My favourite things about Startup Weekend Hamilton 3
I’ve been a co-organizer of the three Startup Weekend events that we’ve done so far in Hamilton. As always it’s been interesting to watch the community grow and evolve. Simon Woodside correctly identified at Startup Weekend Hamilton 1 in October of 2011 that the community was somewhat immature – few people attending that event had ever started up before.
That’s why there were a few subtle things that stuck out at this Startup Weekend that I really liked, besides the obvious awesomeness of WalkBug and Pastee coming away with the top prizes.
1) Teams were helping each other
The vibe, at least from my vantage point, didn’t seem cut throat at all. Teams were communicating with and helping each other. This hasn’t always been the case. Good-natured competition is awesome, but ego-driven one-upmanship can be unhelpful. Even during the final presentations before the judges, a participant asked a team a question that actually helped them make a better case for their startup to win. I know the participant that asked the question is a bit of a startup veteran; perhaps that’s maturity coming into play?
2) Prototype products were developed
Both winning teams made progress on product development. Maybe not all the way to an MVP, but with enough of a prototype that they could demo the basic concept to the judges. I know that pitches are important, but there’s something about a live demo of a concept…
3) Damien Steel’s talk
He gave a really great talk largely focused on pitching to institutional investors like OMERS (his employer). But my favourite part was that he didn’t knock the companies looking for smaller investment than OMERS handles; he made a point not to put them down. Over the next 5 years it’s very likely that those smaller startups are going to matter in Hamilton.
4) A team that “failed” still pitched
One team was based on a service idea that YouTube itself is about to launch themselves. The team found this out 16 hours into the weekend. The team was unable to pivot into another idea in time. But a few members of the team still came up before the judges and outlined what happened. They got a huge applause, and damn right. Lots of people talk about embracing and learning from failure – these guys actually did.
5) XCEEi stepped up along with others in the community
Startup Weekends obviously cost non-trivial dollars to hold. Hamilton Economic Development’s Small Business Enterprise Centre, Ridout & Maybee, BDC, Radius and Big Bee all deserve a big thanks for their support and sponsorship of this event, as do organizers Kitestring, Innovation Factory and Vana Workforce. But you do need a lead/gold sponsor or two to continue to make these events happen in Hamilton, and we owe XCEEi a huge thanks for stepping up this year as gold sponsor. Check out the video below that outlines their program and students:
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