

Ask HN: Should I go to Startup School? - undecided

I'm a cofounder of a bootstrapped startup with an unreleased product (although we are testing with a few users). So I have no issues about whether to start a startup.<p>I'm undecided because of cost issues. I live abroad so a plane ticket will run ~$1K. I would need to spend on food, transport, etc. If I stay a week, costs will total ~$1.5K to 2K.<p>Although I will meet many people and perhaps have meetings with 5 to 10 potential customers, will it be worth the expense? I'm not as concerned about time because I will make use of it by meeting fellow techies and potential customers.<p>EDIT: I will also be meeting bloggers from GigaOm, VentureBeat, etc.
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iamelgringo
I can't tell you whether you should go or not, but I can say what I got out of
the last startup school.

I met a number of great people at the last startup school, several of whom I
interact with regularly one and a half years later. One person I met almost
became my cofounder this fall, and still might later on.

I got to meet a number of users from Hacker News, and put names to faces. That
was awesome.

I got to meet PG, and I talked with Trevor for a while about his robot. That
was very cool.

I started the Hackers and Founders meetup ( www.hackersandfounders.com ) at
last years startup school for people like yourself to get together and hang
out and talk before the conference. Since then, it's taken on a life of it's
own, and it's grown to a membership of 400+ people, and we routinely have
20-25 people getting together at a bar to talk our startups and shiny new
technologies every other week. It's a good time, and there's some good
connections to be made.

Would I do it again even if I had to pay $2k for airfare, room and board? Yes.
but, YMMV. A large part of the benefit that I derived from starting hackers
and founders is because I had recently relocated to Silicon Valley. It may not
be as beneficial for you.

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suber
I think after you look at your budget and you can actually afford to spend
$2k, go for it. There are alot of cheap eats in the Bay and you can always
take public transpo, or check out the deals at fox rent a car:
<https://www.foxrentacar.com/Default.aspx> .

If you can't make it, I would love to take your place, and I'm sure there are
many others who would too.

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unohoo
You could reduce the costs by probably getting some cheap acco via AirBnb.com
or hooking up with other attendees.

On the flip side, think of the potential of some awesome networking that you
could do. ultimately, i think no one else can make that call for you, but I'd
definitely spend way less on food / transport / acco.

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mollylynn
Not worth it!

Learn on the job and network for free (or very little money). Such
'orchestrated' startup events tend to be populated with consultants,
accountants and lawyers who want your business.

Good luck.

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iamelgringo
_Such 'orchestrated' startup events tend to be populated with consultants,
accountants and lawyers who want your business_

Ummm... Startup school is a bit different. It's pretty much all geeks who are
neck deep in their own startups, or soon will be.

