The Foolproof Guide to Winning Startup Weekend
It’s Startup Weekend and I’m in the basement of Google HQ where 100 designers, engineers and technology enthusiasts are frantically attempting to build viable startups in less than 54 hours. By noon of day two, perceptible microclimates have emerged around the 11 teams. Localized temperature and humidity seems inversely proportional to team confidence and cohesion.
“Everyone knows that Startup Weekend startups never become successful,” one of the other mentors offhandedly mentions over our curry lunch.
And that’s mostly true.
Memolane, CloudBot, ReportGrid, Cloudmine, Saygent, PocketTales, Giant Think Well, Jimmy Fairly, KeepStream, Volly, and Proxomo.
These mostly obscure names are the evidence cited in a Quora post listing successful companies built at StartupWeekends.
There are a few names that you’ll likely recognize, but you can count them on a single hand: LaunchRock, InDinero, Zapier.
Of all the reasons to attend a Startup Weekend, aspiring to build a successful startup is — probabilistically speaking — the least realistic.
If we accept that Startup Weekend isn’t really about building successful or long-lasting startups, then the goals of the event are redefined. Iconic fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld once said that, “dieting is the only game where you win when you lose.” I would posit that the same is true for Startup Weekend.
Submitted for your consideration, I give you three sure-fire ways to win Startup Weekend…even if you lose.
1. Have a mentor learn your name.
Extraordinary startups see possibilities where others can’t and exploit opportunities that others don’t. Between the in-person mentors and the remote mentors, teams had open access to an impressive list of VCs, founders, marketing gurus, and technical experts.
You completely missed the point if you thought the mentors were just there to help you win Startup Weekend. Effective mentorship is one of the best predictors of startup success. Founders who receive sustained mentorship from accomplished entrepreneurs are three times more likely to go on to achieve future success. Brian Wong, the youngest CEO to ever receive VC funding, often counsels, “Ask for money, you get advice. Ask for advice, you get money.”
If you managed to sufficiently impress a mentor, or leave the door open for future engagement, then congratulations, you won Startup Weekend!
2. Get the hell out of the building.
It was repeated by enough Startup Weekend mentors that I’m confident we’re all familiar with Steve Blank’s customer development mantra: “There are no facts inside the building, so get the hell outside.”
Tales of successful startups who’ve boldly left the building to engage with early customers have become the stuff of Silicon Valley legend. Despite Pinterest being a mass consumer product relying on network effects, Ben Silbermann’s initial recruitment efforts were completely manual. He’d walk into cafes in Palo Alto, asking random people to try Pinterest while he gathered feedback from behind.
If early customer development is such an obvious prerequisite for success, then why are teams (and most real-life startups) so hesitant to do it? Because it’s scary, demoralizing, and completely outside of almost everyone’s comfort zone. Overcoming these types of emotional barriers is also unquestionably the greatest challenge that startup founders face.
If you boldly disregarded your fear of a) failure, b) embarrassment, c) public speaking, d) rejection, or e) all of the above, then congratulations, you won Startup Weekend! (Bonus points if you actually got outside the building.)
3. Realize that judges are often wrong.
Startup Weekend judges are drawn from diverse and impressive backgrounds. They’re all around smart folks and delightful people. How seriously should you take their final verdict? Meh, up to you.
At least twice in their critiques of the teams, the judges levelled the criticism “I would never buy that.” An excellent point. They’re probably not your target market. If the judges failed to invest credibility in your startup, it could mean one of three things:
- They’re simply wrong;
- You failed to effectively pitch your idea; or
- You’ve just got a stinker of a startup.
At hour 54, my bet is it’s nearly impossible to determine which category your startup falls into. Even at Series A, a lot of billion dollar startups seem pretty goofy.
Airbnb co-founder, Brian Chesky, tells the story of their initially poor reception in Silicon Valley: “no one even wanted to invest in Airbnb…One of the reasons was they thought the idea was crazy. People thought: ‘I’d never stay in a stranger’s home. That’s creepy.’”
Paul Graham says that judging larval startups by the standards of established ones is one the most common errors made by inexperienced founders, investors, reporters, and general know-it-alls. He likens it to looking at a newborn baby and concluding “there’s no way this tiny creature could ever accomplish anything.”
Successful startups humbly seek out opportunities for feedback. They also evaluate feedback on its objective merits and credibility. If you learned that you don’t have to take the judge’s opinions as the word of God, then congratulations, you won Startup Weekend!
But wait, there’s more…
Congratulations, you also won Startup Weekend if you met a new friend or future co-founder, discovered a new tool, or uncovered a talent for leadership, pitching, ideation, or product development.
Startup Weekend is so much more than the sum of its parts. The Startup Weekend organizers and sponsors are encouraging a type of startup bohemianism, where diverse technologists are encouraged to experiment at the fringes of typical business paradigms and constraints. Startup Weekend teams can defer to vision, enthusiasm, novelty, and creativity. And while the likelihood of one of these teams becoming a long-term success is low, the potential impact of the experience is substantial — both for individual participants and the tech community at large.
Ultimately, if you’re a member of Dublin’s tech ecosystem, congratulations, you won Startup Weekend!
