As the weekend of April 19th approached so did Startup Weekend Chicago.  A three-day brain crush fest, which would, bring some of the worlds most forward thinking and entrepreneurial-minded people into the same place.  Flights arrived at Chicago O’Hare and Midway airports from Boston, California and even as for as Toronto and Europe. This would be the 8th installment of Startup Weekend Chicago and it took place in a Chicago staple of creativity, 1871.

Doors opened promptly at 6:00pm on Friday, for registration and in poured designers, developers, business developers and marketers. They were all looking for the chance to build something great in 54 hours as well as create some amazing memories and develop friendships, which would last a lifetime.  A little after some food and networking, Jimmy Odom the founder of Chicago based We Deliver and the last Startup Weekend Chicago winner took the stage to spread his words of wisdom.  “Keep things simple and realistic, don’t forget to have fun” he stressed to the crowd. “You really only have Saturday and half of Sunday so don’t aim to large scale but understand what can be done in the time frame.”

As the pitches began, people already being to pick and choose which team they are thinking they want to be apart of. Some built teams of up to ten people, while others took on the weekend with only two. A few business developers were forced to a banded ship as they found themselves standing alone and no one wanting to part take in their idea. Others were flooded with developers and marketers eager to develop business models, wireframes and functional applications.

Onto day two. After a long first night and red bull and coffee was  flowing like the Chicago river. Respected industry experts flocked 1871 looking to lend any sort of help to the teams in need. Lines of code were being pushed out and email lists were being generated. Teams hit the Chicago streets looking for real time feedback and customer testimonials. Company ideas from apps which make you happy, to rap battle apps to dis your friends, ran rapid through the 50,000 square foot space. Concepts and businesses were literally, designed, coded, built and implemented over night. Marketers and business developers reviewed and analyzed the details of their respective business models and prepared the speakers for presentation day.

Now it was crunch time! Only a few hours remained till final pitches. At this point the pressure and time constraints start to take toll. 1871 was filled with worried faces and stressed out participants. The judges arrive, 4 Simon Cowells ready to pick apart and find holes in everything you worked so hard for over the past few days.

-Troy Henikoff: Cereal Entrepreneur and Managing Director of Tech Stars Chicago

-Mig Reyes: Design at 37 Signals

-Jill Salzman: Founder at The Founding Moms

-Neal Sales-Griffin: CEO at The Starter League

As the presentations began so did the questions from the judges. Five minute presentations seemed like hours to some as the spotlights and packed crowd stared directly at stage. With over fifteen companies in the competition only three would get recognition by the end of the night. The pitches were now over, as the judges deliberated over the company concepts, marketing plans and ability to grow in the market. Startup Weekend attendees awaited patiently just a few rooms away for the judges decision.

It was finally time to announce the winners, as the judges took the stage, a swift breeze of anxiety took the room by storm. Teams clutched hands in hopes of taking home 1st place. The moment everyone has been waiting for was finally here. “Diabetes Winner” a gamified mobile app, which main objective is to help parents monitor their children’s insulin intake while keeping it fun and rewarding for the child came out on top! Rush Hour, a mobile travel guide for leaving and getting to your destination on time took 2nd and Ruly Mob and crowd generated discount service to get your services on the cheap took 3rd. Joy and excitement filled the faces of the winning teams as congratulations from the other competitors came in abundance.

In conclusion, what an amazing weekend it turned out to be, we met some fantastic people and took pleasure in creating this video! See you at the next Startup Weekend, although next time we may have to be in the competition!

Startup Weekend Chicago: April 2013 from RoboToaster on Vimeo.

Startup Weekend Luxembourg has a model to strive for.

This past weekend I had the honour of being invited to facilitate Startup Weekend Luxembourg. From previous experiences facilitating Startup Weekend  I have learned that you can never know what to expect when attending one. True to form, I was once again surprised by the ambition, talent and uniqueness of the people involved.

