At the end of June, we hosted the very first Startup Weekend ever held in Bellevue, WA. For two and a half days, innovators and entrepreneurs from all over the Pacific Northwest came together at our Smartsheet offices to pitch their ideas, form teams with other believers, and turn concept into reality.
Jennifer Gehrt, co-founder of Communique PR, attended the weekend's kick-off event and shares her thoughts here:
Every so often, I get the urge to create a product and have even approached my husband with a variety of ideas. Inevitably, we discuss them for a couple of days and then fail to take any further action. Given my tendency, I was intrigued when I learned that Smartsheet was sponsoring a Startup Weekend at its offices in Bellevue.
For those of you who are not familiar with Startup Weekend, let me explain. Startup Weekend is a nonprofit organization and global grassroots movement with a goal to empower entrepreneurs and help people be better prepared to create startup companies.
Smartsheet decided to host the first ever Startup Weekend in Bellevue because of its commitment to supporting the growing startup community and invited me to come by to see the event in action, which proved to be very inspiring.
After a fun icebreaker with everyone in the auditorium playing the giant hand game of rock-paper-scissors, John Creason, chief technology officer and co-founder of Smartsheet, kicked off the evening by sharing thoughts about entrepreneurship.
John’s point of view is that an entrepreneur’s success does not always revolve around skills; more often, success requires the right mindset. Often the entrepreneur who succeeds is the person willing to take risks to get results. Most importantly, successful entrepreneurs know what to do with an idea.
The concept of knowing what to do with an idea struck a chord with me. Clearly, having a good idea is important when forming a startup. However, an idea alone is not enough– one must have a sense of how to take action.
This is where an event like Startup Weekend can help, because individuals get to pitch and receive feedback on their startup ideas. This feedback can often motivate and inspire action, and enables entrepreneurs to bounce ideas off other attendees as well as coaches (e.g., experienced entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors or attorneys).
Attendees vote on the ideas and form teams around the most viable ones. Then, everyone goes to work on things like creating business models, coding, research to validate ideas and product planning. On Sunday night, the teams make their final presentations and the judges select winners.
Consider Julian Hurst’s experience at Startup Weekend. Julian had been mulling over an idea for creating a new type of storage business. His vision is to match people looking to store their physical belongings with people who have extra space in their homes or businesses. Specifically, he wanted to create an online marketplace for people to find or list storage at the prices they deemed appropriate. It would provide an easy way for people to monetize their extra space and give those in need of storage a new less-expensive option than corporate storage (e.g., Public Storage).
As an attorney with no experience developing a product or company, Julian was encouraged to participate in Startup Weekend to validate the idea and get help figuring out next steps. He signed up for the event not sure of what to expect.
When Julian pitched his idea to the approximately 80 people in the audience, it received the most votes. This led to the formation of his team, which was highly motivated and productive.
In the course of the weekend, the team did market research by conducting more than 40 man-on-the-street interviews in three different neighborhoods. Julian came up with a brand positioning and a name – Squirl Storage. The team also developed part of a working website, secured a real paying customer and connected him to someone willing to share space.
On Sunday evening after Julian made his final presentation, the judges voted and Squirl Storage won the competition. Julian’s experience was highly rewarding and he is grateful to Smartsheet for stepping up to sponsor the event. “If they had not hosted the event,” explained Julian, “I would not have been able to validate my idea or demonstrate proof of concept. My teammates suggested we do the market research and were instrumental in the process of securing a customer. The coaches were also really valuable in the process as many of them are experienced entrepreneurs.”
I found Julian’s experience exciting and motivating. It also demonstrates the importance of these events in helping people know what to do with a good idea.
So the next time you have an idea for a new product or service, don’t just think about it. Take action. If you’re not sure how exactly to do so, sign up for a Startup Weekend to learn from others in your community. Maybe one of these days, I’ll follow Friday’s innovators and do it too!
Jennifer's original post about Startup Weekend Bellevue can be found on the Communique PR blog.