*Be sure to read Brad’s post first here (I challenge you to contribute as well!)

Principals of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Community
- Need a megaphone (Geekwire, Greenhorn Connect, SPN, SiliconFlorist, etc) – having an outlet that can help celebrate all things good happening in your community is an amazing moral booster as well as a tie to the outside world that might be on the fence or just looking in on the startup world in curiosity. It turns out that humans are naturally attracted to stories of risk taking, adventure, disruption, success, and failure. These megaphones are important in communities to help share these stories and pull in those adjacent to the real movement that might be able to help out in a big way. More than anything, these syndicates make startups seem “cool” which naturally feeds the ecosystem.
- Speaking the same language (See our model below) – Naturally, everyone will have a different perspective, but without a model that everyone can agree upon about how people see and address the ecosystem as a whole, no one can communicate clearly about what their goals and hopeful outcomes are for anything but the “stage” that matters most to them. Eg. Most investors view the statup world as starting with a team that has an idea. In my mind these prevalent models miss the most important issues – where do good teams come from? Where do capable entrepreneurs come from? and leads to the right questions we should be looking at in a holistic view – how can we help identify and create more capable entrepreneurs? How can we help identify and create more capable teams? Startup Weekend has developed a model to help standardize these discussions and it has been magical in terms of getting everyone from  studnents, teachers, gov. officials, CEOs, CTOs, Designers, VCs, etc. to have more productive conversations about how to address the opportunities that exist within a community. Is the model perfect? Certainly not, but is it is certainly the most useful one we’ve ever seen when it comes to influencing the “community building” conversations.
- It’s about building more capable teams. THE number one reason for startup failure is co-founder/team issues. All the most amazing tools like LEAN, MVP, Agile, and Customer Development are useless if you give them to a team that was doomed to fail from the start. The biggest problem that any VC, Angel, Incubator, or Accelerator has to deal with are team issues, over and over again. Why? Because no one likes to talk about the most difficult things in the honeymoon days of launching a startup. Startup Weekend has proven that these issues are repetitive and addressable in the co-founder dating phases. Sometimes the most obvious questions are unanswered, and every ecosystem player would benefit by knowing that every team had started by tackling these questions early on. Eg. Who’s the CEO? Will you vest your founder’s equity? What’s your real runway? Is your spouse supportive of what you are doing? Will you really jump off the cliff and make this a FT job? At what point do we jump or fold? What is the consequence if one of us doesn’t jump? What experiences/skills are you missing as a co-founding team? Who’s going to do the talking in our meetings? Who’s responsible for following up with the mentors/coaches that give us advice? **The catch, these quesitons can’t be answered or addressed in theory or in a classroom. These questions have to be asked in real scenarios, with every new team.

Myths About Entrepreneurial Communities
- Grouping, aka, segregating is good. NO! Our educations systems have been built on the premise of separating people from different backgrounds, and this mentality has poured into the rest of our lives from economic zoning that formalizes these silos to incubators that never interact with anyone that doesn’t carry a specific degree, and it is stifling.  Certainly there are some efficiencies when creating buildings for these institutions, but you must look at the very nature of where good ideas and teams come from. Think, ancient agoras, where people from all backgrounds and walks of life shared ideas, debated, and created the future. Kauffman had an alarming statistic about how low the % of FT500 founders are that had extensive experience in the industry they ended up in (not necessarily started out in), but great innovation often requires a fresh perspective and is the combination of many ideas and often unrelated backgrounds…. User groups, university courses, and hackathons are great for skill building, but the really innovative and disruptive ideas and teams are born when you start mixing individuals with complementary yet completely different skill sets and ideas.

How to get started
- Community Startup Summits – gather your local leaders. Most are type A personalities and each has an opinion of what is needed, but it is possible to get everyone to join forces and agree on what the most promising opportunities are for your community.
- Electing a representative – There has got to be one voice, an un-official representative of the grassroots community who can be responsible for helping to identify the problems and opportunities and also follow up on the progress as people elect to tackle specific things.
- Empower & celebrate leaders – The most amazing community leaders come out of no where and begin mainly as event leaders. Most often they are right out of college or someone in a transition period in life. They are people with a tremendous amount of energy and passion that have been given an opportunity. There are ways to help welcome more of these individuals and empower them to take the lead on something. Especially with a little guidance, their energy can be harnessed and directed in incredibly powerful ways, even if they zero experience. It can be as simple as, “yes, you can do that, and here are the people and the ways that we can help” is enough. This is perhaps the most powerful lesson I have learned with Startup Weekend.
- Build the “How to win” guide – Make a guide that include the top 3-5 of these four categories: Events, People, Startups, and Physical Locations. It’s like a cheat sheet for newbies. If you can create an open sourced handout or something that can be posted on websites that gets updated a couple times a year, this resource can be absolutely invaluable to give to anyone that has contact with potential new or incoming entrepreneurs into your ecosystem. Everyone’s goal should be to get as many people integrated into your community as possible, and to make it a welcoming and pleasant experience. Sure, the wheat will separate from the chaff and not everyone will make it, but in the end you are left with a larger community of passionate people, potential co-founders, and future supporters of whatever you do…. Remember when you felt like you were either an idiot or completely mental your first time around? Yeah, well it wasn’t easy, was it? How great would it have been to find your “tribe” a little bit sooner, so you could justify more easily those crazy voices in your head.

