I’m pleased to announce that I’m no longer a Startup Weekend virgin. Over the last three days I survived more than 54 hours of brainstorming, arguing, creating, developing, hallucinating and celebrating. I also consumed record amounts of caffeine, carbs, candy and alcohol, and averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night.
And I LOVED every minute!
Startup Weekend also provided a crash course into what it takes to move an idea from inception to a functional model, as well as many other important lessons such as:
1. The Startup Hierarchy
There is an unofficial ranking of Startup Weekend participants. The developers and programmers are the gods (and rightly so!), followed by the designers. Then there are the mere mortals – – the biz dev folks, marketers and creatives.
2. Location, location, location.
Stake your claim to your working space early. Some teams were smart enough to choose the two conference rooms where they had large tables, a white board, and a door they could close. My team, on the other hand, tried to fit seven people and all their crap around a table ideally suited for four. We also were situated on a spot where the floor slanted which meant that every so often, the person sitting at the “head” of the table would quietly roll away in their ergonomic chair.
3. Shit Happens!
Be ready with a backup computer even if Mercury is not retrograde. My computer died Friday morning before the beginning of Startup Weekend, leaving me with only an iPad. While the iPad is great for certain things, creating a company from scratch is not one of them.
4. Boys Will Be Boys
Men traditionally outnumber women at Startup events; so don’t be surprised to find dirty bathrooms, un-flushed toilets, and seats left in the upright position.
5. Impaired Judgment
Whatever you are working on when it hits midnight needs to be looked at with clear eyes, and a fresh cup of coffee in the morning. What sounds like a breakthrough idea, may just be a hallucination of an overactive brain.
6. Trust Your Gut
Follow your intuition was one of the biggest lessons learned by our entire team. Since we were all Startup Weekend virgins, we were too easily swayed by the opinions of others. We ended up pivoting ourselves in circles, and wasting a lot of time.
7. Keep it Simple Stupid
Nuff said!
8. The Point of Diminishing Returns
Too many cups of coffee, cans of Redbull, and peanut M&Ms can actually have the opposite effect of causing extreme sleepiness.
9. Customer Validation Can Be Dangerous
Talking to potential customers is a necessary evil. After stalking men that fit our startup’s proposed demographic for two hours, I was actually kicked out of the Adidas store for soliciting. Maybe the Startup organizing committee should put aside some funds in next year’s budget for bail money.
10. We Are the World
I was pleasantly surprised at the level of collaboration instead of competition. Except for the very last night when I was beyond tired and cranky and ready to take someone down, all of the Startup Weekend teams genuinely wished the best for each other.
Bonus Lesson: The Startup Weekend after-party is a great idea, but mixing beer, vodka tonics and shots of tequila – – not so much.
Would love to hear your experiences of Startup Weekend, and the lessons learned. Please share!
August 28, 2012
June 12, 2012
June 11, 2012
April 19, 2012
