10 ways to fail a Startup Weekend

After cofounding Human Coders and HashtagBattle, I’m now a Lean Startup and Business Model advisor. I’m also facilitator and mentor for Startup Weekend.

I have not found the recipe to win a Startup Weekend. However, I think I found 10 rules to lose every time!

Here are the 10 tips:

• Do not go into a project if there are competitors, even distant
• Do not change your friday idea during the weekend even if a mentor tells you to do it
• Have several products, services, offers …
• Do a classical keynote like everyone else
• Put as many slides as possible in your keynote
• Do not listen your early adopters, predict everything yourself
• Do not waste time to simplify your business model
• Come up with a project you are working on for several years and say that you are there just to use some developers over the weekend
• Validate your business with phrases like “This is a X people market, if Y% use our service then we are rich!”. Of course, do not explain where does the Y come from!
• Define your business plan over the next 50 years and put all the details in your presentation

I’m sure there are plenty of others. I count on you to provide additional tips in the comments!