6 Reasons to Attend Triangle Startup Weekend

This weekend’s Triangle Startup Weekend is a great event for anyone who wants to collaborate on new businesses ideas and flex their coding skills in interesting ways. But this is not just an event for entrepreneurs or developers, as companies are about more than just ideas and lines of code. These companies need names, logos, press releases, social media campaigns, videos along with their great ideas and shiny websites. So if you are someone who is willing to get behind an idea and work hard all weekend, here are six reasons to consider attending Triangle Startup Weekend at Edge Office in Downtown Raleigh.

1. Choose your function
While you may not be able to find a new job in this economy, you can work in a different area from the one that brings in your paycheck. You may not even be dissatisfied in your job, but are looking for a short-term challenge. If there is a skill that you have been honing in your spare time, but haven’t brought to the professional forefront, this is the perfect opportunity. Startup Weekend participants are helpful and open and generally will assist you in working with those new skills.

2. Choose your project
Unless you currently run a company or manage lots of employees, someone else is telling you what to do and what projects to work on. Startup Weekend gives you the chance to choose which team you would like to be part of. It’s great to pitch an idea to the room, and maybe your idea will be voted to the top. But if it is not, pick the one that best fits with your interests and experience. And the team that you pick Friday night may not be the one you return to on Saturday morning. You are totally in control of your destiny.

3. Lead an area
As the group dynamics develop around skills and interests, you can speak up and lead one of the functional areas. It may be something you normally do, or may be totally new, but there are leadership roles and organizational roles in every project. Someone has to be in charge of defining tasks and making sure they get done. This is even true in a non-programming role where you may be the only one handling the tasks.

4. Work hard and have fun
Everyone on a team has to be committed to the project and work hard to meet the goal: launch by Sunday evening. Does this mean work through 54 hours straight without sleep? That depends on the team. If the project requires that amount of work and everyone has committed to it, then it does. But mainly the amount of work derives from the team’s expectations. If you have committed to building the front end of the website by Saturday, then your team is counting on you to do that. The work needs to be something you enjoy and are happy to do. Of course there will be stress over the weekend, but it is about fun in a business building atmosphere.

5. Network
An obvious benefit of Startup Weekend is that it gives you the opportunity to network. And this is not a few minutes over a craft-brewed beer and some finger food. This is an intense weekend of solving problems, working together, fighting it out and creating something of value. You will get to know people in a real working environment. You may find a new business partner. You may find someone that seems cool, but writes messy code. These connections can be what you make of them, but the goods ones will be stronger than you might expect. Bonding happens in the trenches of building a business.

6. Start a company
The goal of Startup Weekend is for each team to start a company that can launch by Sunday. This is a very lofty goal that requires hard work, the right idea, the right team and lots of coffee. This has been done many times over the lifespan of Startup Weekend nationally, and even locallly. Last July we launched four companies at RTP Startup Weekend. The challenge is to find the time and dedication to sustain that company after the event. This will also depend on the people involved and the demands of everyone’s regular life. It can be done, but it is not the norm.

If you come to Triangle Startup Weekend thinking you will be on the road to your personal recovery as part of a successful startup and the stock options are just around the corner, you may be disappointed. But if you come to experience the thrill of working with great people to build a company in weekend, you will have a great time. See you on Friday.

For more information, go to TriangleStartupWeekend.com.

Another NBC Video from Startup Weekend

Here’s another video from RTP Startup Weekend. The same shot of me drinking a beer is in this one. It is even called out. “Fueled on coffee, beer and snacks…”

1st of Many CNBC Stories

Here’s a link to the first CNBC story about RTPStartup Weekend. Look for me drinking a beer just before the donuts. The timelapse camera is above the MyFriesSuck team, so I am probably in that shot as well.

Another story is scheduled to air this afternoon at 4PM that will delve a little deeper into the startup details. I’ll post a link to that after it goes online.

CNBC RTP Startup Confessional

Check out the CNBC Confessional from RTP Startup Weekend. While I am not included in the piece, I did record one. Stay until the end for a serenade from Jess.