What immediately struck me was the positive attitude and professionalism of the organisers. Diego De Biasio, one of the lead coordinators, was very relaxed and accommodating to all those involved: organisers, facilitator and attendees alike. Diego is also the CEO of Technoport, a private incubator and workspace based in the south of Luxembourg. It is housed in a sleek new building which also hosts Fab Lab Luxembourg. The SW event was held at Technoport and its attendees had access to Fab Labs array of tools, such as 3D printers, and laser cutters. This demonstrated once again that innovation is hardly under the domain of software developers alone.

I also had the wonderful opportunity to get to the know the other organisers: Benoit Fortemps, Yann Gensollen, Sylvain Chery and Olivier Zéphir. Yann and Sylvain come from the established consulting firm Agile Partners, Oliver is at Technoport, while Benoit is Technology Advisor at Microsoft. Having such knowledgable and experienced experts running iterations of SW was yet another testament to the validity of the Startup Weekend process.

But what impressed me the most at the event was the diversity and quality of attendees. This was probably a reflection of the cosmopolitan nature of Luxembourg itself, but nevertheless it was quite encouraging to see such a broad and even mix of nationalities, backgrounds and ages. We had attendees from as far away as Miami and Iceland and half of those present were over 30 with maybe a third in their forties and fifties. This kind of mosaic demographic needs to be copied everywhere. Allow me to explain.

Historically we have seen companies tackle innovation behind closed doors with groups composed of a few people who often had quite similar perspectives. They also had similar jobs, lived in similar neighbourhoods and were of a similar culture. They went to work daily to sit in meeting rooms to devise solutions to people’s problems. But they rarely actual got out into the street and talked with these ‘people.’ They created products while, for all intents and purposes, living in a bubble.

We now understand how gravely problematic this approach can be. And we have come up with a solution that even has a motto: ‘Get out of the building!’. In other words, you need to leave the confines of the office and seek feedback on your product as quickly as possible. To be clear, you do this before you even have a product. You do it at the idea stage when you want to know if the idea has validity. Steve Blank, the author of this concept, wrote a brillant article about this recently in the Harvard Business Review.

This new approach has proven quite strong and should be used by any self-respecting startup. But the diversity of backgrounds at Startup Weekend Luxembourg already lent itself to a larger spectrum of perspectives. By grouping together people from different heritages, ages and cultures they were already at an advantage to getting a more global view.

Because of this not only did I hear truly refreshing and new ideas being pitched, but I also heard new takes on how the concept of Startup Weekend can be transferred to other sectors. For example, I had a great conversation with one attendee who told me ‘You don’t have to start a new company to let the principles of Startup Weekend change your life. In fact the concepts learned here can be applied to any aspect of our daily life. Because ultimately it is just about changing the way we do things to make our lives better’.

[Feature image by Pablo Bellissimo]

He sold the company too early.

• Why did he start an electronic and telephone company?

• What was his vision for the emerging market in transportation called cars with Ford?

• How and what did he think about emerging markets?

• How would he compare the transformational technologies of last century with today?

In some ways, I inadvertently followed in his footsteps with my first startup that was early to market, arguably before its time. We started doing software license delivery with the goal of electronic license delivery in 1999 – when people were barely able to do a software download, let alone do it for the enterprise. Today, it seems like a no brainer, but at the time it was a difficult concept for people to grasp.

My Grandfather finished his business career in his 70s, owning and managing a local neighborhood grocery store. I never had a chance to meet him; he died before I was born. I still have one of his vintage 1908 phones on my desk. It’s a great reminder of the technological changes, risks, and rewards, but mostly it’s about the men who went before me and put me on the path I’m on today.

And it makes me wonder if any of my children will follow in my footsteps – or if it will skip a generation. Somehow, all of the research and data about children of entrepreneurs becoming entrepreneurs doesn’t seem as relevant when you’re talking about your own kids. At that point, the data becomes personal. It becomes about their dreams and goals – not about stats. I’ll continue to encourage them to make a positive impact on the world their own way with their own gifts.

Happy Father’s Day!

“How Destructive Feedback Can Help Your Product” 

Boston Organizer Ethan Bagley delves into the importance of tearing down assumptions about your product or service. Bagley reminds us, “No plan survives contact with the enemy,” — but he also points out that this reality can be a huge help in the end.  Check out the full post here.

First Ever Startup Weekend “Food” Is a Success in Berlin! 

