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This will be my first Startup Weekend as well, and I’m looking forward to being actively involved as well. For one thing, I’m already working on a startup, qweries, so it’s a great opportunity to discover some potential co-founders or early employees. I’ve also got another idea that might be worth investigating (more of that soon); perhaps others will be interested as well — or I’ll find out where it needs to improve. There are lots of other great reasons to participate in Startup Weekend, so it should be a good time!
If you’re a marketing/business dev/ideaman type of entrepreneur looking to go make things happen at a similar event (like the one coming up in San Francisco on May 6 – 8), I want to help you get the most out of the experience. So, here are a few tips and insights to give you a leg-up before you start-up.
1. You are a dude going to “ladies night”.
— Isaac Elias, BizMonkeys and IdeaMen at StartupWeekend – Don’t Waste Your Time
Isaac, like Jennifer, has some excellent tips. So does Danielle Morrill, on Startup Weekend’s site, including these:
- Bring your own internet (MiFi, iPhone tether, broadband card, something!)
- Skip the titles, equity, etc. conversations until after working proof of concept and biz model.
- Get customers right away – learn from them, treat them like gold.
- Start planning your presentation/pitch early, it will help clarify your vision.
And here’s what Tristan Kromer, who helped organize a Startup Weekend in San Jose, had to say on Twitter:
Good news! Napping’s one of my core competencies!
I asked Tristan for suggestions about pitching my own idea, and he suggested rehearsing a one minute pitch to perfection, know what you need in your team, and rereading Isaac’s blog — which I did, especially the section on “come with a posse”:
You’ve got to have at least a wingman. If you aren’t going with one, find one quickly once you arrive. When the time comes to form teams, it may be a free-for-all. In the case of SWSJ, it was. Here is where social proof kicks in. The biggest, most productive teams at SWSJ were the ones that had a core group formed before the team-forming time started.
Another point Isaac makes is “half of the battle is being remembered”: with people hearing dozens of one-minute pitches, why will yours stand out? What makes a good 1-minute Startup Weekend pitch? on Quora has some good suggestions about how to make it happen.
There’s a lot more great stuff out there about Startup Weekend — I’ll have a longer list coming soon. After digesting all of this, it seems to me it’s worth spending some time fleshing out my idea, working on a one-minute presentation, and trying to assemble a posse.*  So stay tuned for more blog posts over the next couple of weeks …
You should attend a StartupWeekend event. Â It will change your life.
— Adria Richards, What Startup Weekend Taught Me in a Nutshell, But You’re A Girl
Let’s hope so!
jon
* If you’re reading this and are interested in potentially posse-ing up, please leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.
Thanks to Kristy, Kalimah, Ahmed, and Tristan for the discussion!
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