WEEK 3: CHALLENGES

This past week was easily the busiest and most challenging week i’ve had at 500 Startups thus far. Between the speaker event, our 2 day bootcamp, and having 20+ startups at the office a day, things got challenging! Here is a look at what my week consisted of:

• Monday & Tuesday: These two days were mainly last minute detail days. We spent these two days reviewing our checklists ensuring that all of our tasks were getting completed by the due date. We also spent these days perfecting the schedule, completing mini last minute tasks, and preparing for the speaker event and bootcamp.
• Wednesday: This was the day of our speaker event! The event was being held at our office space from 6:30–8:30pm so most of the morning I spent getting everything ready. I was mostly in charge of this event as the rest of the team concentrated more on the bootcamp. When I got to the office that morning, I quickly got to work. The furniture delivery had to be received and set up, the food + drinks had to also be delivered and set up. I think this Wednesday night had to be one of the more challenging moments for me. I was in charge of the check-in table which meant I had to keep track of all of the attendees, give them name tags, and mark them present so we could email them a post-event feedback form. The check-in table got pretty hectic but it was so interesting to see the Miami Tech community come out and support while also learning marketing tactics. This event was a kick off to our bootcamp so I was able to meet a lot of the startups aprticipating in the bootcamp early.
• Thursday & Friday: These two days were the two bootcamp days. As I mention previously, the bootcamp was a marketing one so that was the main focus. The bootcamp consisted of morning lectures, office hours after lunch, a guest speaker after dinner, and then ended with drinks and networking. I think the most challening part of these two days, aside from the long hours, were keeping the startups on track during office hours with the mentors. The bootcamp ended on a positive note and I learned so much about myself, 500 startups, and the tech world as a whole.

I have included some pictures from the event and the bootcamp. Organizing an event is no joke and takes a lot of preparation and organization to make it come together. Being as I had not much experience, the event planning came as a pleasant challenge that I enjoyed very much.During the actual bootcamp, the only true challenge I faced was keeping track of the office hours with the mentors. 500 Startups recruited some amazing mentors to come out and share their wisdom, part of the bootcamp was these same mentors holding office hours. Because there were so many startups and such little time, each startup got around 40 minutes with a mentor. Since this really wasnt enough time, it was a challenge to interrupt the office hour session. I tried being the most respectful I could be to the mentor, the startup currently in session, and the startup who had a session next. Another huge challenge this week was the long hours. Obviously when you are hosting such an important event, you must be there earlier and stay later. Although it was a tiring 3 days, it was super interesting to be a part of the behind the scenes logistics.