of guest posts comes from Ted Pin of the Intermz team that managed to get exactly what they needed, and more, from the recent Ann Arbor Startup Weekend. He has a series of posts that cover what it is like bringing an idea to Startup Weekend and below is the fourth installment in the series.
I mentioned Startup Weekend in a couple of posts in this series, but I never really got into the details of how it actually worked for us. I promised an honest, nitty-gritty blog about starting up, so here are the details about how events like Startup Weekend can really change the course of your dream. (And if it sounds like I’m pitching for Startup Weekend in spots, I am. It was just that awesome.)
What is Startup Weekend (from a founder’s viewpoint)?
Their website defines it as “an intense 54 hour event bringing together brilliant tech minds (developers, designers, marketers, ect.) together to create a company (or as many as the community wants) from concept to launch!” Well, from a founder’s standpoint, it ended up being a lot more than that.
Startup Weekend actually began as a kind of “traveling Y-Combinator.” If you’re not familiar with Y-Combinator, they run annual gatherings of startup companies that Y-Combinator fund at a seed level and helps them get going. Y-Combinator then takes a small share of those companies. One of the biggest drawbacks for founders is that Y-Combinator is stationed in CA and not all founders/startup-teams can get out there for a couple of months at a time. In contrast, Startup Weekend holds events in all parts of the country (as determined by vote) and no longer take a financial interest in your company. They gather a group of incredibly generous local volunteers like Laura Fisher who organize and manage the event, which basically gives you a space, an Internet connection, and a bunch of willing people to throw stuff at (and believe me, they will throw stuff back at you, too).
For Intermz.com, it was definitely intense, and it is definitely helping us go from concept to launch. But I want to share with a lot of the other more subtle (and less subtle) benefits that a founder can gain from events like this.
Self-selected crowd
This might seem really obvious, but if you are a founder looking to recruit people to get behind your vision, you can waste a lot of time sending emails and trying to convince folks to actually join your team and do work for your idea.
Imagine being able to give your pitch to a room full of people who have already said, just by being there, “I’m here to work. Just convince me your idea is worth working on.” Then it’s simply up to you to give them a good reason. Intermz ended up attracting one of the largest groups at Startup Weekend which had a diversity that is became the major factor in our progress.
Energy, inspiration and momentum
This is the soft stuff that I don’t think gets talked about enough. Don’t discount the soft stuff. Startups are based almost entirely on passion and energy. Why? Because you’re probably not going to have any money in the beginning and the work is going to be really hard–and your statistical chances for success barely register. The only thing that keeps people (including the founder) working on an idea is love for it and how much belief there is in it.
As I see it, entrepreneurship events help ignite and sustain that belief in one most-important way: When you see that other people believe your idea, it makes you, the founder, believe in yourself. That belief translates into apparent commitment, which signals to the team that the people are in place to make it really happen. Before Startup Weekend, I began to have doubts about my idea, which made me doubt myself. But the response Intermz received at the event gave me, and us all, reason to row in the same boat.
Network
So you’re in a room full of other like-minded, enthusiastic people. If you wanted to talk to, get advice from, and get help from like-minded, enthusiastic people, why would you not go to an entrepreneurship event? Always keep in mind that these events are full of self-selected people who are like you. Help them and they will help you.
Opened up
I would wager that how you think you can achieve success before you attend an event like Startup Weekend, and how you think you can achieve success afterward are going be shockingly different. Not only that, I would also wager that after such an event, the plan will be clearer, the goals better defined, and your confidence will go up. (This all assumes of course that you had an idea that attracted enough help.)
You may not enjoy the process of getting your mind opened, but if you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably not learning. Engaged people are going to ask the tough questions that help you focus and understand.
Entrepreneurship events make this kind of eye-opening a very good thing because: 1) You’re getting feedback from people who presumably want the idea to succeed (or they wouldn’t be there), and 2) they aren’t you.
Who entrepreneurship events are not for
These events are not for people worried about non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and the like. There is an implicit code at these things that if you come up with an idea, no one will try to rip it–otherwise these events wouldn’t work. If you go to one and expect people will sign your NDA, don’t count on getting people to join your cause.
The reality
To make your web-startup, or any startup for that matter, succeed, you’re going to need people with ideas, passion, and the willingness to work. Without them, you can only go so far. I challenge you to find a better way to recruit more of those people in one place than by attending an entrepreneurship event like Startup Weekend. Go find one and give them a good reason to join you!
Good luck, and go get ‘em.
