Startup Weekend

What Works at Startup Weekend II

The following is a continuation of the What Works at Startup Weekend I post…

Less is more
It is easy to get swept up in the feeling that you can change the world in 54 hours. While you certainly can do a lot of good toward starting a real company and building real community in a weekend, your ability to elicit wholesale change is limited. That said, start with small goals. Pitch ideas that can easily be accomplished in the Weekend which do not require constant attention of the founders afterwords. Unless the team agrees that it will be a starting point for a much longer venture, keep it simple. Remember, if your company comes out of the weekend in a working state that founders can show to friends, gauge market interest, and slowly build with limited time and resources, the greater the chance for eventual World-Changing status.

Go to school
This is your chance to use that part of your skill-set that normally is underutilized. Maybe you are a developer that never gets to see what it is like to be in the marketing department. Or your a designer that always takes direction from marketing and feels under appreciated. The Weekend requires that you stretch from your normal role to bridge the gaps between disciplines that may seem foreign to you. Flex those muscles and learn where your strengths lie outside your core competencies.

Be a stranger
When you bring a group of friends with an idea that is chosen, you are likely to work closely with that group on the idea you already had in mind. While the weekend can serve as a focused time to hammer out that project with your friends, working with an established group of friends defeats the purpose of Startup Weekend. Seek to work outside of your comfort zone, on a project that normally would scare you, with a group entirely of new faces. That is the only way you will grow and get the most out of your experience.

One of the important things to realize is that every company is started at Startup Weekend is formed in a vacuum. You start Friday night and have the company developed by Sunday night. That’s great. It works. We have a company. But the piece that is missing is market research. Your group may think you have a great idea, but until you consider how people outside the room will view, understand and use your product, it is really just a first step. Although it is an over used term, Startup Weekend is really ready, fire, aim or launch, relaunch.

My point is that if you want to continue the company and see it become successful, you cannot leave out the marketing component. So, if your group is going to continue with the company, go home Sunday night and just unwind. Then Monday, talk to your family and friends about the experience and the company. Even without asking prodding questions, you will get all kinds of feedback. Have your team each record their friends and families feedback into a wiki. Then as a group, decide what your next step will be. It is too easy when you are in a 54 hour frenzy to overlook an obvious problem or opportunity. Let the company sit in the back of your brain for a few days, get feedback, and then look at it after you’ve recovered for the weekend. My guess is that you may wind up with something different than you had on Sunday night, and it may be more sustainable.

George Junginger and Doug Williams met at RTP Startup Weekend in July and continued their journey to Columbus a week later. If you followed the press that came from RTP, you may remember Doug from this choice bit of CNBC footage where he codes and sings at the same time. Doug blogs at igudo.com and George can be found @georgeju. They continue to work together and expect to participate in many more Startup Weekends in the future.

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