Measure the right things
- Don’t Sell Out – To yourself or your supporters. Working with governments or big corporations, you can quickly get sucked into the black hole of designing programs around meaningless KPIs, especially if they are funding you. As a community leader, you need to set expectations with them early and remind them often why they are doing this. This is an educational role you must assume, because at the end of the day, you want to help your supporters hit their metrics so they can take it back to their supervisors and get a nice bonus so they can double down next year, but your program cannot be sold out to highest bidder or to make a quick buck.
- Two metrics that everyone should think about tracking/pushing for:
1) # of Stories that hit media (any and all types of media) – As much as I hate to admit it, anyone in media has an unyielding power. The more stories that are generated in your community, the better. Stories of success are always great, understanding the failures, and diving into the lives of the entrepreneurs behind the scenes are all things that we can never hear enough of. The more we read about the stories of other entrepreneurs, especially those you have access to in your community, the stronger the culture around startups will be, and when the day comes for your launch, you want to make sure you have the biggest fan base and megaphone behind you as possible.
2) # of people making real or actionable change in their lives. Eg. taking risk, moving to the “next step,” etc. This is both quantitative and qualitative, as it tells the volume and eludes to the quality of the programs at each step. Startup Weekend has recently taken a step back and re-evaluated the metrics we want to track in the future. Using our “ecosystem map” model, our goal is to have as many people move from one step to another, whatever that step may be for that person. We are tracking this via self reporting surveys after the weekend, and it is incredible to have something as tangible as saying we have helped X number of people move from the “Discovery” phase to the “Startup” phase in their entrepreneurial journey. It is also incredibly helpful in understanding why others may not be progressing as easily. This same apporach could be taken as a whole along the entire ecosystem. Afterall, it is a funnel, and each step will see higher attrition than the previous, but if we all have an understanding of our inputs and outputs align with the rest of the community players, we can have a more holistic approach and a better answer about how to reach our end goal – more successful, high growth startups…. Ultimately, this drives the ultimate metrics your local government and big corporations want to see: job growth & successful companies using their products.

Think Global
- You’re not alone in this movement – Realize that entrepreneurs, companies, and governments around the world are all having the same conversations about how to build a better entrepreneurial ecosystem. Any question you’ve asked has probably been addressed elsewhere. Leverage this real fact and plug in with these people. I know for a fact that nearly every single Startup Weekend organizer is involved in these type of discussions locally just due to the nature of the program. We have a facilitator network of people flying around the globe to share their experience and learn from others thinking about the same things. Make sure you plug into the bigger picture here and collaborate and learn from others that are doing things well. Get on a plane to go see Brad in Boulder, come see us in Seattle, meet up with the Startup Weekend organizers in Bogota, Ulan Baatar, Khatmandu, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow , Cairo, Tunis, or Gaza. Better yet, invite someone from somewhere completely different to visit your city and give their perspective. It’s not going to be politicians that answer these tough questions, and you don’t need a PHD to start creating real change and learning from others. If you are having this conversation in your own little bubble, you’re missing out on one of the most important conversations happening on the planet today.

Anyways, I gave a presentation that we meant to be completely practical. I opened by saying that everything in the talk was about a lot of the obvious things that, despite knowing, most founders just forget about doing in the early days of launching a business and it really can make a big difference to just not screw up a few simple things!

*here is the commencement speech I gave tonight at Chapman University’s Business School Graduation for both their Graduates and Undergraduates. Please forgive me, as the grammar isn’t correct, as it is typed as a speech, not an essay (I’ll update it as soon as I can). I got a lot of great feedback about it, and thought it would be great to share. It was an incredible opportunity and Chapman is a great school with great leaders that truly get the whole “startup” thing.

Here’s a link to the Video of the speech if you wish

INTRO

Thank you, this is an amazing honor. You know, I had to ask myself why they picked me. I’d like to think it is a tribute to a fundamental truth I’ve learned: that it is far less important to be an expert at something, than it is to learn quickly, work hard, and don’t quit.

So, really, why me? I think it’s because I can hopefully give you a valuable and tangible perspective… I’d ask how many of you want to go travel after graduation, but I already know that the answer is almost every single one of you. I did too, and it turns out, I found a way to travel the globe and get paid doing it, to do something I’m passionate about, and it just so happens that what I stumbled into has been pretty disruptive and will greatly influence the way we approach entrepreneurial education around the world in the coming years.

