Last weekend was the Columbus Startup Weekend event and, after a few days apart from it, I thought it was time I give my feedback to the event. For the official recap from TechColumbus which includes information on each of the 11 companies created during the weekend check out their post here.
On Friday around 6pm I arrived at TechColumbus not quite sure what I was looking to get out of the weekend. Prior to the start of the weekend a friend of mine touched base that he would be in town and, having not seen him in years, I wanted to make sure to catch up with him. Knowing this as well as a couple of other engagements I had during the weekend meant that my original plan was to just sort of hang loose at the event. I quickly realized this was not something I could do.
Approximately 150 attendees arrived and the energy was incredible. After 50 one minute elevator pitches of start-up ideas, the group whittled those down to the 11 which remained our companies for the weekend. I really enjoyed the opportunity to pitch an idea in front of such a large audience even though mine wasn’t selected. By the end of the evening I had attached myself to what became known as Freightchatter.com.
Throughout the weekend our group morphed and congealed into the form we left with. Our group is now sixteen committed individuals with a strong business case, a plan structure and some back-end programming done. TechColumbus awarded one of the companies a shot at this quarter’s $50k TechGenius grant and our group missed the award by a single vote.
The most amazing part of the weekend wasn’t in the commitment of those attendees, nor the chance at winning such a sizable grant; it was in how people took all of the “No’s” and doubts off the table. This simple act allowed each group to accomplish amazing feats in a terribly short amount of time (54 hours to be exact). Imagine if your work group, business as a whole, or even your community took this same approach to problem solving?
I learned a great deal from all of the different backgrounds than mine and met some fantastic people. I believe all of the businesses that came out of the weekend and the groups as a whole, intend to continue the work that they started and see where it leads them.
I would highly recommend this program to anyone interested in personal growth – regardless of your interest level in technology. Startup Weekend is perspective changing!
