07/07
2007
StartupWeekend - Lets Get Together
Out in Boulder Colorado, StartupWeekend is in motion and they are about 24 hours away from launching their alpha product, voSnap.
Startup Weekend is an idea, an experiment, a chance to get together and create something beautiful over one jam packed weekend.
I’m looking forward to seeing what they launch and have been keping my eye on them every now and then through their live online feed that currently has over 100 viewers.
The weekend warriors will receive founders stock in the project (equal). I’m fascinated to see where this all leads… when is this occuring in NY? Gotta love the startup culture…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!
Digg
Del.icio.us
Stumble
Sphere It
Category: Startup & Venture Capital
Tags: 
July 7th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
“I’m fascinated to see where this all leads… when is this occurring in NY?”
Hopefully soon - we are documenting everything about this experience and hope to publish a “best practices” report after we’re all done. Stay tuned.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:14 am
The problem is that I assume the compressed time frame a) privileges the position of programmers and b) crowds out non-programmers from either joining in the first place or contributing substantively after the clock starts
-you therefore get a business idea that is conceived primarily by programmers
-challenge #1 then is how to integrate people from media, pr, finance, entertainment, law, etc., into a process (especially at the start when it comes to proposing and deciding ideas) whose structure is biased towards the contributions of programmers
-perhaps it would be best to stretch the weekend out a bit to give some breathing space to the non-programmers:
Wednesday night: Non-programmers gather to discuss ideas and settle on one. Maybe structure as a mini-pitch camp. Perhaps three or four programmers attend to provide technical guidance. Other programmers welcome, but not required, to attend.
Thursday: non-programmers write the specs
Friday: web designers do their thing
Saturday/Sunday: programmers do their thing
Also, if the goal is to develop a business and not a hack, then I’m not sure if the open idea submission process on a public website is the right way to elicit people’s best ideas. The process seems built to elicit second tier ideas. So Challenge #2 is to how to structure the process to elicit people’s premium ideas – not simply the best of their second tier ideas.
I’d be curious to hear the composition of the Start-Up Weekend team – especially in terms of a breakdown between programmers and non-programmers.
What do people think of the mission statement?: “Startup Weekend is an idea, an experiment, a chance to get together and create something beautiful over one jam packed weekend.” Just sounds like a glorified hack-a-thon to me. I’d prefer a statement that focused people on developing something that could flower into a viable business.
July 24th, 2007 at 11:20 am
There will be a Startup Weekend NYC September 21-23rd - here’s the link to sign up:
http://nycstartupweekend.eventbrite.com
Maybe I’ll see you there.