Startup Weekend's Most Recent Startup: Skribit

Andrew Hyde’s Startup Weekend, born out of the TechStarts event this last summer, has been busy. The company goes from city to city, organizes developers to spend a long weekend deciding on a new business idea and then building it. Everyone who shows up is a founder, and everyone has equal equity in the new thing, whatever it ends up being.

More than a few dustups have occurred in the handful of cities that have now had a Startup Weekend event. That’s something you’d expect when you throw a hundred or more people together for an intense working session, and money (in the form of stock) is potentially involved. See a TechCrunch UK article from last month with a detailed history of the events to date.

Putting the controversy aside, however, these events are clearly wonderful for creating community. Note that I am not saying “for creating useful startups” – it’s highly unlikely any of these will get funded, let alone reach a liquidity event. But participants are clearly charged up after the sessions, and the overall feedback is positive.

The Atlanta event just ended. The new startup, called Skribit, is preparing for a beta launch. What is it? I really have no idea. It’s described as “a social software widget that allows bloggers to take suggestions directly from their readers. Widgets are shareable web applications that anyone can easily grab and post into the blog of their choice.” Sounds like a commenting system to me.

The organizers say you’ll be able to sign up on the home page soon to register for the beta. Yes, they’ve pre-announced that soon they’ll have a web form up on the site to collect emails. Like I said, I don’t expect much from Skribit and the other Startup Weekend startups, but the events have real value nonetheless.

Update: Skribit is live.