The Nexus of 2024

Weekend Projects: my Seattle Startup Weekend pitch

—

by

jon
in ,

startup weekendSeattle Startup Weekend starts tomorrow, and right now I really wish I had a good checklist for what I should be doing to prepare and what I should bring.  Power supplies, internet connectivity in case wireless goes down, post-it notes, my GitHub and WuFoo passwords, juice … what am I forgetting?

Oh yeah, that’s right, my pitch!

Startup Weekend starts with participants doing 60-second pitches.  After all the pitches, people vote with their feet and decide which projects they want to work on.   spontaneously.  Here’s the draft, clocking in at around 50 seconds.

Wow, so many great pitches.  As your teams start to come together, what are the first things you’ll do?   How will you take things forward if you don’t attract any developers?

Imagine an app that’s the perfect assistant for your Startup Weekend project.  It’s got answers and resources for common questions like these — and ways to get help if you get stuck.  Who’s interested in beta-testing?

Cool.  You’re our initial target market!

Now picture a family of apps for at all kinds of Weekend Projects, anything from putting in cabinets to making a movie.  Revenue comes from app sales — and advertising from companies providing products and services related to the project.

To make it happen, we’ll need a designer, HTML and Javascript devs, biz dev, marketing, and folks with research and writing skills.  I’m Jon Pincus, and my day job’s founder and CTO at qweries.  Please join us for a fun and exciting weekend project!

If you’ve got any feedback on the idea or pitch,  please leave them in the comments, or tweet them to me.   And

I’ll spend some time polishing my pitch today, and then perhaps try it out in the networking at Speak Out and Geek Out tonight — a good time to start building up a posse!  Tomorrow, as well as double-checking my post-it notes and making sure I’m well-stocked with fruit.  It should be a great weekend.  Stay tuned for more!

And if you’re going to be at Seattle Startup Weekend, and are interested in working together, please let me know!

jon

PS: Thanks to Deborah, Tristan, and Kalimah for feedback on earlier versions of the pitch.  And speaking of Kalimah, check out his excellent How to Fail: Validated Lessons from Startup Weekend SFEDU on Hackademia.

Comments

7 responses to “Weekend Projects: my Seattle Startup Weekend pitch”

  1. J Kovach Avatar
    J Kovach

    Wow, Jon! Every time I have an idea and want to put it to paper, I do much of this from scratch (I have about 10 ideas a week… hahaha). I always go on a mad hunt for a book that will help me to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. I always want it to be kind of a text book with a built in workbook.

    I really can’t wait to see this in practice! I have tons of skills and I don’t even know how to define them. Need any help?

    J Kovach, one of your biggest fans. 🙂

    Reply
  2. jon Avatar
    jon

    Thanks, J … yes, that’s exactly it: whenever I start out on a project I have to do a lot of it from scratch (just like I am now for Startup Weekend) and it’s very time-consuming. I like the description of it as a ‘textbook with a built-in workbook’ — and ideally also a community, too, of people you can ask for help.

    Glad you’re so excited about it! And yes, I need all kind of help — let’s discuss more!

    jon, one of your biggest fans 🙂

    Reply
  3. Steven Levy Avatar
    Steven Levy

    Jon, I think it’s a terrific idea… but only after reading through your notes a number of times. I can hear your enthusiasm on the pitch as written, but I’m not sure the idea itself comes through immediately. Maybe it’s the geek in me, but I hear “to build a great product” and immediately think of coding tools, NLP, etc. Maybe I’m also influenced by your “build something useful in a hurry” pitches at MSFT. It may be just me, but I’m not sure the first sentence points me in the right direction, as much as I like the rest of it.

    Reply
  4. Emily Marshall Avatar
    Emily Marshall

    I agree with Steven… the first sentence needs more punch. Off the cuff, maybe something like:

    “Imagine an app as scrappy as you are that will give you an edge at Start-Up Weekend…”

    Good luck tomorrow! Great idea 🙂

    -Emily

    Reply
  5. jon Avatar
    jon

    Great feedback, Steven and Emily — thanks much!

    Here’s a revised two sentences. What do you think?

    Imagine an app that’s the perfect assistant for your Startup Weekend project. It offers help when you’re stuck; has checklists, how-tos, and other resources to make common tasks easier; and makes it easy to work with your team to build a great product and turn it into a business.

    Reply
  6. jon Avatar
    jon

    Or here’s a different possibility for the opening:

    Wow, lots of great pitches. What are the first things you’re going to do when your teams start to form? How will you budget your time tonight and tomorrow to be in the right place on Sunday?

    Imagine an app that’s the perfect assistant for your Startup Weekend project, with resources for common tasks like these — and ways to get help when you run into challenges. How many of you would be interested?

    Thoughts about that direction?

    Reply
  7. jon Avatar
    jon

    People liked that direction a lot … And at the pizza and shmoozing before the event, I got some great feedback — say a bit about the business model. Great point (and a good example of what the app could help people with). So I think I’m ready … Wish me luck!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *