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Indianapolis Startup Weekend Starting Today

December 5, 2008

Can’t get enough of the Startup Weekends?  Happen to be in Indianapolis?  There are some seats left if you act fast.  The Indianapolis Startup Weekend will be held at the Purdue School of Engineering & Technology at IUPUI in downtown Indianapolis.  Its this weekend, starting tonight.   Don’t miss it.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

Startup Weekends

November 24, 2008

This past weekend there were 2 Startup Weekends.  Here are links to the scoop on both of them.

Nearby in Lexington, KY.

And in Athens (Greece, not Georgia).

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

Last chance for the KY Startup Weekend

November 18, 2008

You can still sign up, but you have to be fast.  The Startup Weekend in Lexington, KY is this weekend, starting on Friday evening at 6:00 PM through Sunday night.   Sign up here, and read more details here.

You can read more about the Startup Weekend concept in my recent post.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

Startup Weekend in KY set for November 21-23

October 30, 2008

As I mentioned recently, there is a Startup Weekend scheduled for Lexington, KY on November 21-23.   My fellow Startup Blogger Richard Stump of the KY Startup Blog is organizing it and wrote an article about it for the magazine Business Lexington.  There are still openings available: sign up and get all the details here.

Other options to participate in a Startup Weekend:

And if none of that is exotic enough, how about the Startup Weekend in Athens Greece on November 21-23.

Want to organize a Startup Weekend in your own city?  Find out how to do it here.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

Reflecting on the RTP Start-up Weekend

October 15, 2008

The RTP Startup Weekend took place in Raleigh on July 11-13 2008 and was widely reported on, not just here but also by the likes of MSNBC and CNBC.  It’s been three months since then, so I thought it would be interesting to look back and ask one of the participants to reflect on what happened.  I interviewed Taylor Barr, a self-professed social entrepreneur local to the area who talks about his experience with the startup weekend.

NCSUB: What made you decide to participate in the RTP Startup Weekend?

Taylor Barr: I have always been excited about the idea of  eventually creating a sustainable business, let alone in a matter of a few days.  I heard about the concept from a few friends and thought it would be an exciting challenge.

NCSUB: Thinking back, how different was the Startup Weekend from your expectations?

TB: Since this was the first time I had attended a Startup Weekend, and the first one of it’s kind in the Raleigh-Durham area,  I really had no expectations.  I assumed it would be a bunch of intelligent entrepreneurs looking to share ideas and build a useful product or service.  My expectations were exceeded by the amount of participants it drew to the area; some people even traveling from out of state to attend!  I was also amazed at the amount of organization and planning that went into the entire event (a well deserved thanks to organizers Wayne Sutton, Jess Martin, and Jason DiMambro for making it happen.)

NCSUB: How many people did you know going in?  How many friendships did you make that still last today?

TB: Going into the event, I knew some of the organizers and a few others that I met at local networking events.  I was lucky to work on a project with a diverse amount of participants with all types of backgrounds.

NCSUB: What idea(s) did you work on?

TB: I primarily worked on one project during Startup Weekend.  Our main goal and idea was to create the Barsforus.com website.  The website helped consumers take the guesswork out of finding bars and nightclubs that suited their needs.  Maybe the individual is looking for a jazz lounge with outside seating or a place that had great live music and a good wine selection.   The Barsforus.com website shows a map of all the bars in a specific area, allows you to choose criteria based on what you are looking for in a bar, and limits those down to the locations that contains your search criteria.

NCSUB: What role did you play on the team?

TB: I worked side by side in business development and also pitched in wherever I could.  One thing I quickly learned about Startup Weekend was that there were no clear definable roles in each team.  I believe as an entrepreneur you must be adaptable and pinpoint the areas of the project that need work.  Whether it be running around to bars to gather information for a database or just writing an initial pitch for the company, you must be flexible to jump in and contribute.  Most of my time was spent finding answers to questions such as “how can we drive traffic to the site?” or “what would be a sound revenue model for the business?”

NCSUB: What happened to Barsforus.com?