Anyways, Today is about you. It is a day to celebrate… I congratulate you all, as this is hopefully your last lecture for a long while. Today is a milestone in your lives. One that will quickly fade but will always be referenced when asked “what’s your story?” — For me, the story goes: “I grew up in Mammoth Lakes, CA and I graduated from Chapman University with a degree in International Business, and now I’m standing here today at age 25, running a global company.” You see, Chapman is a fundamental part of your story now, one you can be very proud of, and today really is the beginning of a journey. Nothing is ever going to be the same, the bills are only going to get bigger and the challenges more difficult… but it is also a journey of unprecedented opportunities.

Truly, our generation is not so lucky – Unemployment over 10%. Underemployment 20%. National debt, $14 Trillion and growing, Bailouts, housing crisis’, health care costs, social security… Neither republicans or democrats can address these gargantuan issues, nonetheless agree on something. We must never forget that in our great nation, it is business, not government who creates all economic Growth.

Just to maintain what we have built and achieved in this country, our economy needs to grow. To accommodate increases in population. To make good on our promises to seniors, and to pay off the debt older generations have settled on our shoulders, we need to grow. There is no other way. and the only way to grow is to create—create new products, new services, new technologies, new business models, new companies, new jobs, and new wealth.

I’m here today to hopefully lend some advice for your journey to ensure it is an enjoyable and fulfilling one. One in which you can discover your passions and your interests. A journey that both challenges you and creates opportunities you never knew existed. The destiny I hope and foresee for you all is that of Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a unique phenomenon, that at it’s core proves that following your inner passions fundamentally unleashes the true human potential. It results in more creativity, more innovation, and ultimately a more fulfilling life.

BODY

As 20th Century thought saw, job creation came from big business, big labor, and big government. This is certainly a paradigm that has been flipped. In the United States, new firms are indisputably the most effective source of new jobs and growth. Kauffman Foundation researchers have shown that since 1980, ALL net job creation has come from firms less than five years old. New firms add an average of 3 million jobs in their first year, while older companies lose 1 million jobs annually. This very simple fact highlights why fostering a new generation of entrepreneurs is so important.

Now, I’m not saying that you are all Entrepreneurs or that you all will ever even become Entrepreneurs. No, I’m no politician, and I’m not saying it’s easy, BUT you have an amazing leg up on the rest of the world. You live in a country whose foundation, and very fabric, whose culture instills the unprecedented opportunity to even have the choice of pursuing what you are passionate about. It’s no coincidence that every single country I travel too, the most ambitious people and teams have one goal, to come to the US and have the same opportunity you have. You are graduating from one of the best Universities out there, You are more prepared, and more capable of becoming not just any entrepreneurs, but extremely successful ones because of the incredible advantage you have been given.

IT is this incredible advantage that makes me have very high expectations of you all. It is this almost unfair advantage that inherently bestows upon you a responsibility. A responsibility to take risks, to be innovative, and to ACT upon the ideas you WILL come up with, not just talk about them. There is a big difference between those who talk about doing things and people that actually do them.

Everyone has ideas, but most people never do anything about them… Someday you to WILL approach that preverbal cliff with an idea to do something different, something innovative, and it is my challenge to you, that you’ll take that leap. You’ll know that you’ve been given not only a parachute, but the best education, and the best toolkit to not just survive, but excel.

It was just a short 5 years ago I was sitting where you are right now. I can remember, after I graduated, I spent months trying figure out what I was wanted to do. I spent months applying to random job positions off of Craigslist, Monster.com… you name it. I went to dozens of interviews for everything from a Medical Drug Rep to Commercial Real Estate Agent to Selling Life Insurance…. meanwhile, I was making nearly $80/hour delivering futons out of the back of my truck. You guys know that bean bag & futon place on Katella? Yeah, that was it. I loved it! Anyways, I couldn’t figure out where my actual career path was heading, but I knew one thing, NONE of the options were anything I was passionate about. SO in much frustration… I picked u and moved to an ideallic town in the Swiss Alps and worked as a bar tender for a while… After I broke my leg skiing, I moved back to SoCal and ended up settling for a job where it took me about 6 more months to figure out that I still wasn’t satisfied… An opportunity presented itself in Seattle, so I moved. I loved it for a few years… until the company went under. While collecting unemployment and in the throws of starting my own company, I quickly ran into what I’m doing now… a true passion.

You see, The only thing I did right in the year or so after I graduated was something I can only now infer. It was the fact that I didn’t settle. I didn’t just take a job that was going to take me in some random direction. I was on to something that was very important. The notion that you don’t have to do something you are not passionate about… Having ambition for what you do and being around others in the same mindset truly unleashes the human potential for learning, growing, and building new things… This is what we’ve tapped into with my company, Startup Weekend.

