My pep talk deck for Columbus Startup Weekend, June 30th, 2012

1. EMBRACE YOUR INNER BERT
Friday, June 29, 12

2. Columbus Startup Weekend - 6/29/2012
Dan Rockwell
twitter: @floozyspeak
contact: dan@bigkittylabs.com
OSU TCO: rockwell.66@busfin.osu.edu
Big Idea Guy
11 years working in user experience design
5 years obsessed with startups and building things fast
Friday, June 29, 12

3. Friday, June 29, 12

4. LISTEN UP
Friday, June 29, 12

5. BS is a billion dollar
market with dudes who
do massive awesome
stuff • don’t blow smoke
• we know #’s are BS
• being vague is short for we have no idea
Friday, June 29, 12

6. good is better than
perfection, made it is
the new black
• don’t waste time perfecting useless stuff
• confidence is 90% of the game
• a winning hand is one thats willing to walk
Friday, June 29, 12

7. stay out of the
clouds, a
10,000 foot
view means
you don't know
dick about the
other 9,999 •• don’t hover above me, bring me down to earth
get real fast
feet •
let me get the AH HA in my head
Friday, June 29, 12

8. show some hustle
• how bad do you want this?
• get out of the office, talk to a customer
• drag them in on sunday
Friday, June 29, 12

9. point of a
prototype isn't to
look good its to
get feedback,
conversation
matters more
than "neat" •• an MVP isn’t a launch page and a blog (thats marketing)
an MVP is a product/fit data conversation sparker and collection
tool, you no have data, you suck
Friday, June 29, 12

10. weed out your
shiny baby bias
• talk to people don’t sell
• justification dance is still dancing
• be an apprentice
Friday, June 29, 12

11. kill 10 features
by sunday
• build the MVP
• clone/copy the simple
• weed out barriers to engagement and adoption
Friday, June 29, 12

12. leverage simple
tools, divide
and conquer
• don’t be held back on technical issues (lack of devs)
• a better plan matters more
• isolate, research, execute, repeat
Friday, June 29, 12

13. techcrunch is
not traction
• don’t get starry eyed on press
• #winning is a first customer with real $$
• #reallywinning is when they come back for more
Friday, June 29, 12

14. create a tasty
asset
• realize the verticals in your own know how and process
• data is a powerful asset, can you make it a want/need for others?
• figure out how to get others to give you data and shore up your asset position
Friday, June 29, 12

15. opportunity +
product + swagger
= payday
Friday, June 29, 12

16. Friday, June 29, 12

17. The FrankenCup
Friday, June 29, 12