Columbus Startup Weekend 7.25.2013 talk

STARTUP WEEKEND

BE LIKE HOBBS

WE DON’T PLAY BY THE RULES

HOWEVER...

Baseball...? Startups...?

starting and hitting are similar

85% of all startup weekend pitches ride the roller coaster of wild, whacky, new, awesome, next and

highly unlikely

Most if not all Startup Weekend pitch ideas give ya the vibe of insanity, wtf, impossible, lol, yeah right,

and highly unlikely.

and generally... that’s accepted, however it doesn’t mean you exactly.. win.

=

strikes do add up, and they can take a toll on you, your life, your spouse, your income, your capacity to

dream and more...

home runs in startups, especially for first timers is hardtotal strike outs are the norm

its the base hit single that most people don’t consider

there’s more to startups than home runs

hobbs law

• Aspire to play the game regardless of the rules.

• Home runs are the black swans of the startup world, possible, but rare and critical of human nature.

• Base hits, singles and doubles make the game great.

base hit logic

• Improve on the known by 1-5% and incrementally ramp that up as you net traction.

• The known isn’t striving for home runs, its building on established norms- find a biz that works today, and improve it.

• Remember you’re still playing the game.

YOUR MISSION

GET UP TO THE PLATE!

GOOD LEADERS INSPIRE, GREAT LEADERS GET OUT OF THE WAY

YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM IT

GET DATATALK TO POTENTIAL USERS/CUSTOMERSVALIDATE THE GUT

BAD IDEAS

VALIDATE THE CORE IDEANOT THE FEATURES

talk..to some REAL users

do..some USEFUL surveys

leverage..the MENTORS that are here to help you

no devsbe 1000 timesmore creative

have devs be 1000 times more

productive

the tech reallydoesn’t matter

BUILD IT

you don’t need code to talk to customers and

get data

have a blast

NEVER STOP