Posted by: Contributing columnist, Clarion-Ledger, Business, May 19, 2016
Throughout the year, Innovate Mississippi hosts “Startup Weekend” events, which are what I like to refer to as “The coolest events we do” – because business or product ideas are transformed into working companies over the course of the weekend (thanks in part to lots of Red Bull and coffee).
Startup Weekends started nearly a decade ago, are powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, and take place in more than 135 countries all over the world. Innovate Mississippi organizes Startup Weekends in our state, and we have hosted a total of 12 of these events in six cities across Mississippi. The most recent were held in Hattiesburg last November, Oxford in February, and Jackson in April.
The Startup Weekend model is truly a valuable outline for anyone interested in entrepreneurship. It is structured to provide an educational and hands-on snapshot of what goes into creating a business.
So, starting on Friday night, anyone with a startup idea pitches it to the group in 60 seconds. We get a lot of questions similar to “You mean I’m supposed to tell everyone my idea?” and we always tell participants that within the 48 hours their team spends on building out the concept, they will see the idea transform into something real. Keeping an idea secret may sound like the prudent choice, but our experience shows that an idea not shared is likely to be in the same place six or 12 months later; but an idea that is shared can ultimately be vetted, improved or abandoned – all of which are actual progress.
After the pitches, the ideas are voted on and teams form around those top ideas. Then, the teams get to work on these primary deliverables for the remainder of the weekend: A “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP), market research and a general financial model.
On Saturday, the teams gather market research for their MVP from real potential customers to test how it might function. Since any prototype developed within 24 hours will likely be very basic and not fully functional, some teams choose to develop a deck of screen shots or other props in order to interact with customers and get that market feedback. And sometimes, the market feedback is used to redesign or re-think the product.
By Sunday, now with market feedback and a financial model in hand, teams turn their attention to preparing their pitch. Each team is given 5 minutes to present their plan to a panel of judges and the audience (that often includes angel investors), and a few minutes are allotted for a Q&A. Judges and other key individuals provide teams with valuable feedback that they can use if they decide to move forward with their new startup. The weekend concludes with the announcement of the winning teams, who receive in-kind prizes such as incubator/co-working space, web development consultations, marketing & legal consultations, and more.
At the end of any Startup Weekend, if any teams decide to continue building their new venture, Innovate Mississippi staff eagerly engages with them to help them move forward in the right direction. Oftentimes, another interesting phenomenon transpires from the event – a participant gets hooked on the entrepreneurial process and opts to pursue a completely different idea than the one they developed through Startup Weekend.
Taking the earliest seed of an idea and guiding it down a path to becoming a viable company (creating both jobs and wealth) is a goal of Innovate Mississippi, and our Startup Weekend events are one strategic component of our overall strategy for creating a stronger economy and ecosystem of innovation for Mississippi. The work done over the weekend is also a great outline for any company’s new idea: put the product in the hands of potential customers, use their feedback to improve the product, and gather more feedback to develop the path forward.
Tony Jeff is the president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi. He can be reached at tjeff@innovate.ms.