Common Misconceptions
November 13, 2007 | by Andrew HydeThe more and more Startup Weekend gets written up, the bigger the chances of a rumor carrying over into fact. Here are the ones I have noticed:
TechStars = Cool, TechStars ≠ Startup Weekend.
Although I am friends with David and most of the 07 teams, I am not affiliated in any way. David covered this too.
Startup Weekend
The company is spelled just that way, not Start Up Weekend nor StartUP Weekend, nor Startupweekend.
Funding
This is my favorite rumor, that SW is funded. It is bootstrapped by myself. If you are interested in sponsoring a Startup Weekend, send me an email at andrew@startupweekend.com.
Staff
There is just one person on staff, Andrew Hyde (this might explain why your email wasn’t promptly returned). Jeff Ledoux has been nice enough to update the blogrolls on the sites with people that have tickets. Some folks like Gwen Bell, Michael Gruen, Jeremy Tanner, Chris Hutchins and many others have gone above and beyond to help out a early stage startup.
5%
Startup Weekend is about community and building relationships, then building a company. With this in mind, and the advisory of many folks that attended the first weekend, the 5% ownership of each company was set up with the longterm success of this project in mind. If the community desires change, it will happen, but so far almost all of the founders have shown an enthusiastic response to it.
My Intentions
Community has defined my life over the last year. That is the main intention for SW. I also am looking for cofounders for future endeavors. I love entrepreneurship and the magic that is in the room each startup weekend.
My Character
Several people have attacked my character and gone on personal character assassination missions. I have largely chosen to ignore them. The funny thing about these posts is when I show them to other founders at Startup Weekends. Their jaw drops to the floor and usually ask, ‘is this for real?’ For now I will continue to ignore these. There have almost been 600 cofounders of Startup Weekends, if I am not liked by 5 or so, I say that is a phenomenal percentage especially considering the business nature of the project.
Boulder, Colorado
I live in Boulder, Colorado, not Denver. I grew up in Oregon.
Entrepreneur
I define myself as an entrepreneur.
54 Hour Event
Startup Weekend runs from 6pm on Friday to midnight on Sunday. That is 54 hours. Not 60, not 48, not 30.
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8 Responses to “Common Misconceptions”
By Jeff Haynie on Nov 13, 2007 | Reply
It was a pleasure meeting with you and working with you as a founder of Startup Weekend Atlanta / Skribit.
I thought you did an outstanding job of helping guide us and kick our butts occasionally and thought you did perfect.
It was a blast!
By DrFence on Nov 13, 2007 | Reply
Andrew,
Unfortunately there are always those that will run their personal character assassination campaigns. It’s really quite amazing sometimes the things that people say and do when in fact those actions are completely unjustified. You do the right thing to ignore them.
You’re doing a great job and myself along with others thoroughly enjoyed Startup Weekend Atlanta. Your personality and people skills are the reason why this endeavor is successful.
You’re right it’s about community and I met some great contacts!
Thanks for all your hard work!
Mark
By Michael Strutton on Nov 13, 2007 | Reply
Andrew,
You rock! I had no idea what I was getting into, but it was well worth my time and much more than I could have hoped for. Coming from a 12 year ride at a large corporation, this event reminded me what it was like to be in startup mode. I recommend SW to anyone who wants the experience for taste, test, or in my case a reminder of the glory days. But even more I recommend it for the community. I have met so many brilliant people and built invaluable connections. So how long until we get SW back in Atlanta?
By Ryan Martiny on Nov 13, 2007 | Reply
Good stuff Andrew, and a great job this past weekend!
By Micah Baldwin on Nov 14, 2007 | Reply
But you drink coffee at Trident. Clearly there is something wrong with you…
By /pd on Dec 4, 2007 | Reply
Andrew, I heard that you insist of a 5% stake in any startup weekend.. else they can’t use the moniker “Startup weekend” for the event..is that true ??
By Andrew Hyde on Dec 4, 2007 | Reply
@/pd The 5% is in the Founders Agreement, that all Startup Weekends we put on abide by it. For now the Weekend isn’t a decentralized event, so all the weekends have it included.
Does that answer your question?