Thoughts and Updates from BarCampRDU

First of all, a big thanks to Fred and the rest of the team for organizing the whole enchilada.

Second, I met someone that Dugald Wilson, who actually reads this blog.  Even better, he liked it.  I'll be wearing my swollen ego with pride for the next few days ;-)

Third, but certainly not last, thanks to Erik from Fetzco Coffee  -- Fred suggested them and I gather everyone liked the coffee.

There were some interesting sessions and I got to meet some smart and talented people.  Anyone trying to follow up can reach me via the email feedback form on our home page or send it to nick at disruptormonkey.

I have to confess that when I casually threw out a couple of ideas for sessions, I didn't really expect to end up presenting them.  As a marketing guy, I figured I'd be a bit of a social leper at this event.  But maybe the presence of a Microsoftie was what made me more socially acceptable.  All sins are relative, after all...

I gave two presentations:

• What's stopping YOU from starting something?
• A lot of Marketing and Sales is B.S.  Let's discuss the parts that aren't.

Someone Brian Russel had previously suggested a StartupWeekend session (sorry -- I don't remember your name, but it's the man behind the startup wiki) which got rolled in to my session.

With the minor screw up on lunch (catering was late) I was up earlier than I expected, and ended up winging it more than I had intended, but everything seemed to turn out okay.

Some notes/thoughts from the sessions:

Most of the startup session attendees were coders.  While the number one concern expressed was paying the mortgage, (not a surprise), more folks than I expected cited "not knowing what they were getting into and needing business advice".  Food for thought there.

We talked a little about yCombinator and TechStars, and of course  StartupWeekend. There are a lot of things I like about the StartupWeekend model, especially with regard to building an entrepreneurial community, but I do have some concerns about feasibility.  Again, food for thought.

There was one suggestion that we plan one in two weeks, but I really can't see putting everything in place by then (venue, sponsors, ideas etc).  Not that I'm suggesting I run it -- my bandwidth is stretched pretty thin at this point.

If you're interested in doing a StartupWeekend in RTP, head on over to the wiki and make yourself heard.

I promise to think about it some more and do some future blog posts.

My BS session had a decent turnout too -- hope I delivered something of value.  I'll be posting much of what I talked about here over the next week or two.

One final note, for now.  I mentioned some sales and marketing books to a few people that I think are worth the read.  For those of you that don't know me, I am usually VERY reluctant to recommend marketing books because so many of them are bad or faddish (The Tipping Point was certainly the book du jour today -- not saying it's bad, but there are _some_ other books out there).

My current top book is "Marketing That Works: How Entrepreneurial Marketing Can Add Sustainable Value to Any Sized Company" by Howard Morgan, Leonard Lodish and Shellye Archambeau.  Normally I would run from a book authored by a VC and two Professors, but this is probably the single most informative and practical marketing and sales book I own.  Read it and learn.

For straight sales info, Jeffrey Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness" will teach you a great deal.  I find it an incredibly annoying read, but Mr. G. knows his stuff and the book has a ton of great ideas and information.  But trust me, this book will scare you and you will feel slightly soiled and used after you read it.

A "classic" of marketing, in my opinion, is still "Positioning" by Al Reis and Jack Trout.  If you want to understand branding and what it should do, this is a great place to start.

More to come as I think of it.  A great day was had by all...

Comments

[BrianR]

Thanks for the review of the Startup Weekend session. You did a wonderful job. (BTW, I suggested it and my name is Brian) :D

[DisMonkey]

Thanks for the comment -- I'll update the post accordingly.

I've been thinking about it all weekend. While I like what the event achieves, I'm not sure the goal is the right one...

I'll try and get to a post in a couple of days.

[Phillip Rhodes]

StartupWeekend sounds interesting, but as I was saying Sat., my main interest at this point is just networking with fellow entrepreneurs, sharing ideas and information, and meeting other useful contacts; more than actually trying to do a full-fledged "start a business in a weekend" thing. But providing a forum for entrepreneurs and startup oriented folks to network is what I'm trying to accomplish with this Triangle Startup Group thing, so maybe these two things will prove to have some synergy. We'll see what happens, I guess. :-)