(English) No dream too big, or Startup Weekend Taipei 2

This article was provided by Drimmit’s Gergely (Greg) Imreh. You can read it here on his blog.

Despite that I haven’t started myself any project yet, I’m a big fan of startup events.Startupbus, Entrepreneurship Challenge, Startup Weekend Taipei, they were all really amazing. Because of this, normally I wouldn’t have thought twice about signing up for Startup Weekend 2. Too bad, that it wasn’t normal situation, last weekend it was in the same time asIgnite Taipei #4, which I was co-organizing (and speaking in Chinese, oh the horror!), and wasn’t sure if I can do the two things in the same time. My friend and team member from last time, Pandey, was pushing me quite a bit, and couldn’t show fear or uncertainty – signed up anyway. Thought I will figure out what to do once we get there. As with many things in life, every issue worked out, probably even better than I could have planned, and I had a great (no matter how busy) weekend.

Beginning

It started on Friday, we all been checked in to Taipei 101, through tight security, changing elevators and lots of access cards to the 77th floor to Google Taiwan. It’s a nice place, and a view to kill for, though I wonder if I could work there for a long time.

As at other such events, it started with snacks, exchanging of business cards, trying to gauge each other, who would be a good team mate, what to expect. There were some presentations, introduction, t-shirts and badges of course.

After about 2 hours the time came for pitching. From the 60 participants I think at least 20, maybe even more were sharing their ideas. The two language (English and Chinese) made it quite rough to sometimes understand what’s going on, though the 30/90 second time limit for single/dual language pitches is pretty tight as well.

I usually decide by following my intuition, and for the first 10 or so, I haven’t heard anything that ticked my interest really. Then there was one guy who was pitching a subscription based wine discovery service (something like sending people each month some new selection, with a guide, and help them understand those better while discovering new tastes). I thought for a moment of Cerealize (that took home 1st place at this year’s StartupBus), Candy Japan (that just looks such a simple and brilliant idea, and seems to work extremely well), ShoeDazzle(subscription clothes)…… (Semi)-custom food and such service sounds just such a brilliantidea, and wine is very well suited for that. Also, recently I had more exposure to wine and wine tasting, just wanted to use this myself and would know plenty of other people who would too.

I got to say, I pretty much stopped listening to all the other pitches, already been planning this, because I felt this would so easily win the competition – and turning profit by Sunday. Went and talked to the guy, and at the idea voting stage (where people could select the most interesting pitches, so the 11 most voted one will be allowed to build a team) I was canvasing for that anyway. Should have had some feeling, when the idea guy was saying that “good that you are interested, but it’s not sure you can be on the team” – sure, why not, no problem.

In the end the idea was selected, team started to build and we had 7 people altogether. I was really psyched. Since due to Taipei 101 regulations we had to get out of the building in 1 hour, got to work right away. Got the team members emails together, set up organization doc, the others were working on the name (Advintage), once they had one they liked the Facebook page was already set up, sent email to someone I know to know lots of wine-tasting people so we could get good info about what are the good ones to choose and maybe help to write the promotion material. Seen a couple of mentors idling around, and went to talk to them a little before they they kicked us out – running the idea with them, get some feedback, get pretty much a first customer, very interesting info and some thoughts I haven’t considered before.

5 minutes before we had to get out the building, I got back to the team and started to update the idea guy:

“Hey, talked to the mentors and just a quick summary, they said (this and that)”.

“Ah, wait. Wait. Greg, we don’t have much synergy here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“While everyone was working on the things, you didn’t help just went and talked to other people before asking us that we should do that.”

“Come on, we have very short time, we had to talk to them to get feedback. You don’t need me to choose a name ….”

“I’m sorry. We don’t have much synergy here. I don’t want you on the team.”

“Okay, I understand.”

So this is the story of me being fired for the first time. It’s interesting feeling, quite illuminating as well, I haven’t felt a lot of feelings like that before. So 5 minutes after I talked to the mentors, run into them again, and when they told me a couple of things, my only answer could be – sorry, I’m not on that team anymore. “What? They fired you?” “What, they fired him, why?” “Because he did something without asking permission.” “You are probably better off.”

Thus instead of going home to work on the project more, I carried on with the preparation for Ignite the next day. Oh, I needed that.

