54 hours inside Startup Weekend

Despite the team’s negative experience, we all agreed that we learnt some very important lessons about working with different personalities and developing ideas into products.

Like the business world, it’s never smooth sailing, but it’s better to learn these lessons in a casual weekend than in a big company when your livelihood is on the line.

A minority of people found it a waste of time (eg. our developer who didn’t come in on the Sunday, the people that didn’t return after Friday night) and also others that blindly held onto the belief that winning the competition would be their ticket to launch a world-leading technology, which was never going to happen.

The large majority, however, were enthusiastically united by the shared goals of networking with new people, and learning how to take the first steps towards turning their ideas into a product or business. Matthew’s team exemplified these qualities and was rewarded accordingly.

By the end of the weekend, winning seemed like more of a burden than an opportunity, because most people realise it’s almost impossible to commit the required time and resources to take a product through to major commercial success.

The key outcome was drawing on the energy of other entrepreneurs to build your own confidence to launch a start-up and collaborate.

It’s also a unique opportunity to network with motivated and talented developers and marketers that could be potential business partners. The competition drives people to new heights.

What can you get from these competitions?

Start-up competitions have spawned a handful of promising enterprises, but it has become a mini-industry in itself.

Startup Weekend organiser Tyson Lundbech is a veteran of these events around the world. At the competitions in New York and San Francisco, Lundbech was part of winning teams which went on and developed the prototype into fully working products, including a map-sharing app that has been downloaded over 100,000 times from iTunes.

Inspired by the effect of start-up events in other countries, Lundbech co-organised the recent event in Australia and sees it as a way for regular punters to get involved in the start-up community and meet like-minded people.

Previously it used to just be techies getting together but he said there is a greater interest in these types of events because of the app culture, where every day there is a new story about another software developer that has made millions overnight from an app which people use all the time.

“The proliferation of apps on smartphones has also educated people about the potential to turn a good idea into an application that can reach millions of people.”

“Single developers create successful apps and get traction around the world and not only make money but build something successful.”

Another start-up building event which took place in Melbourne was Launch48, founded in the UK several years ago by ex-Melbournite Ian Broom. The format has now been exported to all corners of the globe including Romania, Melbourne and Moldova.

Broom believes these events provide a pathway for people to develop an idea ready for incubator programs like YCombinator in the US, where mentors invest and work intensely with people and early stage companies.

“In America there are a lot of accelerators and incubators, which have funding from huge venture capital firms. They’re taking start-ups and putting them through intense three month training.”

“These events are like a funnel. They’re taking an idea just in someone’s head, who hasn’t written a single sentence, giving them the opportunity to create and play with this.”

Broom says people quickly realise that they’re not going to create the next Google at these events, which is why Launch48 is focused on the networking and learning, and creating a sustainable business.

“Try something, fail fast, take a whole bunch of knowledge out of the event. I now have these new skills so at least if i start my own business can do in a realistic way.

“I’m less likely to fall at the first hurdle because of the Launch48 experience.”

But is it really realistic to expect that you can create a long-term business proposition with a group of sleep-deprived strangers over a weekend? Lundbech says the main focus is meeting like-minded people.

“It’s people that want to actually do something, they’ve given up their free time over the weekend.”

“If you look at Contiki it’s about people partying together and who want to go on a journey and trip and want like-minded people to hang out with. This is much the same.”

Competition or co-opetition?

Startup Weekend is a not-for-profit event and run by volunteers, and costs $99 (less for students) with the entry fee primarily goes to covering costs such as food, Lundbech says.

Any extra revenue will go toward future events, including plans to take it to Sydney and Perth later this year.

It is the responsibility of individuals to form companies and divide equity, if they choose to do so, and the event itself doesn’t take a stake in a business.

In contrast to Startup Weekend’s hands-off, winner-takes-all approach, Launch48 introduces some measures to organise teams and provide resources, including board meetings with lawyers.

Attendees are organised into four distinct groups; developers, designers, marketing and business people.

These skills are evenly distributed across all teams, which roughly consist of 10 to 12 people, to provide a balanced team, Broom says.

There are regular “board meetings” at key intervals where team leaders update mentors on their progress and take away recommended tasks to be completed according to a structured agenda.

“The whole idea is to keep teams focused,” Broom says.

Whose idea is it anyway?

In the final board meeting the teams are introduced to a lawyer who explains ideas such as company structure, intellectual property rights and equity.

Matthew Ho, who won Startup Weekend, is moving to Melbourne to Sydney to work on his idea with his team, but the disparate nature of teams of strangers thrown together can cause problems when trying to build the business following the event.

At previous Launch48 events, teams have ground to a halt to a halt because participants would become overly protective of their ideas.

“There was one really awesome idea but the team ruined it,” Broom said. “They were working well until 75% of the way when a couple of people brought up issues that divided the team.”

“It became a war between how much equity everyone would get and the team decided they would register the business on Monday and everyone was going to get equity, which was really not a good idea.”

“It was going to cost them hundreds of pounds a year to register the business that wasn’t even generating revenue.”

“They ultimately decided not to do it but you can see how damaging it can be if you provide that information early on.”

Introducing these business concepts at the wrong time can ruin the experience, Broom says, which is why there are also no winners at Launch48.

*The name of the team leader has been changed in order to protect his identity.