Three steps to rock startup weekend
Put 72 hours of hustle to work
I never understood the concept of Startup Weekend and I found it really hard to justify a ~72 hour commitment to a one-off event. One of the items on my 2013 “personal growth list” was to attend 3 events that I was either really uncomfortable or had no interest in attending. So here I was at Startup Weekend — Twin Cities 2012!
I couldn’t participate in the event but I made it a point to speak with virtually every single team in the competition. I gave terrible advice along the way. As a founder, I was telling people to do customer discovery and make sure people want your product, etc. Luckily, one more savvy entrepreneur stepped in and respectfully acknowledged that my advice was valid and useful… if you want to start a company but startup weekend is really about having a cool demo. So this year, I wanted to redeem myself and will be a volunteer mentor at Startup Weekend — Twin Cities
I’ve given thought to the experience and I think startup weekend can be more than just bragging rights about having a cool demo and pitch: You can use it strategically to give you some momentum (read courage) to launch a startup. The strategy is simple: pick an idea that excites you and think of its most basic and simple building block. Go after that building block with the bigger vision in mind and see if, through the course of Startup Weekend, you can find someone who can help you inch towards your vision. This gives you a chance to leave in ~72 hours with a basic prototype, potentially a co-founder, and some feedback on your idea from the judges and the public.
Take Zuckerberg for instance, let’s say he attended Startup Weekend in Cambridge and wanted to work on Facebook. Let’s assume Zuck had his grand vision for FB to “connect people everywhere”. Well, he can’t pitch that idea because it’s too vague for most people to grasp and too grand to tackle with random people in 72 hours. Instead, he focusses on a basic building-block — the ability to create events with a shared RSVP list. Now this is a feature you could implement in 72 hours, so he pitches that and gets a team of 4-5 people only one of which is good. Now in ~72 hours he has one prototype of a feature for his vision and one good team member. Voila! That’s an alternate universe FB story.
Here are three ideas to make Startup Weekend a steppingstone towards your entrepreneurial dreams:
1- This is not a business — by the end of 72 hours you will not have a business and most importantly you will not have a team. So get this in your head before setting foot in the venue. This event is just one step (of many) towards getting your idea off the ground. Do not waste any time on confidentiality agreements, incorporation discussions, or official roles — those are huge time/morale sinks. Focus on your idea and how you can get some people to execute it as quickly as possible.
2- Get loose — get loose with both ideas and people. You should write down your 10-20 most ridiculous ideas. Do not evaluate them or do one of those MBA-drone SWOT analyses. Just write down ideas whose potential excite you. Make sure you pick ideas that you care about not just their profitability potential. The most common advice is to pitch this awesome idea. Don’t. Just pitch a basic building block to your grander vision. Dissect your idea and think how you can simplify it. Remember FB launched only to connect Harvard students. Do the same: think big, start small. You’re also going to meet all sorts of weird, funny, annoying, smart, arrogant, etc. people. Embrace it. Take mental notes “I wish I was like her! Oh I should make sure I don’t act like him..” Nonetheless talk to people. If you want to be productive, you could have a mental deadline and if the conversation isn’t going anywhere just say “Would you excuse me? I am trying to connect with as many people as I can. It was a pleasure meeting you,” and onto the next one. Just like with ideas, do not rule out people just because they don’t fit your mental model. Just put your guard down and be open to people and ideas.
3- Spot talent — if you are serious about being an entrepreneur, the single most important skill to possess is an uncanny ability to identify great talent. Rome wasn’t built in day, and it certainly wasn’t built by a single person. Having the humility to admire others’ talent can go a long way. Now, at SW there maybe 100s of attendees and only 2-3 people with all-star potential — that’s what makes this event worthwhile! Most talented people are taken already, this is your chance to meet people before they are stars. I think in these situations, the simplest rule to pinpoint talent is to look for: (i) People that actually do work — none of those “connectors”; (ii) People that are focused — although your idea has a ton of potential they don’t waste time talking about what could be, instead they focus on moving the project along; (iii) People that are comfortable with uncertainty — you want people who can improvise as things come up and are not paralyzed by the lack of predictability of the environment.
At the end of the day things might not go the way you planned (they rarely do) and your team might disband on the second day of the competition. That’s OK — take solace in the fact that you took your first step towards creating a startup and experienced a valuable lesson: stuff happens.
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