Thank you to Ted for the great post and we’ll have more on the way later this week!
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Posted in Startup Weekends, Uncategorized, entrepreneurship |
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
In the news lately it seems that we are constantly barraged with stories covering the suffering economy, hard financial times, the impending exodus of the baby-boomer generation, and layoffs as a result of any combination of the factors listed above.
With that, it seems natural to conclude that that state of entrepreneurship and startups will change, although it is hard to say for how long and in what specific way. This topic has been discussed at length throughout the startup community but for the most part, the discussion skews towards the age trend in hi-tech startups. Surprisingly enough, out of this discussion came the revelation that in fact, the average age of new tech-entrepreneurs is 39 (Paul Kedrosky chart and post here).
I for one was rather surprised with the average being 39, but given the trends that are occuring in the economy and workforce, it makes total sense. Further, with this trend I think there are some great opportunities that exist for tech startups to move outside common paradigms that prevent some innovation from occurring. As more and more begin to migrate from corporate America with years of experience (and complaints) startups will hopefully be able to fill the major voids that exist in industry no matter their scale. For those younger entrepreneurs that do not yet have ‘management’ experience, the influx in new and highly experienced managers will be very beneficial to the startup ecosystem.
Naturally this phase will have to pass, at least partially, but for the time being the startup community should benefit a great deal from the changes occurring the economy locally and abroad. Being a part of Startup Weekend, I am extremely excited to see how this trend will continue to effect weekends that are organized and hope to continue promoting tech development and awesome communities at each event.
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Posted in Web Visions, entrepreneurship |
Monday, March 31st, 2008
3 weeks ago, I didn’t know what Startup Weekend was. 1 week ago, I had never been. Today, a couple days after my first one, I’ve been spit back out the other side. Here’s what I am right now, in the aftermath:
Tired – That was a long and intense weekend. No worries from me – that’s what I expected and that’s what I wanted -a chance to engage myself in a project and in an environment… not only for the time working, but for the time eating, sleeping, and the time lying in bed not sleeping. I got what I wanted.
Inspired – The fatigue from Startup Weekend will wear off in another couple days, but the inspiration will last awhile. I’ve come back to my ‘real job’ (which looks very similar, just with less people and better hours), and came back with a sense of excitement and purpose… with a new energy and new ideas.
Smarter – As much as Startup Weekend is about doing (instead of talking about doing), it is (perhaps as a result) a great learning experience. I got a lot better at what I do from doing it non-stop for a whole weekend, and doing side-by-side with a whole bunch of good people.
More Connected – Startup Weekend isn’t a networking event – people who use it just for that are easily exposed (and mostly ignored) by the people there to work. However, between the workers, some real connections start to form, and real networking starts to occur (you know, the kind where you actually call the person who gave you the card). I came out of the weekend with some new friends, and friends I’d like to work with again sometime soon.
Appreciative – Andrew talks a lot about building a Startup Weekend community, and admittedly, that can get lost in the bustle of activity. But when all was said and done, the community is what stuck with me. I felt, and still feel a tangible sense of appreciation… appreciation that there are a ton of other talented people doing the things I do, and appreciation that they shared in doing it for a couple great days. Entrepreneurship can be lonely… Startup Weekend makes it a group activity. And really, that’s pretty cool.
Now I can’t wait until the next one!
Brian Burns is an entrepreneur and freelance copy-writer loving the life in Boulder, CO. You can see him in action at his blog, StartupWriting.com.
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Posted in Boulder, Interviews, entrepreneurship | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
Lots of exciting happenings around the Startup Weekend world.
London is this weekend! 64 have registered, which seems to be the sweet spot for most tech communities. I have been chatting with several folks about the weekend, and the expectations are high!
The Los Angeles team is doing an amazing job. You will see white a few San Francisco folks making the drive to help startup the company.
I am still working everyday to ensure that all the Startup Weekends are successesful and the spirit of the weekend is intact.
Some quick news from the companies created:
Skribit’s entire team is meeting this weekend to discuss the future of the product. By far the most active post weekend group so far.
VoSnap is having a meeting Thursday night to discuss some exciting news (of which I can’t talk about yet).
HelpHookup presentedt at the Google Open Social Event, Alvin had this to say:
As I was watching the presentation, people kept coming up to me and saying Hi. The girl next to me said “Wow, you know a lot of people here”. I told her that I just met them on the weekend. I realized something on Monday. It had been about only 24 hours since I had seen many of these people but it was like we were old friends that had not seen each other in a long time.
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Posted in London, entrepreneurship |