TB: The website is still running today and several of the original members of the team are working to expand the information listed to new cities.  I have since pulled away from the business based on time and my interest in a few other ventures.

NCSUB: Besides starting a business, what are the benefits from the Startup Weekend concept, for yourself and for the startup community?

TB: The Startup Weekend concept and many other events geared towards entrepreneurs are great in the fact that they encourage others to get out and test the waters.  Many entrepreneurs are stuck with the fear that barriers such as time, money, entry to the market, etc. will discourage their ideas from even coming to fruition.  Events such as  Startup Weekends allow individuals to pool together their thoughts and get others to help kick-start their ventures.   Beyond the individual benefits,  I believe Startup Weekend brings together a tremendous sense of community.  I have seen a positive outlook in the startup community both here in North Carolina, as well in other cities across the US.

NCSUB: Was there anything that did not work too well, that should be done differently?

TB: I think many of us who attended Startup Weekend could come up with a few things to do differently.  I myself thought the event came together quite nicely.

NCSUB: Would you participate again or recommend it to others?

TB: Sure.  I would recommend Startup Weekend to others, young and old, who are passionate about working with others to create innovative products and services.

NCSUB: Finally, one that’s a bit of a thinker.  I have found that the people most likely to succeed at founding a startup are strong-minded, individualistic people that don’t fit any structure or organization that is imposed upon them.  Not the type that would easily work in a team, allow their ideas to be diluted in any democratic voting process or follow someone else’s lead.  Yet cooperation, collaboration and team work are so essential to the Startup Weekend concept.   How do you see this potential conflict?

TB: I truly believe that there is not one set of behavioral traits that make a successful entrepreneur.  Many entrepreneurs are in fact, “strong-minded, individualistic people” and many are not.  I consider successful entrepreneurs to possess three traits: persistence, passion, and the ability to inspire others.  In addition to the three traits, they must be able to listen to others and delegate responsibilities (many people discount this part).  If you are able to work with others and share your passion, I think you will be much more successful in the long run.

TB: For most of the individuals I met at Startup Weekend, they truly embraced this concept without letting their personal motives get in the way.

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If you participated in the RTP Startup Weekend, I welcome your comments and reactions.  And I’m especially interested in hearing what happened to the businesses that were started.

If you missed the RTP Startup Weekend, or can’t wait to do it again, there is a Startup Weekend coming up in Kentucky on November 21-23.  More news about that coming soon!

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

The role of the media…

July 20, 2008

Put the term “RTP Start-Up Weekend” in the search field on the web site of the News & Observer Newspaper (the daily that covers Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) and you get one (1) result, which is actually coverage of the coverage.  It’s about 130 words to tell the reader that NBC is covering the “RTP Start-Up Weekend”, a very local event that’s all business.  I could find no actual coverage in the N&O.

I’ve only lived in NC about 2 months, but I quickly dove into the N&O “business pages” to get a sense of the local start-up scene.   Yes, I put “business pages” in quotes, because I could barely recognize it as that.  It’s actually called “Work & Money” and today (Sunday, July 20th 2008) it was a very skimpy 6 pages (which seems to be the norm).  I found nothing that I would consider of value to a local business owner.  Now I know that the N&O has suffered recent budget cuts and staff cuts, so let me acknowledge the difficulty of running a daily newspaper publication.  And I won’t debate how I think they should spend their resources, because not enough resources simply means some things don’t get done (unless you innovate your way out of the cost structure).

The pity, or is it irony, is that NBC sent a camera crew to cover the start-up weekend and was in town for a good part of the weekend, while the local paper chose to skip it (more or less).   You might jump to the conclusion here that paper publishers like the N&O are loosing ground (and readers) to the “newer media” like CNBC.  But maybe the media is just diverging because the physical aspects of consuming a publication like CNBC are so different from a newspaper like the N&O.  Sometimes I don’t want to sit behind my computer and the newspaper experience is nothing like a Google news search — in a good way.  Just like video didn’t kill the radio star, our consumption of newspapers is simply changing.  For the N&O and others like it, the challenge is to find a new business model.  And for the reader it means we have to change our expectations…

Anyway, here’s some actual coverage of the RTP Start-Up Weekend by CNBC.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

An interview with Jess Martin, one of the organizers of the RTP Start-Up Weekend

July 9, 2008

This coming weekend is the RTP Start-Up weekend from Friday July 11th at 6PM till sometime on Sunday the 13th, location and details here.  I had the chance to do an email interview with Jess Martin, one of the organizers.  Here is the transcript…

NCSU Blog: How does the RTP start-up environment compare to other ’start-up hot-spots’ around the country?

