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MeetupStartup Weekend: A Report From The Cleaner
I’m Winston Wolfe Jeremy Tanner, I solve problems.
A few weeks ago I got an email from my friend Andrew Hyde. Startup Weekend’s new CEO had quit without notice and Andrew had a scheduling conflict preventing him from heading out to his home state weekend. My mission should I chose to accept it: Free Solo a Startup Weekend. The original venue canceled at the beginning of the week, leaving the weekend in danger of being pushed back or canceled.
No local organizer? No furniture? No whiteboards? No powerstrips? No food czar? No head bouncer? No problem.
OK, a Startup Weekend on the rocks is no dead body in the back of a Chevy Nova, that can be fixed with some bleach and a blanket. Startup Weekend required a few more phone calls
Same day a email inquiry was made, Scott Kveton of Vidoop offered up his week-old downtown space. A call to the party place and a trip to office depot later, tables, chairs, power strips, sticky poster sheets and markers had been secured. Beer / snack run with an early weekender as a preemptive strike (You can’t be grumpy while you’re drinking free beer!)
Over the next days I was Club SW Doorman/Bouncer, Food Finder, Meeting Master, Motivator, Referee and Donut Taster. (I recommend the Bacon Maple Bar) The weekenders brought their A-game forming Mugasha (Random access DJ Set sharing and listening), GetGathered (Meeting Scheduler), Treasurecycle (Barter your old stuff), Life Grant (Dream / Goal Funder) and Startup River (Idea -> Profit!).
I came away from the weekend impressed with Portland’s community and with even more respect for Andrew and the company he built, city-by-city last year. Also a good starter list for the Startup Weekend best practices being assembled to ease things as Andrew passes the reins of SW to Clayton. Finally, big thanks to weekend sponsors Vidoop, JumpBox and Colour Lovers!
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