Startup Weekend is officially one year old today and congratulations are in order for Andrew and all of the weekends that have been put together to make this possible! Please pass the cake down as it’s distributed…
Popularity: 11% [?]
Tags: birthday
Mark your calendars for October 24-26, 2008 as Startup Weekend is coming to State College, PA and is going to be a great event. Check out the local blog and their registration. The event is being held on the Penn State campus and should provide for some interesting break-time opportunities and/or college football arguments for those interested.
This one will likley sell out fast so get your tickets early!
Popularity: 18% [?]
Well I was struggling for ideas today but luckily Andrew fed me some good material to expand upon. Thus far in my ‘career’ I’ve dealt with basically the entire spectrum of management styles and have seen how large a role that can play in organizations/groups. Like most people, I’ve had leadership that limited delegation of power and duties completely, ensuring that our roles were fixed and certain. Other leadership has given total leeway in how things are done and allowed challenges to be solved by any (ethical) means. Each style has its advantages and disadvantages but for this post I wanted to delve a bit into how Startup Weekend has really shown the benefit of bottom-up leadership.
As you may or may not know, weekends are put together and launched when a local organizer elicits interest, finds a location and solidifies a date. From there, we come on board and help with the rest and are there for questions/support/experience but really, organization is almost totally bottom-up. There is no one delegating tasks, giving orders, or requiring TPS reports every Friday and that is part of what makes the weekends such a great community event. Everyone attending the weekend and participating can take responsibility for their own success and weekend communities are stronger for that reason. Absolutely great people pull together to make the events happen and motivation is something that seems to be naturally instilled in the startup community.
This somewhat laissez-fair approach was put in place by Andrew and has yet to really hit any obstacles. With the groups of people that come together at these events, overt control would completely kill the creativity and vibe that is part of these events. Further, the startups and projects coming out of these weekends are not bueracratic monsters with a six level hierarchy of leadership (I hope) and so this works best.
It’s fair to say that every situation has unique characteristics that require a certain leadership structure (military vs. coffee shop) but in our case, bottom-up simply fits. I’d be interested to hear any thoughts on startup leadership structure and yes, this is an opinion post.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Tags: bottom-up, leadership
As a reminder, the following are the top non-scheduled or in discussion cities. Please contact me [ clayton at startupweekend dot com ] to get something started!
Popularity: 18% [?]
It seems more and more that the tech community is starting to rumble about the possibilities of web 2.0 applicatoins being developed and used in an enterprise setting and for what reason? They have the money. As exits in the market become increasingly scarce, the need for diversification into new markets with great web technologies is necessary.
I personally am a major proponent of building applications for enterprise models despite the often times overbearing requirements and lack of “fun” that might be involved. It seems that right now, applications are being developed for a percent of a percent of the population that is using the internet for “productive ” purposes. Although I think it is great that this development occurs and it must continue to promote innovation, I often wonder why enterprise and large scale commercial applications are left relatively untouched. Don’t get me wrong, I like cool tech applications as much as the next person but it just seems that there is an enormous market gap and the major players in that market (SAP, Cisco, etc.) have yet to really undertake the new opportunities that exist.
Although Startup Weekend is a totally open process and groups are free to choose what they develop and why, it would be interesting to see some groups start tackling enterprise issues. Enterprise applications will more likely than not require more complexity and development to integrate with their current infrastructure, but that just seems like more of a motivator on the quest to win the enterprise interwebs. I suppose this post is more of a personal view on how applications are trending right now but I certainly think that Startup Weekend, and activities like it, are great places to begin tackling these challenges.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Tags: enterprise
As I sat contemplating a new post I couldn’t help but be influenced by my past dealings with hiring, or lack thereof, and how finding people can truly shape an organization in its infancy. Startup Weekend brings together some very diverse groups of people at each weekend that is hosted and the communities built as a result make great networks for hiring and finding partners for new ventures. Having a network within your own city of 100-200 people (and the people they know) is extremely beneficial and rewarding.
However, Startup Weekend communities aside, finding talented people to hire, especially in a short period of time, is often rather difficult and solely dependent on your personal and professional network. For those that are connected enough and know a guy who knows a guy, hiring may not be as big a hurdle as it for those that are less ingrained in that circle of people and thus a discussion (in the comments) about seeking out talent would be interesting.
Personally I’ve dealt with trying to hire developers for various projects and have found it very difficult, especially when the project is still in covert-op mode. In several instances I would start with my personal/professional network, then the people that they knew and their friends, and if that all failed I moved on to Craigslist, elance, etc. for possible leads. By the time I hit Craigslist I was fairly certain I would not find the person I was looking for and in fact, I did not. We managed to throw together what needed to be done with the original team. This certainly has to do with my location (see the previous post) but I thought it would be good to hear some strategies for hiring. This is also most likely my most choppy post but hiring seems to be that way as well so I’ll do better on the next one!
Popularity: 19% [?]
In light of this new Startup Weekend position and my experiences with current startups I thought it might be interesting to post something (my thoughts) regarding location and entrepreneurial spirit. I know that may sound rather odd but there is definitely something to be said for locations playing a major role in technology development and living in the heart of the Midwest has given me some interesting insights.
First of all, it goes without saying that attempting to run a web startup will more than likely be “easier” in Silicon Valley, Boulder, etc. simply for the fact that other things equal, there are a greater number of developers, programmers, designers, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in those areas. One major benefit of this localized culture is the fact that when searching for talent, there is a larger pool of individuals from which to draw. I am not implying that hiring is any easier (still have to find someone that does not suck) but rather the amount of talent and people interested in the subject matter is much greater. Further, the amount of ideas flowing and networking taking place in those areas is also much different and far more beneficial to an entrepreneur looking to get started.
On the flipside, for those of us not located in these tech “hotbeds” there are positive aspects that do exist. For one, and this comes directly from Startup Weekend, when people in these areas do get together there is an amazing community that is born that is extremely motivated and excited to break the mold. Further, when trying to hire someone, although there are not nearly as many candidates available, the ones that do rise to the surface tend to be just as motivated, if not more, than their counterparts in other locations. Finally, cost is something to be considered. When opening up an office and first starting out, the cost of doing business is significantly less and thus funding becomes less of an issue if salary is not needed immediately.
So, given the choice between running startup A in Silicon Valley or startup B in the Midwest or other non-tech city I think it is important to weigh the options and consider the benefits on both sides. Feel free to comment and discuss.
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Just a quick post to cover the stars of the city vote page and encourage organizers to set up locations and dates so Startup Weekend can visit their town. As it stands right now, the top five non-scheduled cities are:
We’ve also added some new cities so please check out the City Vote page and vote for your location. Take a look at the current weekends to see what dates are taken (we also have two coming up in October that have yet to be announced) but August is wide open and other weekends in September, October etc. are still available. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or are ready to set something up!
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Just a quick note to remind everyone that Startup Weekend Columbus is scheduled for July 18-20 and is being held at the great TechColumbus facility. Check out their blog here, the registration here, and the list of attendees here. Tickets are selling fast so get yours while you can!
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Just a friendly reminder that Startup Weekend Ann Arbor registration is open and waiting for you to sign up. Be sure to get your tickets as this is turning out to be a great event organized by some very motivated people.
Also, stay tuned for some new posts surrounding a variety of topics having to do with startups. If you’d be interested in doing some guest posting because you have a wealth of knowledge about startups, venture capital, caffeine addiction or anything related, feel free to let me know.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: Ann Arbor, registration
Folks that have gone above and beyond helping out with Startup Weekend.
