- November 21, 2011
- 2 Comments
- Videos
Many great things start from humble beginnings, including Startup Weekend (World Headquarters) of Seattle, Washington. It was Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen and Frank Nouyrigat crowded into one condo, pleading for funding to stay alive and using the condo windows as whiteboards that birthed the non-profit version of Startup Weekend. The original model (purchased by the three) was for-profit but had too many SEC hoops to make it practical. The NPO version has a simple mission: To give everyone in the world a place to take their first steps as an entrepreneur.
Who attends these worldwide weekend events? “We have high school students, first time entrepreneurs and 15-time entrepreneurs”, Marc espouses, “and I think the 15-timers actually get more out of the weekend!” Since the events are global, one of the challenges is to combine the knowledge that is constantly bubbling up and sharing it with the volunteers who put on the local weekends. “It’s and exponential value-creation chain we are trying to set in place”, the CEO explains, and it seems to be working very well.
These local volunteers have no less passion than the founders, either. They not only need to put forth the effort to market and organize, there is still considerable fund-raising needed to make the event successful. And at the end of the day, “It’s not about business ideas and funding,” Marc goes on, “it really is still about people and their passion and gaining new knowledge.” Startup Weekend is proving this holds true the world over.
Marc, Clint, Frank: Thanks for your gift to the world.
From their website: Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups!
by Thubten Comerford and Michael Coates
This interview is sponsored by WePost Media
2 Responses to “Three Founders and a Condo ~ Marc Nager, CEO of Startup Weekend”
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Wow. Leaving out Andrew Hyde’s name seems like a gross oversight. It’s fantastic that Marc, Clint and Frank have grown Startup Weekend and secured its future with the Kaufmann grant and I’m sure that they would agree that the non-profit’s legacy is big enough to encompass Andrew as well.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_Weekend
Thank you Eric for reminding us where Startup Weekend started. Andrew Hyde launched Startup Weekend in 2007. Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen participated in one of the weekends Andrew produced and got understandably inspired. They took over SW in May 2009 and proceeded to purchase the for profit company from Andrew and turn it into a not-for-profit company. Although Startup Weekend had made a great debut under Andrew’s leadership, it was quickly approaching unsustainability.
Kudos to Marc and Clint for realizing that a 501c3 model made more sense for the organization, for the participants and for the startup communities they would come to serve. That pivot must have been difficult to make, and yet it was an obvious choice. Thanks to Bo Fishback of Kauffman Labs, Startup Weekend is now reaching its potential.
To my mind, crediting Andrew for what Startup Weekend now is and is becoming is akin to giving Alexander Graham Bell credit for the popularity of the iPhone 4S. Even your Wikipedia citation credits him as a mere sperm donor.