

Lessons learned from a failed idea at Startup Weekend - blakeperdue
http://blog.blakeperdue.com/2008/11/10/startup-weekend-lessons-learned/
The team is more important than the idea. Leadership and clearly defined roles are a must. Strategy and value proposition should be decided and communicated.
======
astrec
_Pick a startup based on the team not on the idea. Make sure the team has a
good dynamic. Make sure the team is composed of people who can actually build
the product._

The team I was in at StartupCamp Melbourne also learned this lesson:
[http://www.inquisitr.com/4560/melbourne-startup-camp-the-
goo...](http://www.inquisitr.com/4560/melbourne-startup-camp-the-good-the-bad-
and-the-vc/) .

Invest in teams, not ideas.

~~~
sarp
It's funny, these are exactly the same lessons I posted on my blog from my
experience at Atlanta Startup Weekend 2: [http://sarpcentel.com/wp/10/lessons-
learned-at-atlanta-start...](http://sarpcentel.com/wp/10/lessons-learned-at-
atlanta-startup-weekend-2/)

Don't choose an idea, choose a team!

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jtoon
actually skribit.com came out of startup weekend 1 in Atlanta and it is
successful.

~~~
PStamatiou
agreed (skribit co-founder here.. been working on it for a year). just posted
this yesterday about skribit's status:

[http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/11/10/whats-going-on-with-
skri...](http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/11/10/whats-going-on-with-skribit)

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ksvs
Do Startup Weekends ever generate anything else?

~~~
catch23
As an attendee of the SF startup weekend, I can say that it's mostly just an
exercise for large group management and not actually product development. It's
probably a great event for anyone who wants to show off their leadership
skills, and not very useful for a top coder that wants to show off his
production capacity. The stuff produced in the SF startup weekend could have
easily been done by a single person under 24hrs without interruptions from
"product managers" who want to change the direction of the product every 10
seconds...

If you want proof, just compare the startup weekend final products with those
produced by 1 day contests like railsday or mashupday.

I remember the SF startup weekend, they had programming team and a database
team that didn't really consult each other... the programming team went off
and did a few simple data modeling and developed some interfaces and the
database team went and created this huge database schema that nobody could
conceivably develop for in 24hrs. They had all these fields for special case
scenarios that were all basically neglected in the final product. I'd say
there were probably at least 100 people in the SF weekend... all to produce
one simple facebook app.

------
eds
Great writeup. As an outsider, it seems to me like Atlanta has a thriving
startup scene. What are some other cities like that?

~~~
catch23
As someone who once lived in Atlanta, I can say the startup scene is not as
thriving as you might think. Startup weekend travels around the country doing
an event at each major city so it's nothing too special that one was held in
Atlanta.

~~~
lanceweatherby
Actually Atlanta is only one of two cities to hold more then one Startup
Weekend event. Last year about 70 people participated. This year over 100
showed up and there were 70 people still standing on Sunday night.

I see lots of startups. Two of those that emerged from this weekend have the
potential to be YC type quality startups.