Here is the tv schedule for the rest of the RTP Startup Weekend coverage:

CNBC Friday at 10:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m.
Weekend NBC Today at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday
Weekend NBC Nightly News either Saturday or Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

RTP Startup Weekend

Photo of my pitch by Taylor Davidson

Day 1: The Pitch
Over 50 people arrived at the Edge Office in the Glenwood South district of Raleigh starting at 6pm. After around an hour of mingling and light snacking we gathered in the folding chair area. It was time to pitch our ideas. Game on.

There were about 25 ideas pitched for startups. Each needed to be doable in a weekend with the resources available. The pitches focused on web, or mobile, based ideas that could be coded in languages the could easily be deployed. Nobody pitched any product based companies that required manufacturing facilities. Notice the rapt attention on my pitch? My idea of a mobile gametracker application for sports that is subscribable in a variety of ways was fraught with legal and licensing issues. I never made it to the lightning round.

After voting down to about 5 or six ideas, we divided into teams. I joined the team that was going to create a mobile application to allow people to instantly comment on their customer experience. James had this idea after going through a drive-thru and getting cold fries. He didn’t want to drive back to the restaurant, but if he had an easy way to tell the company, he would. Since the idea was based on a fast food drive-thru experience, we called the company My Fries Suck. Since I came up with the name, I became Director of Marketing. We brainstormed through lots of details Friday night, including creating a basic paper prototype of the site. We left around 11pm, having established the core programming tasks required over the next two days.

Photo of Bars for Us team member, Jay Cuthrell, by me

Day 2: Hunker Down

Everyone returned the following morning around 9-9:30 and met with their groups, that would soon be companies. There was some attrition overnight, but those who returned were ready for the task at hand. Our team of James Avery, Derick Hitchcock, John Martin , Sean McCarthy, Fred Medlin, Curtis Mitchell, Brian Russell, Dustin Tsang, Caleb Wright, had their assignments from the night before. We had programmers working on the front end, the back end, the server setup and the mobile application. We had a writer working on things like FAQs and error messages. I was signing up for social networks as MyFriesSuck, so we could begin planning our social media marketing campaign. It wreaked havoc on my own accounts with these social networks. I would post a message as MyFriesSuck, log out, log in as me, and post it again as me.

My favorite social network moment of the weekend occurred after we all shared contact information (twitter, blogs, email, phone). People started looking at each other’s blogs, and both James and Curtis commented on my recent blog post about the muffins I made, and wondered if I had brought any with me.

Our marketing team, not working anywhere near as hard as the coders, created a logo and a tag line (Tell them what you think… Now!), and designed a splash page to put up at www.MyFriesSuck.com, which was registered the night before. As the developers continued coding (and not updating me as to what they were doing, since I really wouldn’t understand what they were doing on a detail level), we launched version 2 of the logo and a second splash page. I needed to go back to the social networks and change the profile photos to replace the original logo with the new one.

In the late afternoon before dinner, we recorded 60 second elevator pitches that we posted on line, and uploaded to the CrunchBase web site. This would allow the world to view our pitches. I already posted mine here.

The other three companies were forming throughout the day, and the twitter activity was fast and furious. We also had a CNBC film crew with us the whole weekend. The expected buzz from RTP Startup Weekend online and on television created added pressure on people who were already trying to launch a company in 2 and half days.

Here are the other companies:

Dealcastr.com
DealCastr solves a unique problem; local businesses have things they want to get rid of QUICK. Like hockey tickets for tonight’s game. Tomorrow, they’re worth nothing. How much would they sell for today just hours before the game?… The only way to find out about these special deals is with DealCastr. Choose the deals you want; DealCastr sends the deal to your mobile phone or email.

BarsforUs.com
Take the guesswork out of finding Raleigh’s best bars. Bars For Us, at barsforus.com, has created an easy way for people to find bars using the criteria most important to them. Bar listings are displayed on a map and change dynamically as people refine their search.

Scavenja.com
Scavenja is a photo-based scavenger hunt. Time limited games challenge players to complete thematically connected goals. Players post photographs to document completed goals and goals are awarded points based on difficulty level. Game play combines social interaction with competition and prizes are awarded to top players.

Our team continued to work late in the evening, getting the web app working and making progress on the Windows Mobile app. By around 11 they broke for the evening. After they left Michael Kimsal brought us some fries. Not only were they great, but they were prominently featured in this mashup video of two startup companies (MyFriesSuck and Scavanja):

Squirrel Hunt : Don’t Feed them Fries from MyFries Suck on Vimeo.

