Atlanta Startup Weekend 2 - Day One

We wrapped up the first evening of Startup Weekend a short while ago, so far has been a good deal of fun. I wasn’t at the first one but I think the new format makes sense and will result in a better weekend with more people being able to contribute.

The rounds of voting on the various pitches went on forever but finally concluded with Mark’s “Mark’s Horrible Idea” (have not yet selected a new name) finishing in the top 5. There ended up being a pack of us in the group and though it started out (I think) as a joke I honestly found it to be the most desirable thing to work on for the weekend. There are several reasons for this:

• Due to the new format, I see it being less likely that something sticks beyond this weekend that doesn’t involve nontrivial commitment from all group members in the future. However, it is great that the new format allows this range and gives each participant different options of idea/length/scope to choose from.
• Continuing the previous point, I already have a job at a startup that pulls a lot of my time and attention. My goal with startup weekend was not to pick up another job.
• Mark’s Horrible Idea actually isn’t that horrible, has some interesting possible uses, and involves some fun API usage and integration. We’ve refined it from what was initially pitched.
• I wanted to work on something cool that was a weekend worth of work.
• Chance to work with smart people and learn some new stuff.

The tech selected is Ruby/Rails/jQuery so I feel less able to contribute immediately to the core bits but am confident i’ll have no problem picking up whatever is needed to work on my pieces. Nothing helps me learn faster than having a reason and/or deadline.

The only potential regret is our group is all developers meaning the broader pool for all of the concepts to staff from are missing out on what I believe to be 6-7 of the stronger developers in attendance. We had 2 groups bust into our initial brainstorming meeting trying to recruit some of us away. I believe in the end we’ll be one of the only groups with something that actually functions and we’ll probably have more fun.

Contemplating bringing a cooler for the group tomorrow, once the top layer of public beer was gone all that remained was bud light and pbr and that’s a tough situation.