I’m sitting here at the 2009 edition of Startup Weekend here in San Francisco where perhaps around 100 people have gathered at the Microsoft offices on Market Street in the spirit of entrepeneurship and to help solve some mutual problems. What’s the problem? That depends on which team you join up with.
If you don’t know what Startup Weekend is or haven’t had a chance to attend, then here’s the details:
Interested participants gather at a mutual place – in this case it happened to be the Microsoft offices and anyone who has an idea on a product or application is invited to “pitch” their idea in front of some venture capitalists or other entrepeneurs. The point isn’t to get their approval, but rather their feedback. They’re not here to fund your product but to give you an idea of what they encounter in their daily professional lives and how you can make your idea that much better.
After everyone pitches their idea, the group disintegrates and forms individual collectives where those who want to help out on a specific idea can meet together and formulate a plan of attack. It is this point where the 72 hour clock begins. Starting then, teams of developers, designers, project managers, marketers, and the business people need to put together a well-thought out pitch on their startup. What’s included in this pitch? A demo, for one, and a good presentation on what you’ve created and why.
At the San Francsisco Startup Weekend, there were a lot of different startups created, such as OurBlock.TV which is trying to make the neighborhood streets safer with webcams to record the activity; TwitFitLog is also another startup here that will “record your tweets in a database and generate a page to display your workouts from all your tweets over time.”; Radio Schedules 2.0 which will be used to help make radio scheduling better managed and updated to the 21st century; and Beer2Peer is probably a more recreational application that will help guide you the proverbial “horse to a trough” – basically it’ll help you find the nearest bar or establishment for alcohol. All of these and more were created right here within 72 hours.
So what’s the benefit of attending? If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to work for a startup or perhaps like a good challenge to put your talents in a “Extreme Makeover” type contest, then you should sign up for the next one. Don’t worry about missing work because as the name suggests, Startup Weekend happens…well…over the weekend. You’ll show up at after work and stay until as long as you can or like and come back the next day back to the daily grind of doing something you’re passionate about. But if you’re not interested in participating, then not to worry because you can still show up and be a part of the group. The last day are the pitches so you are more than welcome to stop by and see what your colleagues are doing and what some of the best minds in the industry are coming up with.
As venture capitalist extraordinaire Dave McClure said at this year’s Startup Weekend, “In your pitch to venture capitalists, you need to make the problem you’re trying to solve readily apparent. 80% of your pitch should be about the problem. 20% should be dedicated to the solution.”
So what problem are YOU going to solve at the next Startup Weekend?
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