jlengrand.github.io/_posts/2012-12-14-how-we-won-our-first-startup-weekend.markdown

---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: How we won our first startup weekend!
author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
author_login: jlengrand
author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
wordpress_id: 820
wordpress_url: http://www.lengrand.fr/?p=820
date: 2012-12-14 14:12:02.000000000 +01:00
categories:
- misc
- tips
tags:
- startup
- startupweekend
- startup weekend
- utrecht
- hackathon
- greengame
- entrepreneur
- innovation
- energy
comments:
- id: 3130
  author: ! 'Reblog: How we won our first Startup Weekend! | Startup Juncture'
  author_email: ''
  author_url: http://startupjuncture.com/2012/12/14/reblog-how-we-won-our-first-startup-weekend/
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  date_gmt: !binary |-
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  content: ! '[...] Continue reading → [...]'
- id: 8832
  author: tworzenie stron internetowych
  author_email: hungdaigle@gmail.com
  author_url: http://tworzenieiprojektowaniestroninternetowychh.pl
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  content: ! "Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that
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- id: 8988
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNC0xNyAxNDoxMjo1NyArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNC0xNyAxMzoxMjo1NyArMDIwMA==
  content: ! "Well, thank you very much for the kind words!\r\n\r\nIt is always nice
    to have some feedback from time to time. Be careful with the rss feed, don't forget
    that google is closing reader soon!\r\n\r\nAll the best,"
- id: 9912
  author: cheap nfl jerseys
  author_email: brendan_pipkin@aol.com
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  date_gmt: !binary |-
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  content: ! "Fabulous, what a web site it is! This webpage gives helpful data to
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  author: Page 28Franck PARIENTIImmobilier neuf
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    MjAxMy0wNS0wMyAwMzowMjowMSArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
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  content: ! 'Неy therе! I''m at work surfing around your blog from
    my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to
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- id: 10128
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0wNiAxMToyNDo0NiArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0wNiAxMDoyNDo0NiArMDIwMA==
  content: Well, Thanks :)
- id: 10129
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0wNiAxMToyNTozOCArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0wNiAxMDoyNTozOCArMDIwMA==
  content: Thanks!
- id: 11062
  author: Alyssa Mompoint (@AlyssaMompoint)
  author_email: alyssa@beforewedo.com
  author_url: http://www.beforewedo.com
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0yMCAyMDowNjo1OSArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0yMCAxOTowNjo1OSArMDIwMA==
  content: Thank you for writing this post! I recently just did startup weekend...and
    one as a first timer. I definitely agree that it is a great way to validate your
    idea and to perhaps pivot your idea into something you may not have otherwise!
    If you have a team where they align with your vision and truly want to help you
    execute it than you can see what you can really accomplish. I would say its all
    in the pitch and customer validation because you have to present it in an engaging
    way where there's a sense of urgency. I LOVED that you uses twitter contest to
    further validate your idea. Learn more on how you can win startup weekend for
    the first time! http://bit.ly/14JBPqF
- id: 11641
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0yOSAwNzoxNTozNCArMDIwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxMy0wNS0yOSAwNjoxNTozNCArMDIwMA==
  content: ! "Hi! \n\nThanks for the kind words.\nI finally had some time to go through
    your post. Congratulations!\nAre you going further with your project, or was it
    more just a week-end idea? \n\nI think you are really lucky to live in the US,
    where you can test your idea right away :). To try the same thing in Europe, you
    would first need to register your own company even before starting selling :).\n\nLet
    me know of your progress!"
- id: 22937
  author: gibertie159pfujblog.webnode.ro
  author_email: jamal-belbin@cluemail.com
  author_url: http://gibertie159pfujblog.webnode.ro
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxMzo0NzozMiArMDEwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxMjo0NzozMiArMDEwMA==
  content: ! "I'm not sure why but this website is loading extremely slow for me.\r\nIs
    anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end?\r\n\r\nI'll check
    back later and see if the problem still exists."
- id: 22939
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxNDoyNjoxMiArMDEwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxMzoyNjoxMiArMDEwMA==
  content: ! "Hey, \n\nThanks for the info. \nI had some loading problems in the past,
    related to caching. \nI´ll check if the issue did not come back during a Wordpress
    update :)."
- id: 22940
  author: Julien Lengrand-Lambert
  author_email: julien@lengrand.fr
  author_url: http://www.lengrand.fr
  date: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxNDozMzo1MCArMDEwMA==
  date_gmt: !binary |-
    MjAxNC0wMS0wNSAxMzozMzo1MCArMDEwMA==
  content: ! "I just tried several tools to check the loading speed of the page. You
    can see the results here :\n\nhttp://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/eleGzC/www.lengrand.fr\nhttp://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.lengrand.fr/w33VVlji\n\nI
    think it can be improved, but is not too bad. \nIf you got more info, I can try
    to see what is the problem for you :)."
---
