StartupWeekend: 70 Founders Create Company In One Weekend

July 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

Wow - I’ve never had the pleasure of being in one room with some many dedicated and talented folks in my life. The experience of a lifetime.

July 7th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

This is super cool guys! Crank it out 1d 5h 18m left

July 7th, 2007 at 5:56 pm

It’s sweaty in here.

July 7th, 2007 at 6:45 pm

I know this guy named Pierre that started (and coded) a company over the labor day weekend in 1997 . . . . I think the company is called eJay . . . eCay . .. eKay . . . or something similar. . .

July 7th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

@ erica, on a side note, you’re blog is cool.

July 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm

@lawrence, we’ve taken any pizza that we get

July 7th, 2007 at 7:44 pm

I’m in Westminster … knew nothing about this project … would have enjoyed streaming it live via Justin.TV

July 7th, 2007 at 8:04 pm

I smell a digg clone with a facebook app

July 7th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

wow, I designed a tool like this on a plane ride to Cali a few weeks ago. Same idea, but I have’nt had time to finish it up. I even picked up ‘DecideAlready.com’ to publish it to.

July 7th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

I think DecideAlready should acquire vosnap for $10k and a third round draft pick.

July 7th, 2007 at 10:36 pm

@Brian basically, it’s pretty easy…we just signed up at startupweekend.com and we were in! now, this is kind of an extraordinary case in that the folks that are the founders are pretty freaking smart. no “dead weight” if you will…

All in all, this is freaking amazing thus far.

So one last thing that I’d like to mention about Startup Weekend is that the idea isn’t to just make a cool product and get it out there. The idea is that we build an entire, fully functional entity in less than 3 days. That means not only developers and designers, but we’ve got a legal team, business development team, marketing and PR team…I mean, this thing is a whole company.

In less than 24 hours, we had an idea, a pre-alpha, a design, advertisers, incorporation set up, trademark filed, not to mention…we got TechCrunched. I’m not bragging…I’m encouraging more people to maybe get something like this going…it’s not just about the company we create, it’s the experience…the people, etc.

July 7th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

This is an interesting experiment, and if most of the participants are only doing it with the expectation that it will be a fun experience, that’s great.

However I do think that, on a broader level, this is a reflection of the froth that exists within Web 2.0. The notion that you can create a viable “startup” (i.e. company - not product) in a weekend, is naive. And the fact that the concept selected by a group that ostensibly contained some smart and creative people is a Web 2.0 version of a simple polling application shows what I feel is one of the biggest problems facing Web 2.0: lack of innovation. We keep seeing copycats and clones of existing services, and entrepreneurs frequently attack the same “problems,” which in reality, aren’t problems that are the source of significant pain for average consumers or businesses. Of course, the free-flowing venture capital spigot is partially to blame for this. While there are a lot of intelligent entrepreneurs out there capable of creating great things, so much money is being thrown at less-than-innovative Web 2.0 concepts that it’s difficult not to take advantage of that. Why try to solve a real challenge when you can raise $1 million for a “social ______”?

All of this said, Startup Weekend just might be Web 2.0’s version of Woodstock, and while I don’t think a viable long-term *business* will emerge, hopefully people have fun because the Web 2.0 Summer of Love won’t last forever.

http://www.drama20show.com/200.....woodstock/

July 7th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

I wouldn’t say “Woodstock” as much as Destination Imagination. Heck, Junior Achievement even. I think these things are great, and if they come up with anything to help the world burn out on trivial web concepts, then I’m all for it as well. Useful would be a plus.

July 7th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Choices will be sent out to the group via email… Do you mean like Relaytor?
http://www.relaytor.com/

July 8th, 2007 at 1:17 am

Jeez, so many negative nancys around here. :/

Good luck guys, and have fun. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product!

July 8th, 2007 at 2:04 am

Whoa, 70 people! When I first heard about the Startup Weekend I assumed they’d be breaking up into smaller teams and creating several startups, not one free-for-all.

I know Google at one time (and I’d assume this still holds) had 3-person product development teams for many of their projects. More employees is not necessarily better, nor faster, nor cheaper, was one lesson learnt from the dot-com era (been there, done that).

July 8th, 2007 at 7:01 am

How many Coloradans does it take to create a startup?

One to choose the business plan, another one to write the code, another one to post comments at TechCrunch, and a further 67 to buy the tee-shirt.

July 8th, 2007 at 7:51 am

So, one interesting side effect of this “extreme startup makeover” approach: no time to do competitive or market research. Someone tell these guys that they are already behind the competition. CircleUp http://www.circleup.com is over a year old, has funding, and looks like it does exactly the same thing.

