Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets - primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people - to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

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Portland State Business Accelerator to host Portland Startup Weekend on April 27-29th!

Last fall we were thrilled with the support we received from companies in Portland to make Startup Weekend a success, and 2012 is off to a great start.

We are excited to announce that this April’s Portland Startup Weekend will be hosted by the Portland State Business Accelerator. If you haven’t heard of PSBA, you’ve been living under a rock. PSBA is Oregon’s leading technology incubator. With over 40,000 square feet, they provide up to 25 companies the ability to innovate and bring their ideas to reality.

We look forward to having you all join us for Startup Weekend at the Portland State Business Accelerator on April 27-29^th. More info to come!

2828 SW Corbett Avenue, Suite 100
Portland, Oregon 97201
www.psba.pdx.edu

Catching Up with Tell it in 10

One of the most exciting things for a Startup Weekend organizer is to watch a team of entrepreneurs iterate. I had the pleasure of observing this beautiful dance through Eli Rubel and his company, Tell it in 10. What makes this particular story so special is that it started a week before the October 2011 weekend, at bootcamp. Eli came in eager to learn and willing to do whatever it took to take his concept to the next level. Never before have I seen someone so motivated, so excited, and so willing to learn. Eli went on to pitch his concept at Startup Weekend, build a team, and create an innovative product…all before Sunday night. Now he is taking this dream to the next level.

I had a chance to catch up with Eli and hear about how things are going for Tell it in 10. Below is the unedited transcript of our conversation:

Jeff: Tell us about your Startup Weekend company. What is the name and what does it do?

Eli: Tell it in 10 is a web platform that lets users curate meaningful stories in batches of ten, from images aggregated across all of their social networks. Our aim is to create a community of de-cluttered visual storytelling.

J: How has your product changed since Startup Weekend?

E: Thats a difficult question to answer- because really, everything has changed. Though the initial pitch I made at Startup Weekend was based around the same vision, the way in which we have chosen to focus our value proposition has changed significantly. Rather than building a product to suite the immediate needs of the marketplace, we have chosen to focus on driving new social behavior, in anticipation for a shifting point in the social space that we believe is quickly approaching.

J: What milestones and successes have you had since the weekend?

E: Since Startup Weekend, we’ve been in a constant state of “go.” We moved into our office space and were incorporated before the end of the week that followed. Within 30 days had built out the first version of our platform and just last week we sent out our first wave of invitations to the alpha platform; which we couldn’t be more excited to share with everyone.

J: What has been the biggest challenge since Startup Weekend?

E: The biggest challenge we have faced thus far was deciding whether to bootstrap and build at a pace that was feasible for our team size, or go for funding, bring on several new team members and try to push the envelope in terms of both development time and community growth rate. We ultimately went with the latter.

J: What does the future have in store for you and your company?

E: There are lots of exciting opportunities on the horizon for Tell it in 10. We’ve had site visitors and invite requests from over 22 countries and are working hard to be ready for an open beta as soon as feasibly possible.

J: If you could rewind and do Startup Weekend over again, is there anything you would do differently?

E: We had a blast at Startup Weekend! If I had a rewind button, I would probably have spent less time revising brand nuances and a bit more time on our deck content. It’s amazing how a few simple aesthetic changes and some content cutting can improve your pitch. I also would have tried to take a few minutes to set up clearer post-weekend expectations with the entire team, as many of the teams that form during Startup Weekend are far too large to be a sustainable business.

J: What was the best part about Startup Weekend for you and your company?

E: I would say the momentum and support we attained over the course of the weekend would have been nearly impossible, or could have taken months, if we tried to create it organically. On a personal level, I was fortunate enough to be able to work with a group of extremely talented people from diverse backgrounds in business, technology and advertising – the experience in and of itself was invaluable.

J: How can the Startup Weekend community support you going forward?

E: At this point in the game, simply spreading the word- telling your friends to sign up for an invite via Twitter, Facebook or word of mouth, would be extremely helpful as we begin to build up our brand identity. Though many of you already signed up for invites, we would love to see everyone in the community engaged with our platform- anyone who isn’t on the invite list can submit their email through our web site homepage and we will do our best to get them codes as soon as possible.

How a Startup Weekend Team Launched with 10,000 Site Visitors in Week 1

I recently read a great blog post that I wanted to pass along to future and former Portland Startup Weekend attendees. The story is from the June 2011 New York City event. A team named inBed.me won second prize. Their business is social booking site for hostel travelers. Energized by their Startup Weekend experience, they continued forward with their company after the weekend ended. Six months later, after incorporating the company, building out the team, completing the product, and raising a seed round, inBed.me launched with 10,000 visits to their site in just 1 week!

The inBed.me team took some time to talk about what they did right at Startup Weekend and after Startup Weekend. Their blog post was published at startupweekend.org and we have summarized the key points below. Make sure to click through to read the full post!

Top 5 Things Done Right At Startup Weekend

Enlist a diverse and skill-complimentary team
Think Big
Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Get Feedback from target users
Make the most of the Mentors

Top 5 Things Done Right After Startup Weekend

Believe it!
Take part in an accelerator or incubator
Surround yourself with great people
Keep the momentum growing
Launch! (even with a lot of flaws)

Click here to read the entire post which includes details on each of the 10 points above. Enjoy!

Startup Weekend is Over…Now What?

Now that your 54 hour sprint is over, you may be asking yourself what to do next. Should you keep your SW company going? If so, how? Here is some friendly, lighthearted advice from PDXSW Alumni on how to make the most of your experience.