From June 07 to June 09 2013, highly motivated entrepreneurs came together in Berlin to solve real-life problems faced by the food industry, consumers and chefs.  Learn more about the event (including an awesome video) in this week’s blog post.

Speaking of SW verticals, be sure to check out the first “Maker” event, scheduled to take place in Seattle June 28th-30th! The event will provide access to the 3D printers, prototyping equipment, and industrial design experts from Coca-Cola. The maker edition is generously sponsored by Coca-Cola, Madrona Venture Group, Impinj RFID, and hosted byMakerHaus. Learn more here.

 14-Year-Old Cincinatti Entrepreneur Takes First Place

Recently, 14-year-old Emerson Walker took first place at SW Cincinatti.  Walker, who helped his team create a prototype for “mPlanner,” plans to take his idea to the next level: “We’re going to get funding, hopefully, and we’re going to go to interalliance, which is basically an organization that gives high school kids jobs coding. Hopefully we can get then to make the app for us,” said Walker.

Press:

“Your Startup Horoscope“ 

Startup Weekend Co Founder Frank Nouyrigat gets candid on the topics of success, failure, and how to cope with the roller-coaster ride that is entrepreneurship.  Nouyrigat reminds us all that starting your own company is not a predictable enterprise, but understanding this reality is a big step in the right direction. Check out the full article here.

“Defining the Best Possible Outcomes for Startups“ 

Ever debated your own definition of “success”? Gone back and forth between a profitable exit or sticking it out for the long haul? This week on Huffington Post, UP Global VP of Product Dave Parker discusses the “Best Possible Outcomes” for startups. You can read the full article here.

From June 07 to June 09 2013, highly motivated entrepreneurs came together in Berlin to solve real-life problems faced by the food industry, consumers and chefs. The video below captures more about the event:

Startup Weekend Food Innovation from Sartup Weekend Food Innovation on Vimeo.

The event had 70 participants, all focused on innovations in the food industry.  30 of 70 people pitched an idea and worked on getting a team. A total of seven teams pitched on the final evening:

1. Healthy Fast Food
2. LOWYE
3. Frutti Fresh
4. Foodic-Midi
5. Flocal
6. Lecker Print
7. Easy Meal Individual

As a member of the Startup Weekend core team, I hear inspiring entrepreneurial stories from all around the world on what seems like a daily basis. Every once in a while, however, I still catch wind of things that stand out from the rest, and the past Startup Weekend event in Cincinnati had a story I couldn’t help but share.

The story begins at a middle school. Emerson Walker, fourteen, has witnessed a problem for several years now. When I was fourteen I would have been praised for simply seeing the problem at all, Emerson took that twelve steps further and not only came up with a solution but saw it as a startup opportunity. Here’s where the story gets interesting.

All In A Weekend

Emerson decided to pitch his idea, now named mPlanner, at the Cincinnati Startup Weekend event. It’s only a 60 second pitch in front of 100+ ridiculously smart developers, designers and business people. Why wouldn’t a fourteen year old have the courage to do this? And then, Emerson’s idea made it into the top eight. And then, he formed a team of a couple of serial entrepreneurs, one of which works in venture capital. Can you guess what comes next?

Emerson built a product, in a weekend, as a fourteen year old. Not only did he build a product, but he went out and did real customer validation, he made a decision to pivot based on what his customers told him and he lead a team of people who were each old enough to have been his father. (When did fourteen year olds stop playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater and doing, well, nothing else.)

“I don’t have any coding skills, but my thing is having ideas and helping to move them along. I did a lot of social media, went out and did customer validation and pretty much handled and managed everything that didn’t have coding involved. It was also really weird to be leading a VC.” said Walker as he described his experience.

As the weekend wound down, and Emerson and his team finished their product and prepared for the five minute pitch to the panel of judges, the whole team knew they were on to something.

“For us, we were looking past Sunday. We were coming up with other ideas how this could be developed, and be targeted to other markets,” said Nat Finn, Emerson’s co-founder.

 What’s Next for mPlanner?

So how does this story end? Well, the truth is we don’t know yet. Emerson and his team went on to win the Cincinnati Startup Weekend event, but Emerson isn’t done yet and feels like this “small” victory was just the start.