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="{{ site.url }}/images/posts/2012/12/header.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-823" title="GreenGame" src="{{ site.url }}/images/posts/2012/12/header.png" alt="GreenGame Logo" width="1191" height="225" /></a></p>
<br>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Three weeks ago, I attended my very first <a title="SW utrecht" href="http://utrecht.startupweekend.org/"><strong>startup weekend in Utrecht</strong></a>. I not only met a whole bunch of great guys, but also <strong>won</strong> together <a title="Greengame" href="http://www.greengame.co/" target="_blank">with my team</a> !</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I would like to share some of the excitement I had, together with some tips that might be worth for those who plan to also take the challenge !</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">1 - Go Pitch !</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Seriously</strong>. You may think that your idea is worth nothing, and that people will not be interested in it. <strong>So what ?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I participated the event as a developer, without any plan. My idea was just to "see what it was like".After a few minutes listening to all those nice guys, I decided to pitch. Guess what? I was the only person finally voting for my idea.
But that is not important. What matters is that <strong>I took the opportunity to speak in front of 100 people</strong>, and can think what I did wrong to improve next time !
Oh, and another thing. The pitcher in our team was one of the last ones to present his idea.<strong> It was not prepared, and he got his idea only a few minutes before going on stage.</strong> And we ended up winning the competition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is no way to read people's mind yet. If you don't throw yourself in the arena, you'll never get feedback. It takes only one minute, but the lessons you get can last a lifetime!</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">2 - Meet people, discuss, share</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a title="SW" href="http://startupweekend.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Startup Weekend</strong></a> is <strong>not</strong> about winning a competition. It's about <strong>meeting people</strong>. <strong>Discussing</strong> with great guys you probably would never have met otherwise. <strong>Being amazed</strong> by people's creativity, by the strength of their mind. Realizing that you spend a whole week-end working like crazy, but that <strong>everyone loved that</strong> !
On top of that, a team of mentors are here to help you. A team of people that <strong>already made their dream come true</strong>. That own a company and rely only on themselves to pay the bills. How not to be amazed by people like that ?!
Tchat with as much people as you can. You can bring them something, and you'll get out of the weekend thousands of times richer; the head full of new ideas and motivation.</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">3 - Validate your idea</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I was not expecting from the staff to focus so much on that. If I think back,<strong> more than half our time was spent on validating our idea</strong>. Going out, talking to people, listen to people that like your idea; and listen even more to those that don't.
The first day of the event, we rushed into creating a product that would help people save the world together. What's more powerful than the wish to make the world better? Well, money is. . .
<strong>Our first idea was completely wrong</strong>, and this is only when we discussed people that we realized that they wouldn't use our product to reduce global warming. . . <strong>but to cut their bills</strong> ! We had to start over from the beginning, more than half way through the competition!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Think about it, it might lead you to the victory :).</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">4 - Think Business Model</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Startup Weekend is <strong>NOT</strong> about creating start-ups. The staff will keep telling you that. It is about meeting awesome people, from different landscapes, all motivated by the idea of creating something with their hands. During the startup weekend, you'll be in the middle of dozens of people who decided to spend their whole week-end building stuff. What better place to meet great guys?
Thing is, this is <strong>ALSO</strong> a competition. A competition in which you'll have to be pitched. And be judged. On your start-up idea. The jury will be composed of entrepreneurs, if not business angels.
This means that <strong>you should spend a whole lot of time finding how to make money out of your idea</strong>. Think different. Find several channels. Explore and think beyond the "I'll put ads" or "This will be a paid app". How is your business scalable? What is the competition?
This won't be enough for the jury. And this shouldn't be enough for you either.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Let's take an example : Our whole aim is to help people reduce their energy consumption through a game.
With <a title="GreenGame" href="http://greengame.co/" target="_blank"><strong>GreenGame</strong></a>, you would monitor your energy consumption while playing. You'll earn rewards. But you'll not be alone. You will be able to compare yourself with friends, and group together to achieve greater goals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If we take it simple,<strong> this is a phone app</strong>. So let's make it paid, and we have a business model, right? <strong>Wrong</strong>.
<strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>This. is. not. enough.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong></strong>
In which other way could we make money out of <strong>GreenGame</strong>? We had two other ideas :</p>

