Thursday, March 8, 2012

Can You Launch a Startup in One Weekend?

If you would have asked me that question before this past weekend, I would have said, "Absolutely not".  But now I have seen it with my own two eyes.

I participated as a mentor in an event this weekend called "Startup Weekend: Tech Valley". This was one of dozens of these kinds of events around the globe and this particular one was in my backyard, in Troy, NY.  I personally have been in two successful startups in the town where the "Age of Innocence" was filmed.  One of them has IPO'd, the other one is still humming.

The concept is to bring lots of smart, hungry talent to bear with a few good ideas and see what can happen in 36 hours. Sprinkle in some mentors and service providers to help give them the advice they need over the weekend to launch a business, and there you go. A new company.

If you're one of those people paranoid that your idea is so unique and so great, then this probably isn't for you. If you read StartupWeekend.org's FAQ, you'll learn that 90% of the ideas presented have been pitched before. It's not because people walk in there thinking that they have to pitch low-IP (low intellectual property) ideas because they are afraid of it being stolen, but it's probably because someone has thought of your idea before. It's about execution in this case, and not uniqueness.

Here are some thoughts on who should hunt down one of these events and pitch:
  1. You've had this great idea for a website or an app, but just never could get momentum going.
  2. You're aching to do something new, feeling stagnant, and need to be reinvigorated.
  3. You have started your company, but want to take advantage of a lot of brain power to get it going in the right direction.
  4. You don't know anyone, and your Mom doesn't code.  So you want to meet people to help you, or be part of a team that needs your skill set.
  5. You've been out of college for a while, and you want to relive the atmosphere of a two-day cram session.
All in all, it was an experience I am looking forward to repeating. Here are some links to learn more specifics about what happened this past weekend and when/where the next TechStartup Weekend events are:
Posted by at 7:31 AM

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 9, 2012 at 3:41 AM

    Such a fabulous idea. We have such an event scheduled for London and it definitely brings a lot of intellectual property to the fore. Your point about paranoia of being soooo great and unique really resonates here. The European way is to be skeptical and to hoard, so this type of business initiative is a breath of fresh air I am excited about. Question, Kim... What is the percentage of "ideas" that have legitimate business appeal? And how many are just fanciful? Interesting to see how US and European startup mindsets may difer.

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