Startup Weekend San Francisco

Business Development is putting together some materials for prospective investors.

Sean sits across from me on his own folding table, drafting the Executive Summary. In several minutes, I’ll have an exclusive opportunity to read it and comment. The writing curmudgeon in me squeals with delight.

The business unit has confined themselves into a back room, tailoring the language for a perfect pitch. I’d venture to say it’s a cut-fastball, high and inside. (This joke will be lost on the San Francisco audience whose Giants haven’t won a World Series since 1954.) Creative and Marketing are sending in reinforcements to recontruct sentences for optimal readability and believability.

Furthermore, Marketing and Creative are working on the HelpHookup lexicon. Surely, confusion is inevitable (and is, in fact, by design); but, the company’s mantra will be clear, prominent, and right as rain.

On a side note, there have been utterances that HelpHookup would have been equally as effective for a failing, yet greatly supported idea during Friday night’s conception round: [code name] Pimping 3.0.

Marketing called a meeting.

Representatives from PR, Development, BizDev, and Creative are exploring ways to leverage the user base from this weekend and translate it to forward momentum for HelpHookup. We’re looking at a six-month tactical plan.

Discussion points:

1. Karma points, a la Pirates vs Ninjas. By participating in events, users can accumulate points. While useful for viral marketing, the points also define “ownership” of the website and help create an economy of helpers. Still all to be determined. (To the government officials listening: don’t worry. This won’t compete with the USD.)
2. Celebrity endorsements. Always useful.
3. Singular Language. What do you call the people involved? (Volunteers, Hereos, etc?) What’s the slogan? Etc.
4. Sign-up for Beta sometime in the coming hours.

Overheard: “Marketing 101: steal what’s already out there.”

The energy is palpable. The TechCrunch exposure certainly reduced our post-lunch food-coma recovery.

Tyler (nearly) finished the HelpHookup promo video and presented his creation on the big screen. It’ll be up here as soon as possible.

Business Development developed a plan to engage the community and allow HelpHookup to take the right shape for the target communities. They have developed deliverables with a tactical mindset to ensure everything can get up and running as quickly as possible.

Revenue from contributions, sponsorships, logowear, and shwag should support initial infrastructure costs and some of the management costs. Long-term plans include targeted-ads, micro-payments, and sale of other useful meta-data.

Mission Statement: “Make it easier for you to help. Hookup with others to volunteer in your community.”

Creative’s on the splash page. Given the recent TechCrunch exposure, they’re doubling efforts.

The Developers have built out a Facebook application that resembles a beta product. “Soon, [we'll] see quite a bit more.”

Can’t wait.

Shocking new images emerge from creative.

::Court transcription::

Design: Splash Page in 10 minutes.

Programming: Dropping in CSS, two-working facebook pages. 3-4 pages ready in an hour. Facebook demo in an hour and change, on schedule for midnight release.

PR: Copy, Marketing, and Engaging Material nearly ready for release.

BizDev: Presenting at 2:00pm. Rock.

Legal: Privacy Policy details being worked out. Will interface with Dev to figure out information policies between HelpHookup and Facebook.

Hyde: (paraphrased) “We’re going for a walk. It’s our Sunday Tradition. We’re sponsoring Chipolte.”

…on that note, my stomach is pleased with this news. It’s time for a brief recess.

Rest assured, we have no shortage of material for “Startup Weekend San Francisco: The Making Of”.

Firstly, there’s the official Startup Weekend SF blog. (You’re reading it right now.) If you’re a Startup Weekend junkie, you’re already subscribed to the RSS. We thank you for your readership.

Secondly, there’s this: helphookup.com run by PR and marketing . Given the size and pacing of the weekend, those teams are one in the same. Our co-founders in the trenches with insights and the ground level write that blog– whereas we on this blog enjoy a rather lofty academic perspective. Boy Howdy.

Thirdly, Tyler and Mike are creating a documentary, chronicling the weekend’s insanity and its supporting cast of characters. I’m positive they have incriminating clips of me and my weekend shenanigans. You’ll think less of me, but I’ll get over it.

Fourthly, geeks for sure, we tag everything with our digital cameras. “sw-sf” is the official meta-tag of Startup Weekend San Francisco, so check us out at Flickr.

Fifthly, there’s this post: the meta of the meta. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

With the current Ledoux-cup holders missing-in-action (reports put them out in Napa somewhere, strung out over last night’s binge-fest) I’ve grabbed the reins to wrestle this beast of a blog back on track. Perhaps now the writing quality will revert to a respectable average.

Over the night, teams have repositioned themselves. While the legal team (my team) has held fast to the most quiet corner of the room, the development teams and the design teams have consolidated to push HelpHookup out the door.

Interestingly enough, the development team has split into a Rails team and a PHP team. The Rails team is cranking out the Facebook app and expects to finish by midnight launch. The PHP team is not far behind– the lead PHP guy had a case of the Mondays on a Sunday morning (who does that?) and showed up not too long ago. Though, cognizance of the imminent launch has a sobering effect.

Like a well-oiled two-cylinder, the back-to-back development teams are now roaring towards the finish. I’ll check back with them in a couple of hours.

The video team is pushing to release a promo by 11:15.

Creative has a base template for the actual site.

Dev continues to work through Facebook bugs.

10:15 here, or mid August in our Startup in a Year experiment.

Every weekend is different, with regional and personal influences to the final product. I arrived at the amazing office space (thanks again to Microsoft!) with 20 people waiting in the lobby at 9am, ready to work on the project. Lots of energy in the room.

A quick update from the teams:

Dev had a really nice demo last night. PHP has again proven to be the prototyping language of choice finishing their part of the project last night. The Ruby on Rails team is looking to finish up the facebook app this morning, for a alpha launch. They are working on making the UI more robust for a launch tonight.

Creative is finishing up the layout for the site design, as well as copy and general releases.

Legal and Biz Dev are really looking at the possibility of incorporating as a non-profit (and that would be a Startup Weekend first). The discussions on who wants to continue the business after the weekend is a big part of the conversation.

PR is working on a final plan, with the new model from Biz Dev (who had a great ‘grilling’ last night from a new member to the team, speaking from an investor standpoint).

The Film Crew is still filming every move we make. Most likely this will turn into a short doc and be released on the Startup Weekend site.

CrowdFunder wants to buy you dinner, their San Francisco site was launched this morning. Each account is pre-funded with $10, create one and put it towards dinner.

Buy Me Dinner