Drimmit

In the evening I was thinking what other team to join – since I basically didn’t hear anyone else’s pitch, but there was Pandey and his group where I knew a couple of them, maybe will join that team if they want me. For a short while I was thinking of getting the teams try to woo me, but that was just silly. I realized that I was doing the “I’m here to win not to make friends” routine that I previously laughed a lot at, so instead just followed my heart and went with the team where I wanted to know the people more.

And how well that was – I learned a lot of interesting things with them that I wouldn’t have otherwise. So here it is, Drimmit:

It’s more or less a site to collaboratively help you achieve your dreams, give advice to each other, and find and manage milestones along the way to give you a clearer path and higher probablity of succes.

It was weird not to be the tech lead, but good to let some things go. Instead of that I was trying to take care of the front-end, while half the team was working on the model and product pitch for the finals.

So, some lessons learned along the way:

• We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the model, everything had some problem, nothing was completely logical. Pretty much more than a day went buy, where we had ideas how things would look, what’s the flow, but then had to scrap that. One cannot really develop like that.
• I overestimated my front-end skills, though it’s usually quite tough to turn a Photoshop mock-up into a working site. Also had to get used to the terminology that when someone asked: “Do we have this page” and the team replied “It’s done!” it meant there’s a picture of it, not at all that it works.
• For a while I was annoyed by this, but it also gave the spark: for the pitch we don’t have to code down everything, just make a show-and-click: things look like they work, but the functionality doesn’t have to be created. That means we could just scrap (or rather: abandon) the work so far (that’s about Sunday noon, for 5pm start of the finals) and concentrate on looking good. This gave us a demo better than others
• Learned about coding some more, though I haven’t had to do much this time. One lesson is to practice a lot beforehand. Another is to prepare some tools to make development easier. And of course: do whatever it takes.
• Because I didn’t do much and I was too cocky in the beginning, I hereby revoke my “hacker” badge until the next time I build something. No problem, I have just the project on my mind I want to do next.
• One of the strength I seem to have is asking questions, and that way at least I could help. It can be pretty annoying, to also very useful, I could see the gaps in thinking, asking the details, figuring out where we are not good yet. Does that mean that I would be a better mentor or consultant than creator?
• It’s fun to work with people I know and like, the team is very very important. Also important not to take anything personally, too much stress of the 54 hours drives people to the edge.
• If I were to start a team outside of such events, I would probably do it with 2-3 people instead of 6-7, it’s easier to get on the same page. On the other hand, much fewer ideas as well, so it might not be a good call.
• Would have to think how to replicate the pressure of a Startup Weekend outside of it. Amazing how much one can get done when he/she has to.

The guys were practicing a lot our pitch and here’s the result:Also, there’s a rehearsal video, also good to see the progress (and the tension) people had before we went in.

The results of the finals

Advintage won – which is pretty much making me happy, because I predicted that. It helps that they had about 50x the revenue over the weekend (30 subscriptions at 2000NT) than any other team. They have won on the product, clearly. On the other hand, it also made me happy that I realized I still wouldn’t like to work for the guy. “Work for”, that was my impression, he wanted employees, instead of co-founders out of this weekend. Fair enough.

On the other hand, Drimmit came 2nd. We clearly won on presentation, the energy, the preparation, the polish (as much as you can get in a day) worked. We had the team to pull it off. I was very proud of them, and glad to help no matter how much. Also, the presentation worked since many other people keep asking whether we’ll continue working on it, because they’d like to use such a service.

It was a great time and let’s see where does it take us later. I was wrong enough times and right enough time this weekend to learn plenty.

Future

Among the most inspiring picture, though, came from another team, posting (literally) their first revenue, regardless of the value:

Also, I’m thinking that next time I would try to pitch as well, been developing enough, now it’s time to see if I could sell my ideas to others, whether I can get them excited about something. You know, it’s not the ideator but the first follower that counts.

The rest of the pictures are in this album, click to see, CC-BY to reuse if liked.

