I have always been fascinated by the startup culture and how a simple idea can be transformed into a powerful company that has a positive impact on society. I have asked myself countless times, what does it take to launch my own startup? I don’t have a background in business to know the essential data needed to predict whether an idea is viable or not. You might think that creating your own startup is an impossible task. That was exactly the same beliefs I had until I attended a Startup Weekend a few days ago. I came to realize that creating a startup is exhilarating, enjoyable, and most importantly, doable.
Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event that provides you access to guidance and mentorship from experienced professionals, as well as access to a pool of talented team members with expertise that ranges from software development to marketing and financial planning. In short, Startup Weekend is an event that provides an environment where you can be fully immersed in taking your startup idea to the next level. This event is sponsored by Techstars which is a seed accelerator investing in early-stage startups. Investment is provided in the form of mentorship as well as monetary support.
After a meet and greet with team leads pitching their ideas, I had the opportunity to join a team with a mission that aligns with my passion. In order to pitch your idea, you will have to have applied way in advance of the event and I, unfortunately, didn’t have that opportunity. Nevertheless, it was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had and I will certainly pitch my idea at a future event.
After joining the team, we were provided with a training session on the information we need to gather in order to test whether our startup idea is viable or not and this includes the following:
- Understanding the problem the startup tries to solve and the list of solution(s) our startup provides
- Identify target customers and users as well as the path to those customers
- Identify key metrics to help understand how the startup is doing. To my surprise, it’s not enough to look at profits and losses.
- Identify the unfair advantage (what makes the startup unique)
- Revenue stream (how the company will generate revenue)
After we finished with the training session, we, as a team, began planning and gathering key information about the startup. We began executing the plans we had set forward in a high-paced, rapid iterative approach. It was a fruitful collaboration because the team consisted of members having expertise in different domains. I learned from this collaboration that it’s very challenging to develop an idea alone without help from team members with complementary skill sets. With the right people, the startup can take off in a very small time span.
By Sunday evening, we had a good business model with a sound pitch that included the following:
- Supporting evidence that our startup idea solves a real problem
- Demand validation (will perspective clients use our product?)
- Detailed marketing tactics
- A demo of our idea in action
As software developers, we are wired and driven to solve problems using code without giving much thought to the business aspect of our ideas. I’ve built multiple projects with great potential, but I lacked the necessary skills or knowledge needed to deliver the projects to the users as well as potential investors, and this is the key knowledge I gained by attending a Startup Weekend.
Overall, I highly recommend that you attend a Startup Weekend if you get the chance to do so, because not only will you learn the business fundamentals to launch a successful startup, but you will also have the privilege to interact with experts who will mentor you through the initial stage which is arguable the most essential phase of your startup life. More importantly, you will get the chance to meet and network with talented individuals from around the world. For example, I met a team from the United Arab Emirates where I am planning to co-found a startup. Even if you are not planning to have your own startup in the future, joining the Startup Weekend will give you a great opportunity to network and learn from other highly driven individuals.
