4 ms·

I had the exact same experience. I basically had to join up with 4 B-School students and work my ass off on their ideas which weren't interesting (and I couldn

by mcrider 14y ago

I had the exact same experience. I basically had to join up with 4 B-School students and work my ass off on their ideas which weren't interesting (and I couldn't play with anything technologically interesting since I didn't really have the time). By the end of saturday I realized I was burning myself out on something that I had no interest in and told them I quit (for fear of burning myself out for my actual job). It turns out they didn't even really need me because as you said, everyone presented business ideas with at most landing pages developed. I think SW might be more successful if the process isn't so ad-hoc on the first night.. maybe a web site that goes up the week before that lets people decide what they want to work on and start some initial planning. I'd also like to be sure I'm matched up with developers that I'd like to work with because the main reason I went there was to learn from other developers; Instead I was the only one on the team and felt like an unpaid laborer. Also, developers and designers should be better incentivized to attend by e.g. having much lower entrance fees than biz dev folks, and perhaps also by having separate prizes for best code/design.

caseysoftware 14y ago
I've attended a flock of Startup Weekends - Austin, DC, Houston - and was one of the organizers of the last one here in Austin. The mix of attendees & skill sets is both the hardest and most important thing. The approach we took was multi-faceted: - we announced it quietly to the tech groups first - mobile dev, rails, php, python, etc - with an embargo on tweeting it; - once we started spreading the word further, we made a very small number of non-technical/non-designer tickets available; - once those were sold out, we put the entire event into waitlist mode.. from then on, to buy a ticket, you had to send us a Linked In profile to prove your background. And once we opened it back up to business people, we wanted to get the most motivated, so we asked everyone on the list to make a 1 minute video pitch on why they should get a ticket.. and then tweet it to us with the event hashtag. Most didn't bother making a video, so the decision was simple. The result was a good mix of people and the non-technical people were very motivated and (probably) felt lucky to be there. My 0.02.
- mcrider 14y ago
  That seems like a good approach. I'm not against spending a weekend working with Biz Dev folks as there is lots I can learn from them, but in my SW (Honolulu) it was mostly inexperienced B-school students and they outnumbered devs at least two to one (and of around 80 people I think there was 3 designers!)

by mcrider 14y ago

caseysoftware 14y ago

I've attended a flock of Startup Weekends - Austin, DC, Houston - and was one of the organizers of the last one here in Austin. The mix of attendees & skill sets is both the hardest and most important thing. The approach we took was multi-faceted: - we announced it quietly to the tech groups first - mobile dev, rails, php, python, etc - with an embargo on tweeting it; - once we started spreading the word further, we made a very small number of non-technical/non-designer tickets available; - once those were sold out, we put the entire event into waitlist mode.. from then on, to buy a ticket, you had to send us a Linked In profile to prove your background. And once we opened it back up to business people, we wanted to get the most motivated, so we asked everyone on the list to make a 1 minute video pitch on why they should get a ticket.. and then tweet it to us with the event hashtag. Most didn't bother making a video, so the decision was simple. The result was a good mix of people and the non-technical people were very motivated and (probably) felt lucky to be there. My 0.02.

mcrider 14y ago
That seems like a good approach. I'm not against spending a weekend working with Biz Dev folks as there is lots I can learn from them, but in my SW (Honolulu) it was mostly inexperienced B-school students and they outnumbered devs at least two to one (and of around 80 people I think there was 3 designers!)