<ul style="text-align: justify;">
	<li>Our game will be played by people that want to reduce their energy consumption. <strong>Why not offer them new ways to do so?</strong> An idea could be to have <strong>affiliates</strong> in our game. For example, a user could buy new LED bulbs with a discount, while we also take a small percentage.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
	<li>Another idea came up while searching for competition. <strong>Who are the biggest entities concerned by energy control?</strong> Energy companies. By offering big rewards to users that reduce their energy during given time slots, we could transform our app into a <strong>peak shaving tool</strong>! The money could then directly come from energy companies, and the app could be offered for free.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Those are just ideas, but the point is to show you that you should dig your concept enough!</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">5 - Startup Weekend is not a hackathon.</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This one is a short one, but still meaningful. I told you that our concept is an app, right? What do you think we developed during the week-end then ? A landing page, and a leaderboard for a twitter hashtag contest.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Total amount of code ? Less than 50 lines.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Our whole idea during the week-end was to <strong>VALIDATE</strong> the concept. No need for an app that no one wants. We first had to find potential customers!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As a further validation, we created a twitter contest where people could tweet about their today's action for environment. In less than 48 hours, on a week end, we got more than 100 tweets :). You can <a title="landing page GG.co" href="http://greengame.co/" target="_blank"><strong>Check it out here !</strong></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Keep in mind that software/hacking is not an end, but only a tool.</strong> And as the <a title="Lean Startup Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898" target="_blank">Lean Startup book</a> states, you <strong>MVP</strong> is always smaller than you think :).</p>

<h1 style="text-align: justify;">6 - Keep being awesome</h1>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I'll end by saying that if you attend such an event, <strong>you are already a winner</strong>. And <a title="Clogish tweet" href="http://twitter.com/Clogish/status/270270286291681280" target="_blank">I am not the only one to say that</a> ! Startup weekend brings you so much in a few hours that you won't believe it.
I met awesome guys that believe in their dreams more than nothing else, worked for the first time of my life with a designer (<strong>best feeling ever</strong>), and shared a lot of emotions with my team during this week-end. Joy, Stress, Focus, all in the same package !
And if you consider that <strong>I registered only 2 hours before the event, think about what I could have missed !</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the end, it's all about getting out of your comfort zone.<strong> Get out, do crazy stuff, meet people and keep your flame alive</strong>. You know, that small thing that makes you awesome. :)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a title="GG" href="http://greengame.co/" target="_blank">Check here</a> to know more about our project. We already have a lot of people interested in the project, so take the challenge and<a title="Twitter GreenGame" href="http://twitter.com/GreenGameSW" target="_blank"><strong> join us</strong></a> !</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And of course, let me know about your own experience in the comments. I'd love to hear about it !</p>

<br>


<p><strong>EDIT: The project is now dead and the website is down :).<strong></p>