July 8th, 2007 at 8:33 am

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment. The energy here is amazing, and while the participants have tried to express it, there just really isn’t a good way to do it justice.

You would think that 70 people in a room, the majority of whom had never met, would be utter chaos. Not at all the way it is working out… this is a powerhouse of capacity that could continue to bang out ideas, even if once a quarter over a weekend, that rivals fully funded startups that take months and months to do.

As far as circleup? Six full months to beta, another 3 or 4 to private invite, and a launch in April of 2007? No SMS, and no white labeling for fun and profit. Not even close.

Seriously, 70 people, 54 hours… form zero to a product that easily rivals a funded effort is amazing. It might be the Kool-aid we had Friday night, but if you were here, you would understand.

July 8th, 2007 at 10:18 am

@ drama, agreed.

I personally think this kind of stuff is kind of cheesy, like the kind of stuff you see actors doing to try to get into the entertainment business versus their actually knowing how to get into the entertainment business.

I didn’t realize that this is what the program format was. Either way, innovation is cool and glad to hear people are having fun.

July 8th, 2007 at 10:29 am

Michael: I think you meant to say “People who don’t see what is, don’t get what makes Boulder, Colorado beautiful.”

July 8th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

No matter what happens, I think it’s a great example of how silly the silli-valley startup club is.

As a native of CO, this just seems to be a bunch of migrants (many from california) trying to stroke the collective ego. Give a kid a powerbook and he thinks he’s an engineer.

Not very representative of the ‘real’ CO startup scene at all, in my opinion.

But I do wish them the best, it looks like a lot of fun and a great challenge.

July 8th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

Silicon Valley — Get the fuck out before it’s too late.

July 8th, 2007 at 1:56 pm

@Virtuous - Wow, a real, live native! Tell me, which tribe are you from?

July 8th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

Here at startup weekend we expect this to work and what has surprised all of us is the efficient segmenting of teams - egos have been sublimated and leaders have come to the front by building internal and external consensus. This is not necessarily an easy process, but many of us are anxious to see the results. And no matter the results, we are anxious to take what we have learned and lead VoSnap to market success or come together again and try again.

July 8th, 2007 at 6:57 pm

Anyone interested in putting something like this together in SF / Bay Area?

Maybe see how the “70 founders” things work out in this scenario and either use that or adapt.

I agree with many of the above commenters that founding teams of 5-10 would be better.

(also question the “no dead weight” theorists above.. maybe no 100% dead weight, but if someone codes 30% of the app and someone else writes a few blog posts plugging it, that doesn’t exactly seem fair to get the same equity…)

SF’ers feel free to ping me at: shantibraford (at) gmail

July 8th, 2007 at 10:51 pm

Derek: Google had significant differentiation, which is something that most Web 2.0 copycats, like VoSnap, lack. As part of a graduate research project at Stanford, Larry and Sergey developed a search algorithm (PageRank) that provided what many consumers obviously felt were better results (by the way, this algorithm has a patent, so there’s defensibility). At the same time Google was getting off the ground, the major search engines, like Yahoo, were becoming behemoth portals. Google leveraged its better technology and a simple interface that focused solely on search, to differentiate itself from the leading search players at the time.

The bottom line is that too may Web 2.0 startups are attacking the same “problems” but are failing to understand how crucial differentiation is to success. In markets with low barrier to entry, differentiation can’t be slight or superficial - it has to be significant. There is plenty of room for success in competitive markets. First-mover advantage has actually been shown to have little impact on long-term success, but entrepreneurs should not underestimate the importance of differentiation.

July 9th, 2007 at 12:43 am

Despite my pointing out the competition, I think the whole idea of people getting together in this way is great. There’s no better way to get to know a bunch of new people than actually working on something together.

Now, the whole blog/promote/post/stream thing seems a little “precious” to me, but hey, have fun.

July 9th, 2007 at 2:22 am

“Our appologies for not having something for you right now. We will launch soon.” It should be live by now… what a joke

July 9th, 2007 at 5:52 am

I’m only just hearing about this and think it’s great. Wouldn’t it be nice if would-be programmers and designers from smaller towns and other cities (not necessarily technology centers) get together and do something similar?

July 9th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

@Matt - I hate spammers and am buddies with the lawyer for the RBL. Good enough for you? In fact, I helped convince her to move to Boulder… from CALIFORNIA!!!

ego-driven intelligence that shackles you

Is there any other kind?

Add I’m from Georgia BTW.

July 12th, 2007 at 12:44 am

60 founders to start a startup in 60 seconds.

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