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http://dc.startupweekend.com/

3 days

54 hours

70+ people

While I am working on a larger post about Startup Weekend and some thoughts that I have about what it signals about the DC/NoVa tech community on the whole, I did want to do a brief run-down of who is saying what and where. Also, I wanted to give many thanks to all that participated as well as to the organizers Andrew, Micah, Will, and Brian/Viget, too!

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Quick background… (h/t to fabulous Deb for the summary over at Product Four):

“About 70 people showed up, from about every discipline involved in tech startups. Many of them were way good at their craft, and they were all extremely pleasant to be hanging out and working with. And yes - we launched a product: Hola Neighbor…”

There was even a real-deal, front-of-the-business section article in the Washington Post on Monday.

So… here’s what some of the cool kids said about the experience (let me know if there are others that I left out!):

  • My partner in crime <3 and a guy who is one helluva designer, Jesse Thomas has a great photoblog montage and this to say: “It is really a team building exercise or a psychology experiment more than a technical challenge.”
  • Jess3-friend and “curious software developer with a passion for technology” Luc Castera documents his experiences here and here.
  • Gracious space-host and CEO of the burgeoning web consulting firm “Viget,” Brian Wynne Williams posted some very FRESH thoughts on the experience. He has a great run down… I am posting his top-line bullets here:
    • It launched.
    • People stuck.
    • I met a lot of good people.
    • Viget HQ held up.
    • It wasn’t about the company.
    • Negative conflict was rare.
    • The group had manners.
  • Friend and oft-seen-at-tech-events Peter-iStrategies-Corbett pre-viewed the event here and posted a re-cap here.
  • Alex at w.a.r shares: “Needless to say, I’ve learned a great deal, but I come away from the weekend with 3 general lessons learned about building a new business…”
  • Kenneth Yeung over at “The Letter Two” posts about the HolaNeighbor product itself, playing up its ultra-niche features: “if you want more of a tight-knit community compared to a traditional group that you would find in Myspace and Facebook - those just seem so impersonal at times…”
  • DC Tech Beat, the newly launched blog headed by Greg Gershman (which I hope to contribute to as well!), posted about the Washington Post coverage here and the event itself here.

Cheers, y’all!!

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