Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours (3 page)

Startup Weekend would be nothing without our rock-star team of global organizers. Every day, you guys remind us why we're here and what a small group of dedicated and engaged people can accomplish. Each one of you is an integral part of our community—long live the Startup Weekend Mafia!

Similarly, we would like to thank our amazing network of Community Advisors: Adam Philipp, Bob Crimmins, Bruce D'Ambrosio, Buzz Bruggerman, Charlie O'Donnell, Ed Kimm, Greg Gottesman, John Cook, Jonathan Berger, Kal Vepuri, Marcelo Calbucci, Mark Merich, Matt Shobe, Meng Wong, Mike Koss, Nate Wetheimer, Neil Patel, Rebecca Lovell, Roy Leban, Shaherose Charania, Sherry Reynolds, and Tony Bacigalupo.

To all the mentors who have shared their advice and best practices with us over the years, thank you so much. The following list is by no means complete: Andy Sack, Bill Warner, Brad Feld, Dave McClure, Denis Browne, Eric Ries, Jessica Livingston, John Lewis, Jonathan Ortmans, Kathleen Kennedy, Mark Suster, Robert Scoble, and Yosi Vardi.

We'd be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the huge impact our global sponsors have had not only on the organization but on the thousands of Startup Weekend alumni, too. Thank you to Amazon Web Services (Rodica Buzescu), oDesk, O'Reilly, Microsoft BizSpark (particularly Juliano Tubino, Julien Codiniou, Ludo Ulrich, and the rest of the global team), Sun Microsystems (particularly Jeremiah Shackelford), TokBox, and Twilio. Another round of thanks is also in order for the regional and local sponsors who help us bring our events to cities around the world.

A huge thank you goes out to the Startup Weekend Core Team: Keith Armstrong, Jennifer Cabala, Anca Foster, Ashley Hodgson, Maris McEdward, Joey Pomerenke, Tawnee Rebhuhn, Shane Reiser, and Adam Stelle for their belief in and commitment to our vision. You guys are awesome! We would especially like to thank Maris McEdward for her dedication and hard work throughout the book writing process. We mean it when we say that we couldn't have done it without you.

Finally, we'd like to thank our family, friends, and girlfriends. It's been a long and sometimes unexpectedly bumpy road but that's never stopped you from supporting us and believing in what we were creating. And, of course, we'd like to thank Andrew Hyde, who made all this possible to begin with.

Contributors

Adam DeLong

Alex Farcet

Alexa Andrzejewski

Alexis Ringwald

Amir Harel

Anders Hedberg

André Reuba

Andy Dragt

Angie Chang

Antonios Manessis

Anuranjita Tewary

Arantza Uriante

Arthur Nisnevich

Bastien Serafin

Bedy Yang

Bert-Jan Woertman

Beth Altringer

Brian Labarre

Brian Zeuercher

Cameron Kashani

Charlie O'Donnell

Chris Eben

Christian Blavier

Clara Martin

Clement Cazalot

Colleen Brady

Dan Rockwell

Dan Schamir

Daniel Knoodle

Danielle Siauw

Dash Dhakshinamoorthy

Dave Angulo

David Smallbone

Don Caruso

Don Ritzen

Donald DeSantis

Eli Hayes

Elizabeth Grigg

Elyssa Ludher

Eric Jorgensen

Eric Lagier

Evan Buxbaum

Evgeny Pogorelov

Francesco Mancusi

Frank Denbow

Friederike Welter

Gabe Pelegrin

Hélène Durand Couppel de Saint Front

Humberto Lee

Ian Hunter

Imo Udom

James Briant

James Digby

James Hobbis

Jason Armishaw

Jason Reynolds

Jean-François Vermont

Jeff Martens

Jeffrey Paine

Jeremy Haberman

Jeremy Lightsmith

Jeremy Monat

Jerry Suhrstedt

Jesse Maddox

Jim Benson

Jim England

John Britton

Jon Rossi

Jonathan Berger

Jonny Lee

Kenny Nguyen

Kevin Leneway

Kevin Owocki

Kris Fuehr

Kyle Ellicott

Kyle Kesterson

Lesa Mitchell

Leslie Mack

Liang Shi

Liesbeth Vriens

Lorraine Ball

Ludmilla Figueiredo

Maria Encinar

Marshall Hayes

Matt Talbot

Matthew Titsworth

Matylda Czarnecka

Maya Bisineer

Megan Molino

MeLinda McCall

Melody Biringer

Michael Coates

Michael Irizarry

Michael Leow

Michael Maddox

Michael Marasco

Michael Pastko

Mike van Hoenselaar

Mike Vandenbos

Mikey Tom

Nathan Bashaw

Naz Rin

Nicholas Gavronsky

Nick Burke

Nick Martin

Nick Seguin

Nico Habraken

Norris Krueger

Oksana Yaremchuk

Olivier Desmoulin

Pankaj Jain

Particia Araque

Philippe Gelis

Randy Hook

Rebecca Lovell

Richard Grote

Roland Gröpmair

Roy Leban

Sasha Pasulka

Scott Weiss

Sean Kean

Seth Samuels

Shane Mac

Sherwood Neiss

Stefano Orowitsch

Steven Thrasher

Therese Hansen

Thibaut Labarre

Thubten Comerford

Tim Gasper

Toke Kruse

Tyler Koblasa

Vivian Tian Na

Wendy Overton

Willy Braun

Yaniv Feldman

Introduction

Why Starting Up Is All about Trust and Empowerment

Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen, and Franck Nouyrigat

Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen

Imagine you had a great idea for a new business. Maybe it's the next Facebook, the next Twitter, or perhaps something more mundane—the next grocery delivery service or no-mess toothpaste tube. You think about it when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. You jot down notes about it periodically throughout the day while at your regular job. Maybe you tell your husband or your roommate a little nugget of the idea here, or you read something in a magazine that gets you excited about it all over again. When the weekends come, you daydream a little, maybe even tinker with a business model or search online to make sure that no one else has come up with this scenario already. To be honest, you're a little nervous that by the time you come up with the hours and the money to make a go of your idea, someone else will already have made it a reality.

Now, imagine you walk into a room of perfect strangers and have to pitch your idea to the crowd in 60 seconds. The people who like it might decide to work on it with you and the ones who don't, well, they'll just go off in their own direction. Would you do it?