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

idea at an early enough stage. The idea should be sufficiently undeveloped, and have a founder who hasn't yet decided exactly how it should be executed. The earlier that people are willing to get input, the more likely they are to have a successful venture.
    For many people, though, Startup Weekend's value lies much more in the relationships that they form at our events than in the business ideas themselves. People will leverage those relationships after Startup Weekend has ended in order to form new companies and gain new contacts in the business world.
    Researchers Friederike Welter and David Smallbone write in an Entrepreneur article that while the role of trust in entrepreneurship is not fully understood yet, one beneficial effect may be that “Not all business relationships need to be regulated via contracts, thus allowing [the entrepreneur] to reduce transaction costs.” Trust, in other words, can simplify matters and make business work more smoothly. We have certainly found that to be the case.
    However, we don't establish trust with others in a vacuum; and researchers have found that trust is not simply bilateral. It also depends on the norms and rules of the environment that surround the people who are forming a relationship. And this is even more important for entrepreneurs than it is for established businesses. As Welter and Smallbone explain, “Entrepreneurs are more likely to find themselves in a bootstrapping situation where they have to develop an identity as a trustworthy person.” In other words, trust is so important at Startup Weekend because Startup Weekend is a community . And even people who are in the first hour of their first weekend of participation become integrated in that community.

     
    In some places, of course, this culture of trust comes a bit more slowly. As one Startup Weekend facilitator told us, “In Singapore, sharing one's most inner thoughts has always been an issue, especially with a room full of strangers.” Still, though, he says that the environment Startup Weekend creates can encourage even the most reticent types to express themselves. “Once [participants begin to share] . . . ideas and thoughts on a trusted stage, the best ideas will arise with passionate supporters and more projects will be taken forward to actual launch.”
    One of Startup Weekend's greatest advantages is that it is local. Therefore, there's a good chance that those attending may have seen, worked with, or know someone who knows the other people there. This breaks down the barriers a bit. It is easy to imagine how another organization might just decide that everyone should fly to San Francisco for the weekend, thinking that just being near Silicon Valley will get everyone in the right mood. However, from our perspective, that would defeat the purpose. We want Startup Weekend to put down roots in each community, to help local people build locally, and perhaps even solve community problems.
    Some might assume that nowadays, in this digital information/social networking age, people no longer need to sit next to those with whom they're working. After all, can't everyone just work from home and communicate online? Isn't it just easier—and more comfortable—to stay in your pajamas anyway? Well, you can take that approach; however, many entrepreneurs find it doesn't work as well as they'd like. This is why people from different startups have begun using shared workspaces, and going to places like coffee shops. As it turns out, that face-to-face contact is crucial not only to developing great ideas but for building trust as well.
    While we always encourage people to trust others they meet at Startup Weekend from the get-go, we also know that the trust can't remain blind for long. Danielle Morrill, a veteran participant of Startup Weekends and startup companies, says that she loves being able to reach out to other Startup Weekend alums in different