I have to say, it has been an exciting past four days.
Learn That Name iPhone App
In the matter of four full days, I pitched an idea, met an awesome team, helped build an iPhone app, won an audience vote for the top startup, formed a business, waded into a controversy, got covered on slashdot and engadget, and readied the launch of our app on Apple’s AppStore.
Yeah, not half bad for four days…
I decided the experiences in the past weekend (and beyond) have been unique and surreal enough that I need to capture them somewhere. So, where better than my blog. In truth, I’ve got a bit of catching up to do to get my story current, so the next series of posts may lag reality a bit, but ’tis the realities of life. So, without further ado. The story of Learn That Name.
The Backstory of Startup Weekend Redmond (or the Pre-Beginning)
In case readers don’t know, I’m a lawyer. I focus on technology companies — lots of startups and emerging companies, many of which are or will soon be funded by venture or angel capital. So I love working with tech people. But never done a day of programming in my life (except for some Dos applications when I was 10). And still, I’m always game for a challenge and this story has proven that to be the case.
In January 2009, I had the pleasure of attending my first Startup Weekend held at Google’s Offices in Fremont. I worked with a team on a project called “Tweet Reporters” during the weekend. Fun time; decent idea; but probably too much for a weekend. However, I was able to soak in the experience and meet a ton of people, which I considered a win.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2009. A new team has taken over Startup Weekend and I’m introduced to them by a good friend Rebecca Lovell. I meet Clint Nelsen and Marc Nager over beers at Fado’s and instantly am struck by their enthusiasm, creativity and vision. Having previously participated in a Startup Weekend event, I can quickly see that they’ve identified the key strengths and the key challenges for the organization. And while both Marc and Clint may not have been grizzled veterans, they asked all the right questions and seemed ready to dive into an exciting adventure.
Over the next few weeks, Clint, Marc and I continued to talk regularly. I was excited about the possibilities ahead — and they were excited about their next event to be held up in Redmond in connection with BizSpark, a Microsoft program aimed at small businesses and startups. I will admit, I was slightly skeptical that it was a good idea to partner so closely with any company, including Microsoft (the web address was bizspark.startupweekend.com which seemed to potentially be at conflict with Startup Weekend’s historically agnostic view about technologies and platforms), but Clint and Marc convinced me otherwise. Seems that it was actually laid off Microsoft workers who proposed the idea and BizSpark agreed to help orchestrate and host the event.
As the event neared, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how quickly the event was selling out and at the types of people throwing their hats in the ring to attend. And frankly, I was honestly looking forward to the event.
The Pitch — Day 1: Friday, August 28th
As the Friday evening kick-off of Startup Weekend Redmond arrived, my colleague Jason Barnwell and I were looking forward to the event and drove to Redmond together. Jason is a developer turned attorney and I was an attorney turned… well, just an attorney. But I do love working with startups and entrepreneurs, and connecting with people in the community, so I figured it would be great. Both Jason and I planned to attend the pitches on Friday, skip the actual “business building” part of the weekend and return on Sunday for the demos and presentations. I had already scheduled an event on Saturday evening and was in a wedding for Sunday afternoon, so even if I wanted to stay, probably wasn’t going to happen since I was booked solid.
