It’s been 1.5 year since I attended Atlanta Startup Weekend. Among startup events taking place in Istanbul such as etohum, webrazzi meetups etc. Startup Weekend Istanbul was the best in terms of bringing a diverse set of high quality people together. The selection process to attend the event combined with great sponsors to make it free resulted in a great Startup Weekend. Short meetings are only good for “networking”, these long events allow you to make stronger connections.
The lesson I learned last time was to choose a good team instead of a good idea. I faced the same dilemma this time, I had to choose between:
- Great people, not so exciting idea
- Exciting idea, weak team
My goal was to meet interesting people and have fun so I chose the first option. I’m glad I did. What made our team great were these little moments: Ilyas pulling out a Vodka bottle out of his bag and offering team members his redbull-vodka mix on the first night… Selin bringing Turkish pastry and flowers on Saturday morning, Erdem going to Eminonu to buy horns for the team, Emrah with his dial-up modem ringtone, loud applauses for the team on every occasion… I remembered how it is to work in a fun environment!
Here’s the pattern I’ve seen about what makes a good team for a startup weekend event:
- There are a lot of developers on the team, and there is a great designer
- Core of the team consists of friends that already knew each other before the event
- People who pitch the idea have done preparation in advance (buying the domain, printing cards)
What was the result of the event? The team with the exciting idea won the best project award, and our project bullpass.com was the runner-up with the best design prize. The fun we had as a team during this weekend was priceless.
I met extraordinary people and had a superb time! I’m looking forward to the next event …