After barging my way into that video with my fries, I went out with some of the folks from Scavanja. I left Raleigh after 1am.

Photo of Scavenja team members, Adam Arney and Brandon Burke, by me

Day 3: The Homestretch

Sunday morning was another day of coding for our development team. Our web application was optimized for the iphone. Our Windows Mobile programmer did not show up, so we would only be demoing the web version of the application, in a browser and in an iphone simulator.

This was media day for me, as I prepared a statement for RTP Startup weekend press release. I also met with Jonathan Cox, reporter from the News & Observer. In preparation for this interview I asked John, the technical writer on our team to find a couple of industry statistics for me. He found that the Fast Food Restaurant industry has an annual revenue of about $120 billion (source: MarketResearch.com, 2008). And according to the NPD Group, a research company that tracks the food industry, a whopping 77% of all meals bought in the U.S. are purchased at what’s called a “quick-service restaurant.” That’s up from 73% in 1994. You check out John’s blog for the details that I forgot, since it has taken me a few days to complete this post (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3).

There was a lot of pressure all day as the teams worked furiously to finish their code. I stayed out of our team’s way. I worked on Bios for the team members and took pictures for the site. Early in the day, we thought this would go up Sunday, but as the day progressed, it was decided that there wasn’t time to get to it.

Around 6:30, we made our presentations, and launched 4 companies. Our team went first, and James did a great job showing off our application. We got a lot accomplished in a weekend, and developed an idea that could grow into a company. MyFriesSuck is a fun application of mobile technology, that appeals to a demographic of young, tech-savvy folks who live in a social networked world where it is common, even expected, to provide feedback. They provide that feedback with the expectation that their opinion is important and can actually cause change. However, the part of the idea that has legs is the creation of a customizable mobile platform for gathering customer experience data at the point of experience.

Here are all the presentations:

RTP Startup Weekend Startup First time Demos of My Fries Suck, Scavenja, Bars For Us, DealCastr from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

And finally, the weekend awards:

Best use of Social Media:

Best Name:

Most Completed:

Best splash page design:

Best of show:

This was a great weekend, and lots of fun. I made lots of new local connections, and we are all excited about what the future holds for our new companies.

Links
I took lots of pictures throughout the weekend. Here is a link to my Flickr photos from the whole weekend. If you were at RTP Startup Weekend, tag any photos that you are in. Use any photos you like on the web, but just give me a link back to here or to Flckr.

Here’s a link to the Social Media Press Release, which includes all the Elevator pitches.

Quoted in News & Observer Article

I was quoted in today’s Raleigh News & Observer in an article about RTP Startup Weekend. Since I was the spokesman for our startup company, Jonathan Cox, the reporter from the paper interviewed me.

Here’s my part:

“It’s been a lot of fun to actually take some passion and energy and put it behind something else,” said Jeff Cohen of Durham.

Cohen worked with the team on a mobile application that will let consumers report instantly whether a restaurant’s food is good or bad. The creators hope to aggregate data and sell it to fast- food restaurants and other dining establishments.

Here’s a link to the article

RTP Startup Weekend

Day 2 photos posted to this Flickr set.

Elevator Pitch for Startup Company

What I Am Doing This Weekend

Normally on Monday morning, people chat about their weekends. This time of year, people might go to the beach, or cut the grass, or even just chill with friends and have a cold one. Well, my Monday morning chatter will be about starting a new company. From scratch. Over the weekend.

I am participating in Start-Up Weekend in Raleigh, at the Edge Office. Local techies, entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs (a word I thought I made up until I found it on Valleywag) are gathering for the weekend to create a company, or companies, depending on how many good ideas are presented.

If you’ve never wanted to start your own company, or you’ve never passionately pursued your own ideas, or you’ve never thought it would be fun to hang out with like minded-people for two and half days straight, well, it’s hard to explain the allure. I think it sounds like a lot of fun. And I’ll get a t-shirt.

Here’s a local story about it, and CNBC is expected to be in the house providing coverage. I’ve been on cable tv before, but as a pitchman, not a news maker.

As you can imagine, from such a connected crowd, there will be lots of twittering, plurking, identica-ing, brightkiting, flickring, blogging, facebooking and friendfeeding. See you on the internetz. Maybe we’ll come up with the next big thing.