Briefly, about Startup Weekend since you area all probably wondering: We are a non-profit based out of Seattle that helps entrepreneurs learn how to take ideas and turn them into reality, and how to truly take the first steps of launching a new firm. This year we’ll host over 220 events in 160 cities worldwide. To date, over 30k participants have gone through our programs and have created more than 3,500 new ventures, of which, almost 1/3 are still active, and over 10% go on to receive some substantial level of support or are self sufficient. (a number that rivals traditional Venture Capital success rates). What we really do though is not rocket science. We help gather communities together and empower them to essentially help themselves by merely talking openly about what they are passionate about. We encourage them to talk about the solutions they have to real world problems and find others who are passionate about the same thing… and the best part about it, is that it doesn’t matter where you are. San Francisco, LA, Oman, Moscow, or Kuala Lumpur… It’s become much more than just a fun weekend event. It’s even become a model for promoting peace & collaboration – in Tel-Aviv, we bused 20 Palestinians across the boarder where together with the local Israelis they launched new ventures. Our organizers in Tunisia, Algeria, and Cairo are the same individuals leading the revolutions, and Startup Weekend has been part of their entrepreneurial revolution… It’s all about helping people discover and do what they are passionate about. It has been referred to as subversive economic reconstruction on a global scale, and in my opinion, it highlights the most important opportunity and responsibility our generation faces.

So, obviously this matters for all of us sitting in the room today, but what can you actually leave this arena today and start doing? Let me share what might be a more helpful perspective that can hopefully highlight a few things I’ve learned… What Entrepreneurship isn’t.

Entrepreneurship isn’t writing a business plan, it isn’t hiring a lawyer to protect you IP, it isn’t about raising money from venture capitalists, it’s not about sitting in a cubicle from 9am-5pm every day, and Entrepreneurship is certainly not something you can learn by reading a text book or sitting in a classroom… Entrepreneurship is an idea, an art, something you do, something you choose to practice…. The best part about it is that we are a new generation that can start a company with a laptop and an internet connection from anywhere in the world. The so called rules for starting a venture are drastically different from even 3 years ago! You can practice this fine art from anywhere you please… One thing I’m certain of about our generation: WE, DO MORE, FASTER.

So quickly, 3 quick things I would give you advice on today:
#1 – Be prepared to fail. It’s ok. The average Entrepreneur fails 7 times in their lives. Good ideas are an evolution, a process… They are truly an art. Ideas are a dime a dozen, a commodity in today’s world. You can take the best ideas and give it to the wrong people and just watch if fail, but I can give the best people a terrible idea and watch if flourish. I’ve seen this time and time again in cities around the world, and it’s always about the people. Ideas will come and go, but the people around you will not. SO when you think you have your big idea or any idea, just as they did in Agoras of ancient Greece, start talking to people about it, start validating your assumptions, and most of all find other people who you work with well and complement your weaknesses so that it’s easier to get up and learn from your mistakes when you do fail.
#2 – Surround yourself with great people. Be intentional about having those around you who are passionate about what they are doing, who challenge you to be a better person… Surround yourself with people you consider to be smarter, more creative, and more successful than you… The very nature of our education systems segregate “creatives” from “business” from “film” people. Research shows, most successful business idea do not come from business majors at all, bur rather creatives. I promise you that you will watch this unfold. The people who do this best, will come out on top.
#3 – You are your own business, and you must build your brand. Leaving here today, getting a job won’t be the hard thing. The hard thing will be finding something you enjoy waking up to every morning. The more you invest in figuring out and projecting your personal brand, the more likely you will be to find something you love. Think of getting a job as an investment. Not only are you investing in your future by taking a job with a company, but they are investing in you and your brand. Never before in history has a graduating class been so connected to the rest of the world. You can bet that your Facebook profile or your blog is a more valid than a resume to tell the story of you and your brand, whether you like it or not. So, as your own business, and your own brand, remember, YOU can control the investments.

NOW In Conclusion, I’ve now said the term “Entrepreneurship” at least a dozen times… It’s a term that I throw caution to though. As, yes, it has been almost played out and overused in the last few years, and yes my speech is a bit hypocritical to this point, but I hope you see why I think it is not just important, but vital to our continued growth as a nation, and why, sitting here today, specifically graduating from Chapman University, you have been given a head start and a leg up in this global race…

You are all truly lucky. I am lucky. Despite not getting A’s in all of the class from Professors like Dr. Booth, Mr. Adler, Nyer, and Dr. Adibi, they have given you a lot more than just tests, assignments, homework, and headaches… they have given you a unique and powerful lens through which to view the world. A perspective to be critical and insightful about the world around you. And know with that under your belt, the global race is on. About 18 million other graduating seniors worldwide embark on their journeys this year too, and Odds would say that most will not become actual entrepreneurs. Odds would say that you will have a 50/50 chance of divorce, 7-10 different jobs, a 41% chance of having some form of cancer… and the dismal list goes on, go google it… BUT, You know what statistic scares me the most? Walking out of this room, you statistically only have about a 35% of actually being genuinely satisfied with your job at any given time in your life… That means 65% of you statistically will be un-happy from the hours of 9-5… Now that’s scary! BUT becoming a statistic is completely avoidable! Again, this is the advantage you have today leaving Chapman University that you should be grateful for. The advantage of being better prepared and better positioned in this world to beat the odds. If you take away one thing from me today, just remember that you don’t always have to do the things that are the most comfortable, you don’t have to become a doctor or a lawyer to be considered successful. No, it’s not always easy, but remember, you have a choice. A choice to do something you are passionate about.

