You all did a wonderful job creating business concepts, testing assumptions, finding gaps, pivoting business & revenue models, rebuilding (and rebuilding),  then finally pitching your business and your progress.

Friday

As I reflect on the whole process it seems like a whirlwind. From the Friday night starting point where many people were walking into a roomful strangers after a full week. Then, within an hour, many of the nearly 50 participants pitching 37 business ideas from the front of the room in 60 second rapid-fire succession.  What a way to start a weekend!

10 teams formed around the most salient of the ideas pitched and began work on making every hour of the remaining weekend count.

Straight away my great team of 16 mentors started circling and providing any help that they could. Over the weekend they would provide encouragement, knowledge, contacts and advice.  (Thanks!)

As Friday night unfolded teams got to know each other as they figured out team dynamics, leadership, their talent and talent gaps, along with everything else that they had to do to be able to pitch a winning business to the judges on Sunday evening. On Friday we closed up after midnight.

Saturday

Starting 9 a.m. on Saturday morning the teams were beavering away. Many were out on the streets or making phone calls to find out if their idea had a market or would work with the industry that they were targeting. Others were working on how to make money, how to build communities how to develop applications and websites. As they engaged with emerging realities many of the teams found some assumptions that had led them down a blind path. These teams stopped and pivoted a small or sometimes large part of the concept and direction. Each time adjusting to what they found out by going through the process. As any entrepreneur knows building a business has a lot to do with solving problems one after another. Saturday night also closed in the small hours.

Resilience

One of the things that a process like Startup Weekend provides is that it creates emotional resilience to deal with the frustrations and disappointments that often come when your assumptions have been blown to bits. Getting back on the horse, understanding the problem and widening back to see the things that you couldn’t see before are an essential part of the process.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday I’m sure that the teams, and the individuals in them, had ample opportunity to build this emotional resilience within themselves as they dealt with problems, abandoned approaches or reinvented them as opportunities. Many relationships grew and strengthened as they went through the process together.

Sunday

Sunday morning started with that inevitable ‘moment of truth day’ feeling. It was apparent that within a rapidly shrinking few hours that the teams would have to have a pitch to present.

As the final pitching countdown raced on the atmosphere was electric. As I circled the teams, one team after another were head down in silence, each individual working furiously on their specific task. This was in stark contrast to the majority of the weekend where the rooms had been alive reporting, discussing and debating every minute aspect of their business.

Pitching

Then came pitch time. As everyone gathered in the main room to present their work and to see what their colleagues had developed over the weekend there was a mixture of excitement and trepidation, and in some relief and fatigue.

Team after team stepped-up with ‘knock your socks off’ presentations. As I listened I was impressed with the amount of creativity, intelligence and hard work that had been applied over such a short period of time. As lead mentor for the weekend I had sat in on these groups, heard their ideas, provided guidance, asked hard questions and discussed what they were doing with my mentor colleagues. After that much involvement I thought I had a pretty good take on what they were going to present. Not so. Each presentation had surprises and cohesion well beyond what I had seen. It was truly a credit to each and every team, and every team member.

Judges Dave Moskovitz, Duncan Shand and Ben Irving had their wor cut out for them. The winning result? – @Audioscribe – a human crowd sourced transcription business. But Pophone – The Kidsafe phone, Eyedentify – Live dashboard of shoplifting threats had honorable mentions. To be fair, as Dave Moskovitz stated, the world is the real judge and this was an acknowledgement of the progress over the weekend.

Thanks…

…to our sponsors MYOB for their wonderful hospitality (Julian & co) and space to work in and e-Centre and Servcorp (Chloe) for their great prize packages of Market validation program and virtual office services for the winners. We really appreciate your support.

The Future

My involvement with Startup weekend and a couple of other projects is to encourage and develop New Zealand’s entrepreneurial scene. I think it is of overriding importance that we create a culture of innovation, resilience and street smarts for our country, our children and our future. We all know that with rising complexity and the challenges of the day we need leaders and thinkers that can lead us through some of the most important changes we face. The talent and passion demonstrated over Startup weekend provides me with a great sense of hope and an understanding of what the future could be.

Last weekend around 60 people were active in Newmarket, Auckland developing not only the business ideas but the resilience, skills and relationships to make that happen.  Most people focused on the ideas presented, and to be sure they were fantastic. But what I was most excited to see was how people transformed their understanding and their passion throughout the weekend. The businesses created may succeed or fail once they get out there in the world. As always, I wish them the best of luck and hope they go on to be a New Zealand success story. But my real interest goes deeper. Something far more important was developed in each individual about what is truly possible when they gather together with the commitment and passion to get something done.

To all the participants, mentors and organisers, a heartfelt thank you.

Alan Froggatt of Genratec

Keep in touch – Startup Weekend New Zealand (LinkedIn)

PS. Wellingtonians, mark your calendar – 4-6 November 2011 Startup Weekend Wellington – Get some!

PPS. We have solid intel that planning for Christchurch is underway too! – stay tuned on Startup Weekend New Zealand (LinkedIn)