

Ask YC: Have you participated in a Startup Weekend? - JimEngland

My friends and I from Cleveland, Ohio are thinking of attending a Startup Weekend in late July.  It is being hosted in Columbus, about two hours away (http://columbus.startupweekend.com/). Has anyone here attended a Startup Weekend before, and if so, how was the experience?
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trotzke
It was a blast. I attended the Bloomington, IN weekend. The actual product
didn't go much of anywhere, but that wasn't the point. The event sold out--
capped at 100 attendees. I met some great people and it really clarified to me
how much startup and tech is happening in Bloomington and surrounding Indiana
University.

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JimEngland
That's good to hear. The main reason we're hoping to participate is to just
get our feet wet and better understand the startup environment. What project
did you work on and how is the startup tech environment in Indiana?

Part of the reason we're driving down to Columbus is to see different startup
tech areas in the Midwest. I love the area, but Cleveland isn't exactly
cutting edge in terms of technology right now.

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trotzke
Bloomington is amazing for it's size. It's a university town with a ton of
people focused on UI, usability and programing coming out of IU's School of
Informatics. IU also has a great music and business school. The rest of
Indiana is certainly behind, but I think Bloomington is starting to take shape
as a little tech mecca in the Midwest.

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PStamatiou
I have and have continued working on it with three others. Skribit - SW
Atlanta November 2007. Things are going well and we served 3.9M pviews this
past month (granted most are widget serves..)

<http://skribit.com>

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semigeek
Hi Jim - Cleveland Local here as well. There's a few of us headed to Columbus
for the event. I've attended previous SW and enjoyed it very much - I also
host the Startup Drinks in Cleveland - you should check us out.

Shoot me an email (ak @ MyYCUserName . com).

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JimEngland
Hey I sent an email, did you receive it?

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zain
I attended Startup Weekend in West Lafayette (we were the first team to
actually launch within the weekend) and San Francisco (we were the only team
to do a non-profit app), and I can't recommend it enough.

The actual startups created were worthless, but fun. And above all, it was an
amazing networking opportunity: I lined up work for over six months now on two
different (good) startups based on the contacts I made at Startup Weekend.

One thing though -- the original organizer who set up the SWs I went to
(Andrew Hyde) is no longer the organizer. He's started working for TechStars
and has handed the reigns over to a guy named Raymond.

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JayNeely
I'd like to, but Boston is ~#39 on the list, after having had one back in
October. I'd say it's worth it for that nifty badge, if nothing else. :-P

Besides, networking with other startup founders is invaluable. Regardless of
what you're working on, there are some business basics that you'll all be
going through; getting advice for those things is great.

A bunch of us are available online in #startups on irc.freenode.net -
[http://www.mibbit.com/?server=irc.freenode.net&channel=%...](http://www.mibbit.com/?server=irc.freenode.net&channel=%23startups)

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yogione
Do many "rockstar" developers show up for these events in Midwest ? people who
can architect and kick off PHP, PERL, Ruby apps without looking up
documentation all the time.

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keithtom
i dont know but I just signed up. I've been doing RoR for almost two years now
( 8 months at a small company, and 11 months at JP Morgan Chase).

see ya there!

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ahsonwardak
It was a great experience in DC. We met many nice people. I don't know that
the startup will survive, and there were less than a handful of exceptions.
But in the end it was good to feel the energy and connect with other like-
minded people. I recommend it.

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sarosh
I was an attendee of the NYC event and was substantially less then impressed
by either venue or product. However, the people were fun.

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wavesplash
Are they still trying to claim the bs 5% of your company?

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wyliemac
No. Startup Weekend, LLC does not take an interest in any company formed out
of the weekend. They used to, but changed it at some point. I think it was
from the Boulder II event.

