This weekend in Charlotte we are going to kick off the 4th Starup Weekend. I am one of the organizers along with Tyler Williams, Jim Van Fleet. Plus this year Bridget Sullivan and Nathan Hammond are also joining the list of organizers.
I always find this event very motivational. There is nothing more energizing than getting together in a large room of people that want to start and build a business, even more so to do it in a weekend!
If you have never attended or participated in a Startup Weekend before that’s what it is all about. Friday evening people come together and pitch business ideas. The entire crowd votes for the best few ideas, and then everyone breaks into teams around the business ideas they want to take part in. That night they get organized and over the course of late Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday, they build the business, the software, the apps the whatever, and try to have everything live in order to demonstrate it to the judges Sunday evening. Even more important, if they do a great job, they walk away from the weekend with a new business, possibly a new job, a new career or even a new extra stream of revenue coming in from the profits.
No matter what, everyone always learns more about themselves, picks up new skills and has an opportunity to think out of the box, work out of their comfort zone, work with new people, pick up new skills, ideas, friends and a whole lot more.
One of the most important things I ever found at a Startup Weekend was a pair of shoes, toe shoes more precisely and I’ve been running in them ever since these last few years.
I highly encourage you to check it out if any of this sounds interesting. You can come and participate, registration starts at $99 but there are some discounts floating around. Alternatively you can come see the results on Sunday evening for $20, get some food and network and more. 🙂