How to Start a Business Over the Weekend

It was 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and I was sitting around a conference room table with four people who, five hours ago, had been complete strangers to me.

We were hard at work, but we weren’t getting paid a dime and quite frankly, we had no idea what we were doing. Adrenaline turned into despair as the team realized that all that had been said and done up to that point was of no use to us, but the fire would be back soon enough. It was the awesomeness that is Startup Weekend.

“No talk, all action. Launch a startup in 54 hours.” So the website reads. Many of us have been disillusioned by the realities of the corporate world and the prestige, glitz, and glamour we thought it would hold but that have since been swept away by a few too many 2:00 a.m. weekends making infinitesimal adjustments to documents that held as much meaning for us as the consideration of whether it would rain in Christchurch, New Zealand the following Tuesday. We’ve thought about the startup world – now we have a chance to try it out.

In plain English: Startup Weekend is exactly what it sounds like – you launch a startup over the weekend. On Friday night, people come with ideas to pitch (pitching is optional, but encouraged for everyone). Everyone votes on the best pitches, the top handful are selected by popular vote, and teams are formed in a 10-minute recruiting frenzy. From that point until Sunday afternoon, the teams work to complete a prototype, gather customer feedback, and compile a pitch deck. Local entrepreneurs, investors, and startup advisors are typically there to provide guidance and coaching. Each team then has Sunday afternoon to practice the pitch before giving it to a panel of investors.

So what are the chances of that turning into an actual company? Frankly, it is unlikely – but it does happen. Most people do it to make connections and get the experience, but over the past two Startup Weekends in my area, two companies (that I know of – there may be others) have been accepted into the region’s top accelerator, quit their jobs, completed the program, and are now in the midst of what appear to be successful follow-on fundraising rounds. One of the teams won their competition; the other didn’t even place in the top three. That’s the startup world for you.

Sadly, my team didn’t win. When groups of strangers are thrown together within a 10-minute time frame, you’ll probably get some rock stars, and some teammates who are on the earlier end of the learning curve. That’s the #1 lesson I learned from the weekend – you have to have the right team to make it work. However, I’m very glad that I took the time. I rediscovered the passion of doing something you care about because you want to, not because it pays well, is prestigious, or is supposed to give you good career opportunities at some point in the uncertain future. I learned what really matters when starting a company, I learned how to craft a pitch that investors will love, and I had a great time.

Oh, and now it’s been less than two months since that weekend, and I’ve been applying to accelerators with a completely new idea and a dream team of technical geniuses and industry veterans on my side. The days of my “high finance” job are numbered.

WSO being what it is, I know that most of you who try it out will be in it to win it. More on that in a later post, but for now, I encourage you to check out the website. Even if you’re not even slightly interested in the startup world, I guarantee you will learn a lot about business. There are 478 cities worldwide that hold Startup Weekends, so there is probably one happening near you.