A startup weekend is an intense 54 hr block of time when you create a company from scratch and try to come up with a finished product or service by the end. It all starts with pitch night. Everybody has one minute to present their idea. All of the participants vote on which ideas they think will be the best. Everyone gets divided into teams and the weekend starts. Fueled by coffee and an impending deadline the teams work like mad to create a product. All day Saturday, teams are heads down working on the product. There is free coffee and meals are provided so there is not a lot of reason to stop and go anywhere. On Sunday night at the end of the weekend you demo your business to a couple of CEO's who judge the competition. Then if it feels like this was a good thing you can keep going and start a business. If it flopped? Well, everyone can go their separate ways and cry in their pillows. As part of my Make 2014 Initiative this event is right up my alley.
Apart from the trill of just attending the event, I have been wanting to see if a startup company is for me. This will be an great way to try it without getting too committed. Even if my team keeps going with the idea I am free to walk away. I also really want to find the areas in my skill set that are lacking. There will be lots of coaches around who will be great people to bounce questions off and feel what I am lacking. Plus we never pass up an opportunity to go to Colorado.
Another benefit of this trip is we are trying out Airbnb. We were going to couch surf but since I will be busy the whole weekend we thought it would be better to have a nice rented space so Kara doesn't have to sit in somebody's house all weekend by herself. Airbnb is also something we will probably use in our travels so it is good to figure out the process now. We ended up finding a place in walking distance so I can get to the event and back without needing the car.
I might not have time to blog during the event but expect a lengthy couple of posts afterwards. I will probably be tweeting so be sure to follow me on twitter @johnnybloom. -jb
Excited to see how the weekend goes, including Airbnb, I checked it out when I was out east, but never stayed anywhere through it, just did couchsurfing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben I'll let you know!
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