Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours [Hardcover]

Marc Nager (Author), Clint Nelsen (Author), Franck Nouyrigat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2011

Tested principles for transforming an idea into a fully operational company

Startup Weekend—the organization behind 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and create startups—has spawned both a global initiative in entrepreneurship as well as numerous successful startups. Startup Weekend, the book, contains best practices, lessons learned, and empowering examples derived from the organization's experiences for individuals and small organizations to follow as they launch businesses. Each of the key beliefs outlined has been tested by Startup Weekend and has yielded powerful results.

The principles described in each chapter will give any business idea a greater chance for success.

• Chapter topics include trust and empowerment, flexible organizational structures, the power of experiential education, action-based networking, and much more
• Describes consequences for startup development as entrepreneurs and founders begin doing much more, even faster
• Profiles successful Startup Weekend companies, including two powerful examples: Memolane, an application that captures a user's online life in one timeline making it easy for users to travel back in time and relive memories; and Foodspotting, a mobile and desktop app that allows users to find and share the foods they love

Apply these simple actionable principles to launch your own startup revolution.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

---

From the Book: Pitching for Talent in 60 Seconds
Good Ideas Need Great Talent: Pitch for Talent, Not for Funding

60 seconds is about the length of time you have in an elevator to explain the concept of your company to a total stranger (even less, if you get out on a lower floor). After that minute is up, you’ll start to lose someone’s attention. So it’s best to make those 60 seconds count:

5 to 10 seconds: Who are you?
10 to 20 seconds: What’s the problem your product/service solves?
10 to 20 seconds: What’s your solution?
5 to 10 seconds: Who do you need on your team?
(See the graphic below for more information on each step)

---

Review

'This book is a powerful and valuable lesson in what can be achieved if you put the right people in the same room, with the intent of achieving a single goal.' (Will Roney, Bookworm.73, January 2012)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 171 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118105095
• ISBN-13: 978-1118105092
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Good Information, But Very Short & Thinly Developed November 2, 2011

By Bradley Bevers TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I have really been looking forward to this book, but now that I have it am very disappointed. I was expecting a book that would really give tools, ideas, and practical information on how to build a business in a weekend. Instead, it feels like a book that just points to an event (Startup Weekend) over and over. After reading this, Startup Weekend the event sounds great and like something I definitely want to attend. Startup Weekend the book . . . comes up lacking.

The ideas presented are short. For instance, the first two are action-based networking and the 60-second pitch. Great place to begin for a startup, but after the chapter titles are in place the authors then write about how these things are accomplished at Startup Weekend. Stories about different people presenting their 60 second pitch in front of large groups of people is not helpful in a book. Talking about the casual Friday night dinners at Startup Weekend in a book is not helpful either. You come away from reading the book thinking Startup Weekend (the event) sounds amazing, but you are no closer to actually pulling off any of these things in a weekend on your own time. Instead, it feels like you just watched an infomercial.

One big problem with the book: the introduction is too long. It is 20 pages, making the remainder of the book 130 pages or so. The story of how Startup Weekend . . . started up . . . is interesting, but would have been better at the end of the book. You definitely want to know more about Startup Weekend when you read the content, but its hard to care very much when its placed at the beginning.

130 pages is long enough to accomplish great things if you do it right, but this book just doesn't deliver. There are some helpful things here, and some quotes that are worth remembering, but your time is better spent on other books. I gave it three stars because the information is solid, there is just not enough of it.

Recommended if you are interested in learning and attending a Startup Weekend event. Actually, you should probably skip the book and just attend the event . . . they really sound like they are great, and I am going to try and make the next one in my area. If you want to test a business idea and get it launched quickly, both The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content. and The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan are better books to start with.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Credibility? May 24, 2012

By K. R. Marshall

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book based on a friend's recommendation who had been to Startup Weekend and enjoyed it. I made the assumption that the authors were all seasoned serial entrepreneurs with years of experience through thick and thin. Reading the intro, it became clear that their startup story was in starting Startup Weekend itself! The story goes that one of them really wanted to do a startup and began working on one, heard about startup weekend, and decided to join the core group and make that his startup. Hmmm.

To me, the book had a lot of cookie cut, theoretical information that you could find in any entrepreneurship 101 textbook on starting a business but lacked depth.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Overpromises, Underdelivers April 18, 2012

By Ryan Battles

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Like other reviewers, I picked up this book because of the subtitle, "How to take a company from concept to creation in 54 hours." In short, the solution is "Attend a Startup Weekend." The book itself does not give much information, and is clearly geared towards advertising the Startup Weekend events. I'm a little offended at this because I felt like I wasted money, and my time, to simply walk away feeling advertised towards. Unless you are going to a Startup Weekend and really want to have a preview from the founders, I'd skip this book and grab another startup-based title.