MatthewVB

The more of I think of it, the more I’d be freaked out if I was a business owner of was thinking of starting a business. And here’s why business people need to start that freak out process, asap!

Short story

In less than 72 hours, a group of the brightest minds in the area got together and took an abstract non-existent concept into a full functioning business complete with site, business and marketing plans, and extended branding plans.

Long story

About 2 weeks ago SW weekend DC had 43 ideas being pitched, by Friday night we had 3 ideas left to consider. In a matter of about 90 minutes we finalized an idea of a business to build. Now, earlier in the week another company was concerned about the idea we ended up choosing because it was their entire business and they’ve invested millions…I’d be concerned too!

Over the course of about 33 work hours, we broke into teams of marketing, PR, business development, designers, user experience, and development. These core teams worked in unison to make the dream of launching, what would become in this case HolaNeighbor, a reality. There were bumps and bruises along the way, which all companies experience, but we had a successful beta launch of the product in these short 33 working hours, which would normally take a startup weeks, months, if not years to do. I have been working with startups who’ve taken their ideas as far as they can over months/years and still don’t have functioning products yet. Aside from the past three startup weekends, I haven’t heard about a company successfully launching after only a 72 hour time-block in which only 33 working hours were performed.

Now, the skeptics are gonna say, “Sure, you launched, but how much work is left?” Fair question. We are working on the battle plan for development right now, but the business and marketing plans are done. We know through a few short hours where our product stands and now can go feature crazy on it. Over the next few weeks we’ll add some more ‘pretty’ things to it and I’m sure it’ll get tweaked and touched up as the process moves on — but so does every other business. The thing that makes the SW business model different is we actually launched something of quality with some great people in a short amount of time.

Okay, sure — now you’ll think we probably don’t get anything out of it — no pay or anything. Well, yes and no. We got about 60+ of the greatest minds together after sponsorship and the first ever buy-in requirement of $20 to hold your space. All the funding has gone towards paying for food and space requirements (extra tables) as well as shirts for everyone. Everyone came together to work on equity and now is an equal share holder in the company. Yes, that’s right. No one person in the company has any greater power than anyone else. Did we have leaders? Heck ya we did! But they were more so facilitators and gatekeepers for a team to make sure communication was flowing — but their cut is just as much as the person next to them. Once the idea was adopted, it was the group’s idea and no one else’s.

That’s a huge philosophical leap for almost every company I’ve heard of, so think about that, will ya! The idea that your marketing is just as important as development, which is just as important as the person with the vision. Why should anyone carry a greater stake? I’m not sure. SW divides shares based on how much time you devote to the weekend — equally across the board. That’s a big difference in how many companies function.

Conclusion

Start freaking out, because not only do you deserve it, you need to! You are about to battle a new phenomenon that will sweep around the globe and take the world by storm. The notion of starting with nothing and making it complete in a short time frame is coming true. Technologies are allowing for this to happen now more than ever.

I can’t stress enough the idea that this was possible because we were all equals in the creation and entirety. That was and will continue to be the key in business development.

Next topic: Talking doesn’t get a project launched – doing does.

Clarification: I’m not talking about any companies in specific regarding this post, well, except the one who was nervous about HolaNeighbor invading a marketplace with phone calls in the previous week. I’m purely speaking in general business terms from my observations.