Startup Weekend Taipei#2 參與心得分享

本文來自efterlife (數位身後事)團隊官方網站。

「時火光中爭長競短，幾何光陰? 蝸牛角上較雌論雄，許大世界」。猶記這是小學時，老師在畢業紀念冊留下勉勵大家的一句話。當時年紀小，無法體會箇中滋味，直到長大後，漸漸發現就像齊秦早年的那首歌-「外面的世界」描述般，這個世界既精彩又無奈。參與今年的Startup Weekend Taipei #2-一場54小時「創意」+「創業」的馬拉松賽，則更是讓人深刻感受到我們時時刻刻活在一個充滿創意、挑戰與快速輪轉的年代裡。

相較於去年，Startup Weekend Taipei #2今年參與的人數雖然有減少，但參與者的熱情卻沒有降低。特別的是，今年在Google的贊助下，有機會在他們台北101的77樓總部：一個幾乎接近 “雲端”的環境裡，與來自各路的武林高手一起腦力激盪。在這裡，除了有吃不完的美食(三餐+飲料+點心)，更能看見所有工作人員對整個過程中在場地、時間、人員掌控的精準所付出的辛勞、Mentor(導師)無私的提供他們一路走來的寶貴經驗以及…所有團隊即使已經累到不行還持續堅持的熱情。

我們最後沒有得名。是的，但那並不重要。即使我們團隊只有3個人 (最迷你的team之一)，但卻心存感激。感激的是…有伙伴願意一起探討 “數位身後事”這個冷門又不太活潑的話題、感激在場願意聽我們不太專業簡報的各路高手及評審，還有感激那些幫忙在我們粉絲團點「讚」的支持者。因為有這些人的支持，讓一切似乎又往前踏了一小步。

人際關係大師哈維麥凱曾經說過：

如果要贏過80%的競爭者,你必須出席

如果要贏過85%的競爭者,你必須出席+準時

如果要贏過90%的競爭者,你必須出席+準時+計畫

如果要贏過95%的競爭者,你必須出席+準時+計畫+追求卓越

如果要贏過100%的競爭者,你必須出席+準時+計畫+追求卓越+執行

不論是從「創意」或「創業」角度來看， Startup Weekend Taipei 的54小時活動確實可以提供驗證以上論述的最佳環境。我們還做得還不夠，仍有很多可以改善的空間，但願下一次活動的到來，我們將能有更充分的準備。Keep Working &  Keep Surviving!!

(圖片拍攝於Startup Weekend Taipei#2 @Google  2012.03.30)

(English) Startup Weekend Taipei: So, what happened?

本文來自Advintage團隊的Mei Huang小姐。如有文章想提供給執行團隊分享，請發連結至 james@startupweekend.tw。

So, Startup Weekend, well… Let’s see what had happened, shall we.

剛從這2.5天的緊繃中鬆懈下來，重拾一週以前的生活步調，怕自己盡寫下一些流水帳，因此醞釀了兩三天才動筆來回顧這個週末。有很多學習（這是當然的），但有些可能不是那麼「公關正確」的學習，希望不會得罪太多人，哈哈。開始吧！

設計思考與創業：快速修正與取得回饋的重要性！

Startup Weekend裡要求每個團隊使用的是Lean Startup（精實創業）方法論，有興趣的人可以連結去研究研究，但就以我自己粗淺的了解，認為這套方法就像是設計思考裡面要求大家快速做出prototype，然後立刻去找使用者測試，得到回饋之後再很快地進行修正，然後再做出個prototype，再去找使用者測試的過程。（另一個結合lean startup與 user experience方法的公司LUXr也很有趣！）

在這2.5天裡，每個團隊應該都被逼出去與使用者接觸，打電話推銷、填問卷（well, 這真的不是那麼推薦，不過他的確是要在短時間內看到回饋最快速的方法），或是直接站上講台問台下的大家願不願意掏錢買。這個過程應該對大部分的人而言都是非常挑戰舒適圈的舉動，無論是習慣於坐在辦公室裡光想不做的商管專業人員，或者是負責一直寫程式、做網頁的軟體工程師，都得去面對使用者，而這也是讓你的產品真的能夠符合使用者需求的重要條件。不過既然在短時間內就得得到一定程度的使用者認可，要想清楚自己是B2C還是B2B，以及你該怎麼最快速的接觸到你的客戶，這不只是在Startup Weekend這樣的活動裡要想清楚才好做事的，這也是在你的公司要重視的。

幾乎每一組都被所謂的MVP給搞的焦頭爛額，就我的猜測，應該也有不少組像我們一樣搞了好久才稍微知道到底MVP是什麼。MVP＝Minimum Viable Product（最小可行產品），基本上就是要你想清楚你的產品或想法，如果要在接下來的5分鐘內就拿出去賣，那個可以賣的東西是什麼。哈哈，或許是這樣吧，有興趣的人可以自己去認真研究一下。

在大學比了一些商業競賽，大部分的比賽都是要你做出一個包裝的很漂亮的提案或商業模式，而且大部分的比賽裡如果你沒有想到5年、10年計畫的話，就沒有得名的可能。MVP的概念則是反其道而行，而這或許也是startup跟一般大公司需要的東西不同之處：startup需要快速、彈性、立即得到成果，有理想而沒有那個踏出第一步且要把第一步站穩的MVP是不可行的。這對於在國企系裡解了好幾年哈佛個案的我來說，算是一記響亮的wakeup call。沒錯，長期策略很重要；沒錯，有短中長期計畫很重要。就像一句從朋友的朋友口中講出的至理名言：「國企系教你有夢最美，但卻沒教你築夢踏實」。不能說策略是個屁，但他應該要與執行力共存才有價值，而這也是國企系一直沒有教的東西。

推薦給想要比商業競賽的學弟妹，說不定在你們的提案裡面真的用MVP的概念，去賣出些什麼，能幫你變成現場最突出的那一組。要不是我實在有更緊急的事情要做，還真想去比個什麼競賽來測試一下XDD。言盡於此，想不想用就由你自己決定啦。

知道自己的堅持，但也要能夠變通

在Startup Weekend裡，每過一、兩個小時，就會有mentor來關心一下進度，每一組也都把握機會請這些mentor來debug（找盲點）一下。每個mentor都很盡責的點出他覺得不錯的地方，也毫不留情的點出那些致命的盲點，同時也會給你他的意見。每個人來講的東西都不一樣，但卻也都是重要的意見，所以你一定會想要盡可能的修正被點出來的問題。

Well，不知道有多少mentor其實把這一切看在眼裡，心裡卻在吶喊著：「堅持下去！」不過，我想這也是一堂必須要讓每個人都重重摔過才真的學的會的課。就像是你無法滿足這世界每一個消費者一樣，每個人給你的意見一定都不一樣，而這也是在設計思考工作坊裡面，每次到了使用者測試的階段，每一組都搞不清楚是否該照著測試者的意見改，還是要忽略他的意見。一直照著每個人給的意見修正，會讓你一直回到原點，失去前進的方向；不聽意見，又會讓你與實際的使用者脫節，最後變成那些冥頑不靈的失敗品。到底該怎麼拿捏，這恐怕是個大哉問，我也不知道答案，但或許這也是為什麼你需要很明確的知道自己「要解決什麼問題」以及你的「high level pitch」是什麼的原因。

「你要解決的問題是什麼？」以及「你的high level pitch是什麼？」是這個週末一直被問到的問題，這兩個問題的重要性，就我目前的理解，在於你是否清楚地知道自己做這件事情的目的是什麼。就像大衛所講的，「high level pitch是你每天早上5點起來、即使颱風天也要工作的理由」，我個人覺得這個形容真的是十分貼切。創業很累、很多瓶頸、很多困難，而且是個要自己開路而沒有人帶領的旅程，如果你沒辦法清楚地知道自己的目的地，根本不可能打怪、開路！最後的下場，或許也就只是迷失在叢林中，然後選擇承認失敗。

我還不是個成功的創業家，所以講不出那些該具備哪些條件才會讓你創業的成功率上升的話，但是「堅持」或許是個很明顯的答案。很明確的知道自己到底為誰辛苦為誰忙，然後堅持下去。唉，講著講著就讓我想到在社團遇到的Tina事件與贊助被撤的那段往事，當時有一整個團隊的夥伴互相支持著彼此，即使心裡有個懦弱的聲音一直說：「乾脆放棄吧」，但是由夥伴身上得到的互相鼓勵卻持續不斷地壓過這些聲音！夥伴是很重要的，而我們都沒有那麼堅強！NTU d.thinking Club的大家！你們真的是超棒的夥伴！！！！！（舉手）

Don’t sell love, because love is not for sell

找不到一句恰當的翻譯來解釋這個概念，但基本上就是「不要賣愛心，因為愛心是無價的」。為什麼特別體會這一點，是因為我自己的終極創業目標是要創一個社會企業。社會企業之所以比一般的公司更有挑戰性，是因為他所帶給顧客的價值，要比一般只是比價格還要更多，才能夠讓顧客買單，也才能夠兼顧財務上的收益，以及社會價值上的收益。

在若水實習的短短兩個月，不敢說自己有多了解社會企業，但其中學到的一個重點卻在這次的活動中得到驗證：「社會企業不是在賣愛心，而是在賣價值。」如果我因為想要幫助喜憨兒而去喜憨兒烘焙屋買麵包，那表示我是在買那一次性的愛心。雖然這麼說有點功利，但要建立一個可以自給自足的社會企業，你就得把你的顧客當做唯利是圖功利主義者，而不是慈善家。你所提供的產品到底有多少實際的價值，就是消費者會付錢購買的價值。如果你只是要賣愛心，那你的競爭者就是慈濟、紅十字會、家扶基金會這些「慈善團體」，而你也永遠不可能在商場上立足。

最常拿出來當例子講的，就是喜憨兒烘焙屋與日本的Swan Bakery。基本上喜憨兒烘焙屋就是抄Swan的模式，聘用喜憨兒來當店員、烘焙師。不同的地方是，你在Swan網站或店裡，看到的只有高品質的精緻糕點，而在喜憨兒烘焙屋…well，甚至連名字都告訴你這是「喜憨兒」烘焙屋。顧客因為SWAN提供了美味精緻的糕點而持續回籠，讓Swan成為一間成功的連鎖蛋糕店，也能持續地貢獻己力，幫助弱智的殘障人士得到工作機會；反觀喜憨兒烘焙屋，賣的是愛心，所以只有那些真的佛心來著的人會去購賣，至於像我這一類沒那麼佛心的消費者，可能幾年想到一次，覺得自己該做善事了，才走進店裡買一次。結果就是喜憨兒烘焙屋就被當做慈善事業一樣燒錢，等到某天錢燒光了，也就無法繼續幫助台灣的喜憨兒了。

把消費者當做唯利是圖的人真的有那麼銅臭嗎？我想也未必吧。

其實網路創業也可以是社會企業，但我還沒有認真去研究這個領域有沒有成功的案例，不過這其實是需要創業家們一起努力的。做社會企業的人不一定都是佛心來著的，像我就只是因為覺得只賺錢太庸俗、太簡單的自大狂心理，而且社會企業就像是一個巨大的挑戰，需要比成功征服市場還要更多的能力才能夠達到，把它當成一個自我挑戰的目標，不是非常爽嘛！！

找到自己所愛，因為永遠沒有萬全準備好的那一天

所以，Startup Weekend結束了，下一步呢？

很慶幸我在這個人生轉捩點參加了這個活動，看到了自己的不足，雖然信心被打垮了幾次，但也知道現在這些小妖小怪比起未來要面對的魔王，其實都不算什麼。其中一個體悟，是更加知道無論如何，最重要的還是找到自己所愛的東西，有熱情能夠支持自己每天早上5點起床的東西，其他的，就真的不那麼重要了。

一個人清楚自己要的是什麼，才能夠聚集一個跟你一起往同樣方向前進的夥伴（就像所有因為設計思考而聚集的d.thinking Clubers）；找到自己的夢想，才能在實現夢想的路上，克服一切離譜到極點的困難；知道自己的堅持，才能在這一團迷霧中，還是能夠靠著手中的火把，摸索出屬於你的道路，而不會迷失在叢林中；更重要的是，沒有人會準備好走上這條路，你也不可能在人生某個時間點突然「準備好了」，然後就期待接下來一帆風順。我們永遠不可能準備好，唯一能做的，是那一份堅持，然後剩下的，就是把路上的妖怪一個一個打趴。

特別感謝：

推薦我們參加的Peter，祝你的Pinkoi蒸蒸日上！

Startup Weekend Taipei的主辦單位與贊助單位

LeanMatch的夥伴們，一直被打倒還是不放棄的精神！

所有參與的mentor們，願意傾囊相授！

感玩的女孩們，一起走過這一段，也才能在活動中學到這麼多。你們是最棒的夥伴！攙扶著彼此前進，每次跌倒都有人接住的感覺，真是太幸福了！接下來就得靠自己了，要一起加油喔！！！！！Love you all！！！

（圖片所有權歸作者所有，照片中的人們是本次勇奪首獎的Advintage，期待你們發展出適合我這個族群的產品！）

真的, 一切都跟執行團隊有關

本文來自Andre Lee個人網站。Andre有參與第二名Drimmit團隊。如你想在這裡分享參與感或對創業週末的心得請發信至 james@startupweekend.tw。

昨天, 我們在Google的台北辦公室裡結束了一場充滿愛與活力的競賽, 這是另一場繼去年我們在新竹參加Startup Weekend之後燃燒生命、展現熱情的創業活動。

參加這個活動總是可以激發出我的潛能, 尤其是當你能夠跟來自不同地方的朋友一起進行腦力激盪、一起在時間壓力下完成一項艱難的任務時, 那種體驗是難以言喻的。

我去年說過, 這種活動你真的有機會應該要親身參加一次。 儘管這兩次的經驗都讓我們的肝指數瞬間破表了, 但是我依然很推薦沒有去參加過的朋友去參加一次看看。

在那裡, 你可以認識到很多朋友, 得到很多新的靈感與幫助。尤其如果你是那種想要做些屬於自己的東西、或是腦袋總有火花跑出來告訴你要換個方向的人, 相信我, 你下次絕對不能再錯過了。

囉嗦的前提說完之後, 緊接著的又是一篇小小的心得分享文章, 畢竟在我還沒正式開始我那艱辛的創業旅程之前, 跟大家都一樣還是一個待在舒適圈朝九晚五的小上班族, 所以這篇文章到底有沒有參考價值, 就只能請客倌您自行判斷了。

在內容開始之前, 我想請大家看一個產品：

看完了這個網頁, 不知道這產品你會不會有興趣?

可能只有放一張網頁截圖不太清楚, 那我再詳細說明一下。(你可以點圖連到網站觀看)

這是一個如果你覺得酸痛需要拍拍你的肩膀或手腳的商品, 你會想要買嗎?

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. 請往下看

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如果你的答案即使在按了圖片上的連結、看了商品之後還是否定的,

那假如我告訴你, 這個產品從台灣開始銷售, 但是現在你在美國、香港、澳門、馬來西亞、中國大陸都買的到時候你的想法是?

接著我再告訴你, 這個產品幾年來都是一間一人公司, 你的想法是?

更恐怖的是, 如果你聽到這個商品曾經被各大購物網站爭相洽談甚至邀請上電視接受訪問時, 你的想法是?

最後, 如果從現實面告訴你, 這東西每年的平均淨利都是我這外商小工程師的年薪好幾倍時, 你的想法是? (但是創辦人將大部分的淨利與經銷商分享, 並歡迎弱勢的朋友幾乎無成本壓力成為經銷商)

是的, 有些認識我的朋友會知道, 上面顯示的網站是我國中還高中時候完成的作品(它也真的好好運作到現在 XD), 它同時也是我母親的創業作品。

它曾經是一個我們都不怎麼看好的產品, 到現在變成你可能在出國時都看得到的商品, 我不是想要說這樣的成就很簡單, 或是要稱讚我母親有多麼厲害, 因為我知道這一路走來都不輕鬆, 像是我們有時候要幫母親搬運沈重的貨品, 有時候則是要負責將產品裝袋、寄送。這些事情一點都不輕鬆, 所以我知道這一點也不算躺在家裡就會有錢跑進來的工作。

但是, 你覺得如果只有你一個人的話你可以完成這樣的目標嗎?

我想說的是, 儘管是個一開始大家都不看好的產品(如果你也覺得不看好這個產品的話), 誰說就一定是不好, 有可能只是喜歡你產品的伯樂還沒看到而已。也可以這麼說, 當下被評論為沒市場的產品, 它其實也並不會真的沒有市場。

儘管當下找不出商業模式, 也不代表就真的會一蹶不振。同樣地, 一個人人看好的創意, 也不能表示就一定會成功。

為什麼我會這樣說?

因為什麼產品都跟人有關。既然跟人有關, 那就表示什麼事情都有可能發生。

於是乎, 重點可能就不在於創意或產品的本身。

如果你要我像小學生一樣, 把自己認為是成功的因素重點節錄下來, 我一定會很確定的寫上：真的, 一切都跟執行團隊有關。

你只要想想, 不同的執行團隊在遇到相同的產品時激盪出的火花一不一樣時, 就可以知道我寫的這句話對不對了。

所以你就會看到我上一篇文章提到的Golla與象印類似故事常常發生在你我身邊, 難道我是因為沒有其他同質性的商品而想再去購買的嗎?

假如有一天上面那個產品如果交給你來推銷, 你覺得你可以順利解決客戶問題然後再推銷出去嗎?

所以我武斷的說, 找到有優秀執行能力且相處愉快歡樂的夥伴是一個團隊在Startup Weekend拿到好名次想要脫穎而出的必要因素。

這也是為什麼我兩次參加Startup Weekend活動都能很幸運地得到不錯的名次, 因為我總是擁有強而有力的好夥伴。︵(￣︶￣)︵ (相信我, 好團隊夥伴真的是成功的一半)

但是好夥伴容易找嗎? 也請相信我這絕對是最難的一部分。所以我絕對不會笨笨的錯失任何一個想要加入我們團隊的好人才的!

(如果你有興趣要一起玩玩小東西的話, 歡迎到關於我跟我聯絡, 拜託~)

(我私心的希望如果下次還有機會再參加Startup Weekend的話是能夠以饅頭(mentor)的身分參加, 這樣表示我應該也完成了一些東西了。)

Drimmit, with Allen, Ann, Gergely, Nick, Olga, Pandey and Pinko, 2nd place of Startup Weekend Taipei 2012 @ Google Taiwan

(English) Startup Weekend Taipei #2: Day Three – The Results!!

Wow!! What a crazy weekend that was! 60 participants, 15 mentors, 4 speakers and 5 judges later the results of the second Startup Weekend Taipei are as follows:

1st place: Advintage

 

Advintage aims to put the right wines in the hands of the right customers, by sending sample boxes that narrow your tastes over time by using a clever algorithm.  The judges all believed that if they can pull this off it’s a massive market, and being in Taiwan is perfect as we are the world’s third largest importer of vino (I might have something to do with that!)

2nd place: Drimmit

Do you have a dream? I do. I wish I’d finished this blog post earlier. By using Drimmit, I can set tangible mile stones and am thus more likely to achieve my objectives. You want to save the whales? Sure! Band together with your friends or others to sink a harpoon ship and help each other be the change you want to see. Again, the judges felt that Drimmit was a scale-able solution for dreams both small and large.

3rd place: Unomy

Sometimes it can be hard finding people with the same interests, and often you want to go to an event but have nobody to go with. What Unomy does is connect these people beforehand and let them make plans together. In this way, people can make connections easily and effortlessly. I know you, unomy.

Thankyous

On behalf of the entire Startup Weekend Taipei team, I would like to thank our gracious and accommodating hosts, Google Taiwan, without which this event would not have had a home. In particular, we’d like to express our sincerest gratitude to Tony Chan, Android Advocate, for his patience, assistance and for giving up his weekend to come play with us! We’d also like to thank Ellis Wang, for his words of wisdom on Friday and for getting behind SWTaipei in the beginning, without his efforts, this event would not have happened.

We’d also like to thank our amazing sponsors, Cacoo (Nulab), Google Taiwan, Gist, and The Executive Centre Taipei. It is organizations such as these that can help light a fire in Taiwan’s startup community by nurturing and supporting new teams and new ideas. We appreciate all that you have done for us, from providing financial support to lending us your employees (Someda-san!!) as mentors, helpers and facilitators. Of course, we’d also like to express our warmest thanks to the army of mentors who gave up their Saturdays and Sundays to come and provide help and advice to all the participants. We hope that some of you can keep in touch with these people, they are hiring!!!! (Vpon, Fliptop, Patisco especially!)

Just one more thing……..

We’d like to thank you, the participants, for getting in the car and going on this crazy 54-hour journey with us. Startup Weekend is about doing, not thinking about doing, and you did it! Some of you will hopefully carry on down this road, and some of you may not. Whatever you do, take some of the Startup Weekend spirit with you! Oh, and tell your friends to come join us next time!

James