My hope is that you all get to taste of what being an entrepreneur feels like because I know once you do, you’ll become completely un-employable. Your only option then will to become a leader. An innovator. You’ll push the limits of the conventional. You will solve real problems, create real value. Not only will the odds go up like a million percent that you will be doing something you love, but you’ll be doing something of world changing consequence… Take a moment right now and appreciate the brevity of the task you have ahead and the potential impact it will have—to you, your future families, your community, your nation, and the world. You are a global citizen, and you have the ability to drive the single largest factor advancing human welfare around the world. You leave here today with a great job ahead of you, and I’m confident that some day soon, you will not just take a job, but create a job doing something you love…

I have to pay my tribute to George Argyros who made this possible for every single one of us: He said: “We need to be able to inspire people to dare to dream, and to be able to take advantage of the ability to think big and reach high.” That’s where where you all are now. So dream big. Reach high….

And who would have thought that the first step can be as simple as finding and doing something you are passionate about?

Thank you

**A big thank you to Carl Schramm, Eric Koester, Nicole Provensal, Donal Booth, and Bo Fishback, as I included lines that were inspired by each of you!

There has been a lot of discussion around the best ways corporations can engage and support startup communities the right ways. I was recently asked by Scott Case who is leading Startup America, to reflect on the best ways companies can support startups and innovation.

Startup communities around the world are comprised of the most influential, picky, and innovative makers and do-ers out there in entrepreneurship. Through Startup Weekend, I’ve had the chance to work with hundreds of companies that what to be in the startup space. Few companies do this extremely well, so I wanted to point out what I thought the best practices were for those that were most admired and supported by our community.

1. Be Platform Agnostic. As a large corporation or even a small company, you must welcome competition. The community is the ultimate winner when they have the choice, and when corporations participate in programs that allow choice, the invaluable and intangible brand benefits are truly the win. When Microsoft and Amazon both attend or sponsor a program, their is almost a scandelous vibe in the air that both excites and unites people around the greater good. This scenario will provide the most raw and valuable feedback about how consumers genuinely use and make decision about your products. Microsoft supported our event where an iPhone app was built on their campus, and I’ve never heard so much praise for Microsoft come from anything else. Believe me, the startup community respects this and it goes a long way for building brand equity!

Lesson: Sponsor the key initiatives that are supporting startups, entrepreneurs, and developers in your area despite who else is there.

2. Support Non-Corporate Initiatives. It’s clear that a Google Hackathon or Facebook Dev Camp somehow has the best interest of the party leading it. Does it have the best interest of the greater community at large? Community led initiatives & programs are more likely to incorporate more players from the ecosystem at large, and the outcomes are not confined to any specific interests that can potentially drown out great people & ideas. Have you ever seen Apple’s logo as a supporter on a non-Apple centric initiative? This isn’t a cult, it’s a community.

Lesson: Don’t look at internal initiatives that include the community as the primary source of your programs that “support startups.” Live a little and open your doors to some fresh perspectives not just from your fanboys.

3. Empower Community Leaders. Let the people who are already leading the independent programs and grassroots initiatives make the decisions…. Don’t re-invent the wheel.

Lesson: Find the real community leaders and have them help advise you on what programs really are having the highest impact and are most supportive for startups.

4. Find Your Best People. Truly connecting with your community isn’t done by having the biggest banner, longest speaking spot, or slickest evangelists. It’s about the human connections that representatives of your company have with influential community members. Most corporate employees are 9-5ers, but this is a great opportunity to find those within a company that are truly connecting to the outside world. My bet is that these are the people within any company with the greatest potential and best ideas.

Lesson: Don’t just send people from corporate teams or business units to talk. Find the ones that are rolling up there sleeves and interacting with the influencers.

5. Forget your KPI’s. Don’t make things difficult for everyone. Weather it’s your managers or the community leaders you are working with, the more tangibles and statistics you require, the more friction and work it creates for everyone. If you truly want to foster early stage activity, understand this is a discovery phase. If you can take an ecosystem perspective, accept that you can’t always track the exact number of people using your platform, signing up for your mailing list, engaging with your brand, etc. Ultimately, if you look at your support programs for startups more as a charitable program & R&D and don’t demand a lot in return, you will see a much larger impact…. the question then becomes what levels of support to you provide for the audiences you reach AFTER they attend/participate in these other programs.

Lesson: Ask what can you do for the startups, not what can they do for you. Focus on building relationships and then providing support to help them solve their problems & reach their goals.

6. This is the Best R&D you will ever get. LISTEN & ANSWER. Corporations spend far too much time guessing about how real humans will use their product or looking at spreadsheets of usage statistics. If you can’t answer the questions startups are asking, understand how they are making adoption decisions, or sit down and watch how startups interact with your products, you are wasting your time.

Lesson: If you are a corporation looking to get involved in the startup world, take off the tie, roll up your sleeves and go hang out, work, troubleshoot, code, whatever it takes! These are the people that will shape all of our futures, so the more you are engaged and connected to them on a human level, the more successful you and your company will be.

I challenge everyone to look at the programs around them and identify the ones that prioritize ideas over people. They are everywhere. From business plan competitions to US economic policy, there are billions of wasted hours and dollars around supporting ideas instead of people. It’s not that their intentions aren’t genuine, it is just the wrong approach.

People have passions, interests and experience that lead them to generate ideas. Great ideas come from real people sharing real problems and connecting over real passions. Startups cannot just be industrialized, but we can invest more time and energy unleashing human potential by connecting individuals around passions and interests and real problems that lead to great teams that can execute on great ideas.

Ultimately, just be skeptical about the mass commoditization of ideas and the energy pouring into them right now. It’s about the people, not the ideas.

In just the last couple of months I hear the echos of “startup bubble” ringing everywhere. Are we in one? Quite possibly, but I see this in a positive light.

There has never been such a universal invested interest and participation in “startups.” Communities around the world no longer have a mutually exclusive association between startups and Silicon Valley. Startup are everywhere and any community has the ability to build an ecosystem supportive of innovation, creativity and collaboration. Steve Blank gives this a great historical context in a recent blog post.

Should you ride the wave, be scared, or just wait it out? If you are not already, stop watching, and start do-ing! This is an time of unprecedented cultural change. With the global recession playing a large role, there has never been such an understanding about the importance and need for entrepreneurship and new startups. More and more resources will emerge to support great people, teams and ideas. This is a fundamental infastrucure that isn’t going away, no matter how big this “bubble” could be. Why? Because it’s too important. We know that over 90% of all new net job creation comes from new businesses. We simply cannot afford to do anything but pour or resources and energy into fostering innovation and startups. Hopefully you are part of this movement because this is an incredible learning opportunity for all of those involved….

It is a bubble, and it will burst. No body will be “too big to fail” in our world. Opportunities might become more scarce in relation to the volume of startups attempting to gain traction, but the fundamental theories and models will have never been so important. Some day, the mantras of LEAN, Agile, and Customer Development will too evolve into something new that will contribute to the next “bubble.”

All I know is that the more noise we can make right now, the more people around the world that will get a taste of this addictive drug called entrepreneurship… that cannot be a bad thing.

These last 2 years have been the craziest, most ambiguous, most stressful, yet most fun years of my life. Perhaps one of the hardest things about the whole journey has been convincing myself that being a little crazy is ok, albeit necessary.

While its most certainly fun venturing into the dark with only a few matches on a windy night, it’s not always easy to convince yourself or others around you that you are doing the right thing even if you are convinced there’s a lantern within reach. Looking back, I’ve there are some consistent things that I find myself telling others to cope with the crazy that a startup brings. We’ve all heard a lot of these before, but I’ve never seen it under the context of helping you cope with being just a little crazy.

- Cash is not always king – Invest in doing the right thing. As a bootstrapping startup, cash will be tight, and you will find yourself faced with decisions that make all the right sense to generate some short-term cashflow. Be sure to fully evaluate your opportunity costs. If there is a decision to be made that will truly provide more value for your product/service in the long run, suck it up and do the right thing. Your supporters, clients, and the startup community around you will take notice and reward you for these smart decisions.

Several times over the last couple years we were faced with tough decisions that would have put dinner on the table but would have probably resulted in a loss of respect from our community. Faced with decisions such as raising ticket prices, franchising the model, or selling out to large companies, I can say that I’m most proud that we consistently made decisions that benefited our community over everything else. After over a year of not paying ourselves and just barely making rent and paying for food, the temptation was always there, but I’m glad we did right as much as possible.

- Mentor network – You don’t have all the answers. The majority of young startups I see crash and burn is because the team or the person leading the team thinks they have all the answers. We all need to surround ourselves with people who are smarter, are more experienced, and can provide a different perspective on issues we face. Find some of the smartest, most engaged people you can that may not even believe in your idea, but who believe in you as a person/team.

I’m positive that our entire board would have admittedly stated they weren’t 100% positive that Startup Weekend was going to do the things were dreaming of 2 years ago, but they saw the passion and ability of our team to execute. As we put together our board of advisors, we choose those around us that were most critical, and who saw the potential in not only the idea of Startup Weekend but our team.

- Don’t be crazy alone – You need a co-founder(s). I can recall the countless discussions with people about how hard it is to launch a business on your own, still work a part-time job, hold down a family, and still spend time with the kids… You are not capable of wearing all hats for the company and finding enough hours in the day to get everything done, and even if you think you are, you won’t have fun if you do it alone. Find your co-founders that complement your skill sets, lifestyle, and work ethic. Don’t take this lightly. You’ll share more stress, more emotions, and more growth than you’ll likely ever do with a wife/husband. Take your time to find these people, work with them on small projects or ideas first, and be sure you’ve found someone that you can be friends with as well as colleagues.

