Startup Weekend

Here is a recap from the perspective of Lacy Hansen:

“It’s what?” “They’re going to do what?” “I don’t understand.”

These were just a few on the many statements I made over the last few months as Kenton planned for Wichita’s first-ever, Startup Weekend. You see, I’ve listened to a million and one ideas spout from my husband’s brain over the years, it’s just par for the course when you share your life with an idea man. However, this idea to put on a Startup Weekend, had international backing and apparently was “a thing” being done all over the world. I stopped asking questions and just asked how I could help.

Helping led to me getting a first-hand glance into what a Startup Weekend was and why my husband was so excited about making one happen right here in our fair city of Wichita.

Friday night, the first night of the event, equaled a room full of strangers, getting to know each other and listening to a few quick guest speakers. But this was just the warm-up, the main event was when participants lined up to get their 60 seconds to pitch a business idea. I volunteered to take quick notes on the pitches. I heard some of the most clever ideas I’ve ever heard. The 60 seconds went fast, so if the idea was good, it had to come across right away.

An idea for a game-play app for employees to create better work production, a business to make money off of the crazy wedding gifts you receive, a way to get real-time weather updates versus the delayed radar updates, a way to utilize energy and hot water heaters, were just a few of the great ideas (and these are the ideas that didn’t get picked). Once the pitches were done, everyone had two votes, those ideas with the most votes were the businesses that teams would build during Startup Weekend. It all started to become very clear what the event was about and I was getting very intrigued.

Before the night was over, strong teams of developers, designers, marketers, and all the other essential elements that go into a business had formed and a handful of incredible projects were off and running.

I was pleased by what was picked.

• A pitch for solving the issue of trying to cook unique cuisine, but never being able to find the right ingredients or ending up shopping at 20 stores to find rare Thai spices was hard at work.
• Another group was off to solve the annoying issue of having to write down your info or drop a paper business card at every vendor during trade shows.
• A group a young professionals was trying to create an app to keep them from spending too much money and consuming too much alcohol at the bar.
• A small team had also formed to capitalize on the fact that the first thing we do before a movie is browse our smartphone and the first thing we do after the film is once again, browse our smart phone. This was leading to a real-time, real people, rating system.
• One last team had formed to create a way for real people to find other real people with real skills to help around the house. A busy mom pitched that she uses a friend to help her clean, but she needed more ways to find other reliable individuals to call on when things needed to be done.

I dumped the dinner trash, cleaned up some of the mess, and headed home as these teams began working and creating real, genuine businesses. I think that’s when I started to get what a Startup Weekend was and I was really impressed. I sat in a room full of people who had the ideas and talents to make real businesses happen, like right away. They had the will and the initiative to start a company. There was no talk, it was all walk. What would it be like if everyone with an idea had this sort of environment?

I guess that husband of mine was right to be really excited about this project.