Jess Marten: The web start-up environment in RTP is growing but decentralized.  There are several start-ups in Chapel Hill, a few in Durham, one or two in RTP proper, one or two in Raleigh.  However, there’s not a real sense of community or organization.  Whereas other start-up hot-spots around the country are densely concentrated and highly connected, the Triangle start-ups are somewhat isolated from each other.  That’s just the web start-ups though.  There is a dense concentration of biotech start-ups in RTP that I’m not familiar with.

NCSU Blog:  What do you see as the strengths in this area in terms of VC?

JM:  The strengths here in terms of VC’s are their desire to grow and promote this area above others.  John Glushin from Intersouth Partners in Durham summed it up well, saying “I would prefer that I never had to get on a plane to make a deal.”  The VCs here genuinely want to invest in local companies.

NCSU Blog:  How do NC’s agricultural roots tie in with the start-up culture?

JM:  I’m fairly new to the area, so this is somewhat an outsider’s perspective.  Issues of agriculture and race go hand in hand in America’s past.  Historically, the different communities (Chapel Hill, Durham, Carrboro, Raleigh, Cary) have been segregated racially.  Even now, the racial makeup of each of the towns is drastically different.  While this racial segregation has lessened over the years, a lingering effect of segregation seems to be that members of each community still tend to socialize and collaborate only among those in their immediate vicinity.  Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a collective identity for entrepreneurs in the Triangle.  My hope is that community leaders will emerge that will encourage the different communities to work together and pool our resources and relationships for the benefit of all.  The amount of talent and creativity in the Triangle is tremendous, but it still seems to be separated geographically.  This geographical separation could be a result of North Carolina’s historical agricultural and racial roots.

NCSU Blog:  What types of start-ups are likely to do better here?

JM:  Biotech can thrive in RTP.  It’s one of the top areas in the country for biotech.  Consumer web startups is a small but rapidly growing segment of the startup market here.  There is a remarkably large group in the Triangle of social media/web marketing folks who are very good at what they do.  They are always using and promoting new consumer web applications such as twitter and Seesmic.

NCSU Blog:  How many people have signed up for the RTP Start-Up Weekend so far?

JM:  42 as of Wednesday.

NCSU Blog:   Any veterans from other weekends?

JM:  About 5 people will be there who have been at past weekends (including Jess, Wayne Sutton, Brian Russell)

NCSU Blog:  I understand CNBC will be covering the event.  How did you get them interested?

JM:  CNBC contacted us.  Wayne Sutton (the other organizer) followed up.

NCSU Blog:   What are your hopes and dreams for the start-up weekend?

JM:  My hope is that the energy and excitement will be infectious and that many smart people from the Triangle will catch the entrepreneurial bug.  Also, over the course of the weekend I hope they will establish relationships that will help support and encourage them to pursue a startup idea of their own.

NCSU Blog:  Talk about your proudest accomplishment as an entrepreneur?

JM:  Leaving graduate school and turning down a comfortable and high-paying job at Electronic Arts to take a risk and start something on my own without a clue as to where it might lead.

NCSU Blog:  What is your biggest dream as an entrepreneur?

JM:  My “mission statement” is to develop online tools that allow people to build strong communities offline.  But more specifically I dream of reshaping an entire industry to tilt the balance of power towards consumers and away from large companies.  I have a couple of startups in the pipeline that have the potential to do just that for the music and the advertising industries.

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It’s not too late to sign up and join the RTP Start-Up Weekend.  Look here for more about it after the event.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |