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5 Top Tips to Rocket Launch Yourself into Startup Weekend

by | Mar 20, 2018 | MVP Design, Startup life

So you’ve bought the ticket, watched the “about” video, taken a look at the weekend schedule to familiarize yourself with the timetable, packed your laptop/camera/phone chargers/usb drive/table/sunny disposition& best attitude…but you’re still not exactly sure what to expect…

Well you’ve made a great start so far, and to get even more out of the Startup Weekend experience take a look at 5 Tried & Tested Top Tips to rocket launch your start even further.

  1.  Watch a few “Pitchfire”videos (that’s the initial idea pitches on the Friday evening). Check out this one (not sure where it’s from but it’s a good overview).  Note that no presentations are used (the presentation image in the background is just a static pitchfire’ image) – the only tools available to you will be you, your voice and your infectious enthusiasm for your idea. Also note, pitches are limited to 60 seconds.
  2. And watch a few Sunday Final Pitch videos – here are some from Startup Weekend Seattle – Nov 11-13 2011.  This should give you a good overview of what is expected on the Sunday night. You will see that some teams have working prototypes, some focussed on customer validation, and some…really didn’t have much at all, but still got up and hustled their product!
  3. Get your hands on a copy of the Lean Canvas. You are going to need several large copies of this to scribble on and edit as you and your idea pivots its way through the weekend.
  4. Get ready to rocket launch your product, gauge interest and build momentum by building a 180 second ‘register your interest’ site with Launchrock or RocketStart
  5. Set up your *memorable* twitter handle so that mentors, SWLimk organizers and other SWLimk weekend participants can follow your progress and show their support. It’s a great way to shout out to a mentor to come pay you a visit in your corner of the building.

Remember the weekend is all about what you make of it. Having an idea ahead of time what you’d like to get out of it is a good strategy. If that’s just to have some fun and see where it takes you, then that’s a good enough goal for any of us!