“We’re going to get funding, hopefully, and we’re going to go to interalliance, which is basically an organization that gives high school kids jobs coding. Hopefully we can get then to make the app for us,” said Walker.

He’s also working on launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for mPlanner and is planning a trip to his teammate, Kelly Schwedland’s, home to talk more about the idea and to potentially connect to developers in the area.

“I’ve been a part of starting over 30 companies over the years. Emerson definitely lead our team, made the calls on our task list, etc., and it was really easy to let him do his thing. He made a lot of decisions along the way and was really great to work with,” said venture capitalist and mPlanner co-founder Kelly Schwedland of his experience working with Emerson throughout the weekend.

So why do I feel it’s important to tell Emerson’s story? No matter how old you are or where you come from, if you have an idea and some courage, and are willing to put in the hard work, you can be an entrepreneur. I don’t want to promote the lie that “anyone can make the next Facebook with a little bit of luck,” but I do want to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and to do something. “No talk, all action” is the Startup Weekend mantra, and Emerson lived that this past weekend.

With Jupiter in retrograde, now is the time to start working on your startup … but let’s face it: You will fail.

Unfortunately, failure is a natural outcome of startup ventures and has nothing to do with the position of jupiter. There are, of course, some common failures to be aware of. Two of the most likely failures will be the “all talk and no action” syndrome — simply put, many entrepreneurs will set themselves up for failure simply because they aren’t executing. Another common defeat will be team failure — and you will most likely hate your co founder within the next 12 months. In fact, if you’re a VC-backed firm, there’s a 65% chance of this happening, according to Naom Wasserman. The real question is, how will you handle these failures? Success is intentional; it is defined by reaching your own goals.

Embrace Your Irrationality 
Also keep in mind that success is relative. If someone can perform better than you, you’ve failed against their goal — and this is why you can logically never avoid failure. As former Harvard Business School professor and earliest Venture Capitalist George Doriot used to say, “Someone, somewhere, is making a product that will make your product obsolete.” Therefore, you have to set new goals for your startup, or you can guarantee failure for yourself.

Pr. Herbert A. Simon (the Nobel Prize recipient for Economics in 1978) introduced the notion of Bounded Rationality. Roughly, this concept asserts that even if you perform at the peak of your ability to avoid failure, you still will not have one or more of the following necessities: Time, brain capacity/capability, or information. The only factor you can control is information, and you can extend your horizon for success by obtaining better information. You will always have to make new decisions, even if they conflict with former ones. The more information you have, the better off you will be. This a large part of what we refer to as experience.

As a society, we are beginning to champion and support the creation of more capable entrepreneurs with better training and programs such as meetups, Startup Weekends, accelerators, and other local efforts around the world. In many ways, we will be more responsible for failure in volume, even as we work to increase the capability of entrepreneurs through process, methodology, and by sharing valuable knowledge (such as research papers).

Avoid the Entrepreneurial Blues
Failure is a natural byproduct of entrepreneurship, and the only way to avoid failure is to do nothing. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that failure have terrible side effects. Just as failure is a byproduct of entrepreneurship, depression is a byproduct of failure — and it’s a common battle among entrepreneurs. Never overestimate yourself; if you feel like you can’t take a break, share your bargain with friends and more senior entrepreneurs they might have experience something close to your current challenge, and share with you how they handled it. Remind yourself of the normalcy of failure and be prepared for failure before it happens. Never overestimate your limits — we all have them. As Winston Churchill, a man who experienced many profound failures, pointed out, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Depending on your religious, philosophical, or scientific views, the age of the Universe (as we currently understand it) lies somewhere between the values of 0 and infinity. Though there’s a lot of disagreement on this point, most of the perspectives on the Universe do share a common thread: there was a beginning of some kind, and eventually, out of that beginning, a being called man was generated and went forth to create a great many things, like blogs, start-ups, and peanut butter. And all of those things required some manner of destruction to precede them.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with an interesting fellow who does a lot of work with start-ups and entrepreneurs here in Boston. During the course of our conversation, he echoed a sentiment that you’ll read, overhear, and see demonstrated time and time again: no plan survives. Credited to the German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, this is historically referenced by the following quote:

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

And boy howdy, was Helmuth onto something, which is probably why he’s considered one of the great military minds of the late 19th century. While there’s an obvious gap between the life and times Helmuth experienced, this valuable lesson is still incredibly relevant in modern business. All of the planning in the world is insufficient to prepare you, your company, and your vision for what customers will think. And here’s where the destruction comes in.

