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WEBSITE – WWW.NNC-SERVICES.COM TWITTER - HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/NNCSERVICES
FACEBOOK - HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NNCSERVICES LINKEDIN - HTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/NNC-SERVICES
How to Get the Most Out of a Startup Weekend
Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs
(developers, business people, marketers). In just 54 hours, a group of people learn the basics of
founding a startup and how to develop the best strategy meant to successfully launch a product or
service.
I had the opportunity to attend the most recent Startup Weekend that took place in Iasi where
NNC Services was one of the sponsors. Long story short, I joined a team and spent the most gruelling,
mentally-draining 54 hours of my life. I soaked up every minute of it and tried to learn, network and
build connections as much as possible in just one weekend.
WEBSITE – WWW.NNC-SERVICES.COM TWITTER - HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/NNCSERVICES
FACEBOOK - HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NNCSERVICES LINKEDIN - HTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/NNC-SERVICES
Long story … longer, a Startup Weekend follows this model:
The 60 seconds pitch – This is perhaps the most challenging part. Each participant has the chance to
pitch their startup idea to their peers. Depending on just how good the idea is, and how concise and
convincing is the pitch, the teams are formed organically.
Finding that kickass idea – Each team must choose the best idea and start developing a suitable market
strategy for it. So, all ideas are subject to a vote, and the one that squeezes the most votes sticks.
Developing a great strategy – Once the teams decided on which idea to work on, it’s time to start
working on the business model creation, coding, designing and market validation. Therefore, in just one
weekend, the teams had to go through the process of building a company, then present it to judges.
What I learned from attending the Startup Weekend
Lesson 1. Creating a business plan from scratch in just 54 hours is not an easy task
After a mind-blowing brainstorming for our brilliant ideas, the first question from our coaches came:
“How are you going to monetize this?” Snap back to reality. Our idea was about traveling for free and be
hosted by a company that temporary needs your professional skills (for example: A company based in
London that needs an on-site IT engineer for a two weeks project can host, for free, a foreign in
exchange for his work). Pretty neat, isn’t it? But tell me now, how do we implement it, how do we find
the client, the money, the investment, the niche market? These were some of the obstacles that we had
to solve.
Lesson 2. Nothing is more important than validating the idea with possible customers
WEBSITE – WWW.NNC-SERVICES.COM TWITTER - HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/NNCSERVICES
FACEBOOK - HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/NNCSERVICES LINKEDIN - HTTP://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/NNC-SERVICES
Once you have a landing page and some screenshots, have everyone on your team go out and ask
people what they think of your concept. We did the market research and validation online, on Linkedin
and Elance and got tons of comments and traffic.
Lesson 3. Don’t waste time building text for your MVP plan
Having a great and complete MVP plan is not going to bring you first place. However, a killer
presentation that grabs all the attention is essential. For example, we realised that we didn’t need all
that list of benefits, but managed to wrap our service in a different manner that brought us a little step
closer to winning. So, we started working on our rocking presentation. We named it the “Pixar Pitch”
and it’s about “telling the story of your service” crisply and with clarity in order to capture the crowd
attention.
I really enjoyed meeting engaged young entrepreneurs and having a great, diversified team to debate all
the business possibilities. Last but not least, the feeling of being part of a community that thought boldly
and chose a big problem that resonated with our advanced needs.
This is a guest post by Oltita Volovat, one of NNC Services’ marketing specialists who has been having
great fun representing us at the Start up Weekend in Iasi on May 16th – 18th.