Startup Weekend:70 Geeks, a plan & 48 hours.
Sun, July 15, 2007 at 2:14 PM Angel 5280 posted about Startup Weekend:
TechStars, Startup Weekend... Why is it that Boulders got all this going on? It makes me want to move even though I don't drink Coors.I just finished reading through the Startup Weekend blog covering blow by blow the fascinating events of this past weekend in Boulder. I did not participate in the activities, but I was definitely excited to see how this experiment played out. If you don’t already know, Startup Weekend was a project where 70 people ranging in expertise spent from Friday night until Sunday night building a company from scratch and launching a product before Monday.
Well, it didn’t happen. The application that the group decided to build, Vosnap, is still not live, and I am not even sure it is going to be finished. I get the feeling some of the folks who cranked all weekend long are disappointed that the site wasn’t running this morning, but I think they are all champs who should feel no shame. The lessons learned this weekend are more valuable than a quick-friend-polling web application anyhow.
This was like a good ‘ole fashioned barn raising for the web! That is what I like to see. People chipping in their knowledge and talents to a single cause and working together to accomplish a common goal. I can imagine the crazy dynamics going on in a room filled with 70 random geeks hopped up on Javascript and Red Bull so the fact they accomplished anything at all is astounding. If nothing else, at least they made this tasteful animated gif to promote their site:
People are probably already reworking the Startup Weekend concept to fine tune it and avoid future mistakes and missteps. I hate to play the monday-morning quarterback, but I do have some suggestions that may be helpful for future “flashups.” (oooh. I think I just coined a new buzz word for a three-day startup)
- (beforehand) Identify the idea, team leaders, and specific skill sets required so the weekend can be devoted to development and testing
- Reduce the size of the group to less than 20 for manageability and focus
- (beforehand) Team leader should contact/interview applicants to gauge abilities for proper role placement and weed out unnecessary redundancy
- (beforehand) Outline key milestones and rough time line to help with direction and execution
- Always, always wear underwear if your pants ride low…(above photo)
Notice: I don't usually post an entire post from another thread unless I get really excited as in this case. As a form of payment for this blatant plagerism I'll give 5280 Angel these three links from my page rank 4 blog to build his Google Juice.
5280 Angel Investing for smart entrepreneurs l Best Angel Investors in Colorado l Ski smarter than Sonny Bono
Reader Comments (1)
At the <a href="http://www.ashbuckles.com/index.cfm?mode=blog&blogid=160">geek dinner</a> last night, and at the recent <a href="http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/07/cto_breakfast_report_1.shtml">CTO breakfast</a> this was discussed abundantly. There seems to be a good following for a startup weekend to happen soon here in Utah...
Interested in helping out?