There’s a time to stick to your vision, and a time to understand that the enemy has destroyed your plans, and it’s time to adjust. This adjustment is typically referred to as a “pivot” in start-up land. But “pivot” isn’t sufficient to fully describe what that can mean to a fledgling business. The reality is that there has been some feedback that, whether positive or negative, is destructive in the mind of the entrepreneur or the team. Despite the potential negative association, this feedback is also invaluable and not to be ignored.

Too often I have heard from other founders (and occasionally have suffered from, myself) a myopic need to maintain the internalized vision for their product. By blindly following their single-minded path, their ability to break through this wall and create a new vision out of that destruction is missed. It doesn’t matter how long this creation has been in the works, the important thing to recognize is that there is sometimes a need to destroy in order to build something that can be that much better. When it’s clear that the plan is not surviving, move along, or risk your own destruction.

We Own It Summit Contest: Still Time to Enter! 

Take a few minutes to enter our contest for tickets to the We Own It Summit at the end of June! We’re thrilled to be partnering with We Own It this year to encourage dialogue and support for women in entrepreneurship. This year’s summit features a great line up of speakers and attendees. To learn more about the summit, click here.

If you haven’t checked out the contest, you’ve still got just under a week to enter — all it takes is a photo of yourself and responses to two questions.  Click here to learn more, enter, and view other entries.

Organizer/Community Posts:

Khalil Corazo: “Startup Weekend … It’s a Conspiracy!”  

Nick Such “On The Importance of Asking Questions“ 

Nick Such and other Organizers in Rio de Janiero at SoSummit 2013

Press:

What UP Global Really Means for Entrepreneurs and Communities by Marc Nager, UP Global CEO 

As UP Global takes its first steps as a new organization for entrepreneurs and their communities, Marc Nager sheds some light on the natural merging with Startup America and what this really means for our community and for local communities. Nager highlights what some of our own Organizers are saying:

Derek Koch, who serves as Vice-Chair for Startup Connecticut and as a Global Facilitator for Startup Weekend, says,”People around the state are really excited about using UP as a platform to further intensify and strengthen the support for entrepreneurs in our community.”

Startup Weekend Organizer and Startup America Regional Champion Mital Patel says, “The partnership to form UP Global will take the view that the existing programs (Startup Weekend, Startup Digest, NEXT, Corporate Connections) are all core programs that have been validated and tested in local communities, but there are others that can be tested and grown with the same action-based learning approach. The key is that they have to start from the ground up, in local communities.”

Marc concludes:  ”Ultimately, it is this grassroots, ground-up energy Patel describes that UP Global aims to motivate and support. It is this type of approach that has carried numerous entrepreneurial communities thus far and that will continue to propel the movement on a global scale.”

 What Elon Musk Can Teach Us About Time, Risk, and Commitment by Dave Parker, VP of Product at UP Global

Dave Parker, the newest addition to the UP Global team, shares insights on the power of entrepreneurs who know they must take the leap and believe — because, as Parker says, “or we wouldn’t take the risk, even if it looks foolish in hindsight.” Parker parallels some lesser known details about Elon Musk’s rocky journey to entrepreneurial stability and progress to highlight the power of risk-taking and confidence.

What Keeps Entrepreneurs Up At Night by Chet Kittleson

UP Global Northwest Regional Manager Chet Kittleson discusses the often undiscussed insecurities that all great leaders face. Chet points out that we all deal with self doubt, and no leader, regardless of their successes or circumstances, is exempt from these feelings. Chet shares some enlightening and encouraging quotes from successful leaders who have walked the entrepreneur’s journey and gone through their own ups and downs, including T.A. McCann, Amy Balliett, and Rand Fishkin.