How fortunate I am to have gone on the random road trip with Clint to Denver back in April 2009. If it weren’t for him having the crazy idea to go visit Andrew in Boulder, we would have never landed where we are today. It was the constant pushing of one-another that kept us at our desks 15+ hours a day for over a year. If it weren’t for Franck joining us after 8 months, Startup Weekend would surely have ceased to exist. For everyone who knows Franck it might be ironic, but Franck brought the sanity back into our efforts and our passion. Franck was the energy and the missing piece of the puzzle to allow us to really start scaling our efforts. I’d say its pretty rare that someone would leave their life in another country and jump on board of what could have very well been viewed as an out of control rocket ship without the slightest hesitation. While it was going somewhere good, it took a third to set our sights on the horizon.

Since day one, we have been fortunate enough to find and work with amazing people across the globe. Startup Weekend has transformed into something much larger than just a small startup or a few people leading it. We’ve got an amazing core team of 8 people, who I cannot say enough amazing things about, and a family of over 150 community leaders, rockstars, and badasses. We’ve amassed advisors and mentors in over 130 cities around the world who believe in our mission. Startup Weekend is truly led by individuals that invest their time and energy into making a difference in their startup communities and other’s lives. One thing is for sure, we are all a little crazy!

Startup Weekend being featured in Entrepreneur Magazine is a huge testament to the dedication and efforts of our Startup Weekend teams around the world, and you can be sure that Shane, Jennifer, Adam, Joey, Anca, Clint, Franck, and myself are only getting started! As a team, we are unstoppable, and I am honored and proud to to work with them….. PS. Be sure to pick up a copy!

Remember in grade school when someone said, “It’s freezing in here.” Confirmation and complaints spread faster than the yawns in history class. Nothing got accomplished by doing that unless someone, who probably wasn’t cold in the first place, went and bumped the thermostat up a few degrees. Point – generally most people are really good at complaining about extremely obvious things, and luckily, for our friends in skirts or flip-flops in January, there’s always a few people that actually get out of their seat and do something about it.

Weather you are in Grand Rapids, Michigan or you are in Santa Monica, California, you can find every single ingredient required. I bet the first thing that popped into your mind when I said “ingredients” was “money,” right? I’m so tired of the prevailing thought is that you can’t do anything without money and using it as an excuse. Yes, its part of the equation, but I will fight to keep it out of the focus of any conversation. We all know about LeanStartup principles and how you can start a business for practically nothing these days, but one thing for sure is that there is no shortage of money out there. There is however, a much higher shortage of people who have money that do not understand the startup culture and ecosystem.

Building a “startup ecosystem” isn’t rocket science, and all too often I see what seems to be a broken, over engineered system for delivering money to individuals and teams that are willing to kill themselves to reach unrealistic goals.  We’re lucky enough in the US to have everything it takes to support a healthy ecosystem in any city. It is not some complex machine, but rather it is a way of thinking and acting, a culture. A simple paradigm shift and network of community support that instills that “yes, you can start today” – not in a few weeks, or when you save enough money, or when the time is ‘right,’ but today.
Main ingredients: 1. Smart People 2. Mentors (smart & successful people) 3. Physical Location 4. One Successful Startup

Since all of these ingredients exist in every community, we just need to get the right mix to foster a culture that supports entrepreneurship, risk-taking, innovation, and startups.

Events like Open Coffee, Lunch 2.0, Startup Drinks, Founder Dating are amazing networking events where you are sure to rub shoulders with some of the community’s brightest. Educational events and workshops like Ruby on Rails, Google App Engine, .Net, Mobile Developers, Investor Pitching, Business Plan Writing, etc. are an amazingly essential aspect to helping educate and expand the skill sets of potential entrepreneurs. Now you need programs that focus on tangible results by merging the networking aspects with real world applications like Startup Weekend which help encourage, incentives, and mentor individuals and teams willing to forgo talking and start executing. Of course, once you have some people actually executing, there needs to be some support structures that help lower the barriers to starting a company such as local incubators, co-working spaces, mentoring programs, etc.

There is an obvious need for a physical location for these events to be taking place that is convenient, accessible, and has a great energy. A successful company or location with successful companies truly becomes the nexus of startup culture in communities. It takes success to breed success, and more often than not, offices of successful startups absolutely reek of fun and creative energy. There needs to be more offices where you can play video games, grab a drink, or just hang out after those long bootstrapping early days. More open and creative workspaces truly foster the “community” of entrepreneurs that then set the tone of the entrepreneurial culture.

