Startup Weekend

I worked at.

Startup Weekend was the first event I attended.

And actually, even before that, I wrote my college thesis on angel investment organizations.

So one of my...

Mm-hmm.

Then my sophomore year I participated in com- something called a Startup Weekend in Shanghai.

Oh, you did a Startup Weekend.

I did a Startup Weekend, right?

That's very, very consequential and-

Yes

And think of this like Boulder Shark Tank, where... entrepreneurs pitch their new ideas and researchers also are there pitching their ideas and the ideas get vetted and discussed.

And Boulder actually has a pretty long history of this, from Startup Weekend to Ignite to the Boulder New Tech Meetup, which I don't know if it's still going.

But for many years, I used to go to these things routinely.

And I would definitely be at this one if it wasn't for a conflict on those dates.

So from outside, everything looks so secure.

But a few years earlier, I had participated in a startup weekend event.

For the ones that don't know, Startup Weekend, it's a one weekend event where you go from idea to MVP in just one weekend with the help of mentors and everything they provide.

So it was like the first time I launched my business with a small team.

And although I didn't continue with that business just a couple of months, the experience completely changed my mindset.

like entrepreneurship, I think gave me the freedom to decide like how I want to spend my time.

For example, I can pick up my three kids at school at three o'clock in the afternoon without asking anyone for permission.

If I want to travel with my family or attend a very important event, i can make my decision with decision myself and of course building successful businesses makes me proud but what i'm most grateful for is life entrepreneurship has allowed me to create and if i may add one more thing another success for me is also see other people succeed because of something i was part of so Through Startup Weekend, Startup Grind, mentorship programs that I'm part of, I've seen people start businesses, raise investments, and believe in themselves.

That'd be cool.

So it's kind of like Startup Weekend.

It's like a variation of Startup Weekend, a little bit more time.

If you have ever been a part of one of those events where the goal is to design the startup, that would be then deployed to tackle the problem or opportunity after, that's similar to the idea here.

If it seems like it'll work out, you can go for it.

But whatever it is, it's a two-week sprint.

And if you're like, "Dan, that doesn't sound like a lot of time to, to validate an idea," just go to a Startup Weekend.

You know, I was fortunate enough to sit on the board of that organization.

They, they do over 500 events a year.

And Startup Weekend in 54 hours produces teams, ideas, and validation that they present on Sunday night.

So Friday kinda 5:00 till Sunday night they actually go out into the market, validate it.

Some of them come back with customers, working prototypes.

And, and, and part of it is representing community.

And so you think about Boston Startup Week and what this is, I spoke at the first one, I'm speaking at this one, you and I are connected now, but I work all over the world.

So, you know, like I made it a point to come back here.

And again, because you need to be able to generate community like this to help people out.

And we were supporting innovation and entrepreneurship as a third leg to the economic.

Wow.

So we brought the first TEDx to the state of Michigan, the first Ignite for Startup Weekend.

Myself and others started the entrepreneurship program at Michigan State University.

So you essentially say, in two weeks, I'm going to validate this idea by maybe talking to 10 different people that might have the problem, building a clickable prototype, getting pre-orders, but whatever it is, it's a two week sprint.

And if you're like, Dan, that doesn't sound like a lot of time to validate an idea, just go to a Startup Weekend.

You know, I was fortunate enough to sit on the board of that organization.

They do over 500 events a year.

And Startup Weekend in 54 hours produces teams ideas and validation that they present on Sunday night.

So Friday, kind of five o'clock till Sunday night, they actually go out into the market, validate it.

Some of them come back with customers, working prototypes.