Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    How We Empower People to Get the Most Out of Startup Weekend
    There is a very low barrier to entering a Startup Weekend as a participant. The cost for a weekend is under $100, and that includes food and all the coffee you can drink. Sure, you might get a few people who come for the muffins; but they quickly realize there are easier ways to get a free breakfast. We recognize that there are people in all different fields who may want to participate, and people from all walks of life who have ideas. And we don't want to discourage anyone from coming. We have to take a leap of faith. And we have to encourage others to take a leap of faith as well. One woman named Carmen e-mailed Shane about one of the first events he was hosting. Though she thought the event sounded cool, she worried that her skills wouldn't be very valuable to the other participants. She had done some script writing for children's television shows and couldn't see how that was going to fit in with a startup business. She knew she was a good writer and a creative thinker, but she had never thought of herself as an entrepreneur before.

     
    Shane could tell that Carmen wasn't very confident, so he wrote her back encouraging her to come anyway: “Clearly, you're interested in entrepreneurship and you reached out to me for a reason. I guarantee your skills will be valuable.”
    Shane didn't see Carmen much over the weekend. She did pitch an idea Friday night, but it didn't get enough interest to get off the ground. However, when Sunday rolled around, Shane saw Carmen on stage giving the presentation for her team. Shane said he was pretty surprised: One of the things she had said in her e-mail was that she was a bad public speaker and was embarrassed to get on stage in front of people. But according to Shane, “She rocked it. She got up on stage, and you could tell she was super excited to be on this team with these people, [with whom] she had developed [some solid] relationships.”
    After the event, Carmen came up to Shane and hugged him with tears in her eyes. She told him Startup Weekend had been “a life-changing experience,” and said, “I don't know if this team is going continue, but whether it does or not, I'm definitely interested in entrepreneurship now. You've opened my eyes to this world of technology and entrepreneurship, and I've met some amazing people.”
    Carmen didn't have this life-changing experience because someone lectured her on the principles of entrepreneurship or told her how to start a company. While there are some formal presentations at Startup Weekend by entrepreneurs and business leaders who know something about entrepreneurship, attendance at these lectures is far from mandatory. We know that if people think their time is better spent working on their project than listening to an expert, then they should work on their projects. We recognize that people have sacrificed their free time to be at these events. They're not kids in school; they're grown-ups with full-time jobs and bills to pay. And learning at Startup Weekend happens because of the work that they do—not because they're sitting back and passively listening to others talk.
    Why You Have to Have Trust to Be a Successful Entrepreneur
    People come to Startup Weekends for different reasons. Some have a business idea already in mind, and they see Startup Weekend as a vehicle for making that idea succeed. However, this can be difficult at times. What if you assemble a team and the people on it like your idea, or a part of your idea, but envision it playing out in a different way? Part of being an active and valuable participant at Startup Weekend is making sure that you trust your partners and that you empower them to make decisions about your idea.
    The only teams that will be really successful are those who discuss an