So, what about the money? Once you have enough people executing, starting, and supporting other startups with little to no money but a whole ton of passion, it is only a matter of time before rich Uncle Jimmy, who gave you $1,000 to help you pay your mortgage, realizes that their is something special happening and a legitimate chance that you are not actually dealing drugs. Start inviting all of Uncle Jimmy’s friends to your office or to your next event as this is truly an educational experience for them. They will realize that something needs to change when they show up and are the only person wearing a suit, yet they leave with the biggest smile on their face after getting a taste of the amazing creative energy and culture developing in their community. They’ll be back sans suit and money in hand. I’ve see it happen a dozen times, but you’ve got to convince them that it no longer takes $100million and an 80 page business plan to get a legitimate startup off the ground.

Most everyone knows about these ecosystem members and community players, but there is still a difference between someone who talks about them, and someone who actually does them. What can you do though if you want to get more involved?

• Join a mailing list, community group, or meetup and go to a new event that interests you. If one doesn’t exist, start one. (greenhornconnect.com, meetup.com)
• Start talking to other people about your ideas. Find people that are interested, GET FEEDBACK on your ideas. (startup drinks, open coffee, lunch 2.0, Founder Dating, etc.)
• Find a co-founder. You’re idea can’t be the next Google alone. (Startup Weekend)
• Start building. TODAY! Challenge yourself.
• Reach out for advice. Get mentors.
• Invite a local Angel or VC to attend one of your events.

If you don’t believe me already, you need to realize that you have everything it takes right in your backyard, and you can start doing little things today that helps breed a completely new level of passion and inspiration. This is the beginning of a culture that understand and fully supports anyone crazy enough wanting to start building the next “big thing.” Harvesting moon water just became a reality. Next is Mars.

I truly believe that most people can be classified in two categories when it comes to ideas vs. execution: those who talk about doing things and those who just do them. Everyone is of course aware of this cliché but it certainly is something that you have to always be cognoscente of and it really becomes a way of life.

I certainly catch myself over-committing to eccentric ideas sometimes and even some not so crazy ideas which might be even more frustrating when I realize that I just physically can’t find the time or resources (or I don’t have the ability) to do them.

Anyways, brings me to my point that there are some people that are just good at getting shit done, and there is a common theme behind a lot of these people who can do it – simplicity. Sounds logical right? But it’s human nature to pick things apart, critique everything from color to size to how your grandma will use it. When you find yourself getting antsy, pretending to listen to your co-founder while checking your e-mail, or thinking that you’ll never be able to communicate how great your idea is so everyone understands it, step back and truly find what you are trying to accomplish at the most basic level… Then do it. You’ll save time, money, effort, stress, and you’ll be amazed at how quick you will learn if it was a good idea or not. Harder than it sounds and I’m certainly no pro at it yet despite my insane desire to quit wasting my time and energy on unnecessary things.

Here are some prime examples:

TheStartupDigest.com

CloudCamp.org

Craigslist.com

Venturehacks.com

GarysGuide.org

Lesson 1 – Look for the 80% solution. Don’t waste your time trying to ensure that every little feature is exactly how you envision it. Identify your needs vs your wants. You will waste A LOT of time and money otherwise. Life isn’t perfect, and your network wont be either unless you can invest $70k+/yr for a full-time admin and a custom platform.

Lesson 2 – Build a network not a webpage. Your webpage and your network are two separate things. Don’t make the mistake of trying to replicate your existing website in a social network. A social network is literally a forum for your community to connect, share ideas, create content, and ultimately interact with your brand. Map our your architecture so that everything points back to your website. Your website or blog needs to remain at the backbone of your operation since this is what you own and have the most control over.

Lesson 3 – It’s about your brand. Sure, the dozenens of options out there look the same, have the same features, and generally have comparable pricing models. Don’t waste your time worrying about every feature or tiny nuances in CSS. Take your time to ensure that you create content that is relevant and ultimately offers an experience around your brand.

The A-List – The largest point here is to pick a brand that allows for open developement and an API so the world can contribute to building custom features for the platform. There are a few giants in the relm of out-of-the-box online communities and the truth is that if they don’t have the features that you want right now, they probably will in 6 months time. They have the staff and the money to give their users what they want to see.

Ning, Socialgo, YouNoodle, BuddyPress, Boonex, OneSite, SocialSpring, and Presently were the top contenders.

We wasted so much time on BuddyPress trying to implement a nice solution that integrated with WordPress MU nicely, but that is a lost cause. The features just are not there quite yet. YouNoodle is great for networking just the companies. This is important for the Startup Weekend network, but it is missing the community aspect of other netoworks. Boonex is a great option if you have an admin that can invest the time into getting the network live and customizing it. There are a number of others that I looked into that cost anywhere from $30k-$70k to get a custom build-out that pretty much had the same features as the out of the box solutions.

We settled on Ning just the other day. Why? They have the most robust set of features currently, an open store for apps and widgets so we can continue to add our own custom features, the ability to export user’s data, and probably the biggest reason – they have the most funding and largest community already. They have the best ability to meet the demands of community organizers around the world without having to cater to clients that are shelling out $30k.

Lastly, make sure that you even need an online community. I saw far too many groups with only 3 members which is just a waste. Focus on establishing your following and giving people a reason to want a community. Start with a blog and a mailing list.