Startup Weekend – A Veritable Petri Dish
Posted: February 19th, 2009 | Author: Marissa K. | Filed under: | No Comments »Ummm… I wrote this post last week, but forgot to make it live. Sorry! Pictures of last weekend in Big Sky, MT to come…
Last week, across the Twitterverse, I promised to make my next blogpost about Startup Weekend. I’m writing now to honor that promise and to share about one hellava weekend. Nate and I have had a super-busy 2009, but no amount of busy-ness can compare to a weekend where 150 people from all walks of life and all parts of the country (and the world!) come together to start several new companies in the span of 54 hours.
That folks, is Startup Weekend. Startup Weekends happen all across the country and even parts of Europe. For whatever reason, Seattle is a popular Startup Weekend destination. I met people from Corvallis, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Boston, North Carolina and even Salzburg, Austria.
This year, Seattle’s Startup Weekend was held at Google’s Fremont offices in the “play” room. How cool to be weekend guests at Google! There were some interesting technology issues—we lost WiFi and blew the power breaker on any number of occasions—but Fremont’s plethora of coffee shops and WiFi hotspots made everything bearable.
In total, 12 companies were started. Who knows how many will continue after the weekend, but the stuff that was built over the course of 54 hours was pretty amazing.
There’s stories, videos and posts all over the net describing Startup Weekend better than I can. If you look real close, you can see Nate in the foreground and me in the background of some of the b-roll shots in the Q13 news video.
Now, about this petri dish thing… Not only was the environment ripe for companies to sprout, I think at least three cold and/or flu bugs were being passed around the Startup Weekend crowd. On opening night, just after I shook hands with a new acquaintance, he admitted to me that he’s getting over a cold. Thanks for shaking my hand, dude. I’ll be sure to pick a different team than the one you’re on.
At least one long-time friend didn’t make it back after opening night, because they woke up Saturday morning feeling like crap: sore throat, runny nose and a fever.
After spending a fun, productive and full Saturday working on our company, one of my team members didn’t show up on Sunday morning. He’d woken up with flu-like symptoms and stayed in bed until well past 2 o’clock. When he did show up, he was pale, clammy and kept wiping the beads of sweat off his face and head. GO HOME! I told him he looked awful and should bag the company in lieu of getting his health back.
And now… it’s all caught up with me. I’m sitting with a Kleenex in hand, box is tissues by my side, drugged on Sudafed and cough drops, sipping a regular supply of green tea and Gatorade. Ugh. Damn the, petri dish!!! Damn my weak immune system!!!