Startup Weekend and Hackathons

The best place to start a tech business is BY FAR at a hackathon. I know that these things are getting to be dime a dozen now, but I think it's for a good reason. These weekend hack sessions are great for socializing with quality people, testing your idea, and then trying your darndest to make the idea become a reality over the course of a three day weekend. These crazy all-night sessions have the potential to change your life, and if you play your cards right, can lead to a successful start of a new company.

I have recently been involved in two such hack sessions. The first hackathon I was involved in was Chicago SocialDev Camp.  This was my introduction to the world of weekend hack sessions and got me hooked. I did not know anyone else going to DevCamp and walked into a room full of geeky hacker types who were ready to code away. I loved it. As a "business" person, I thought I would be shunned for not being a gung-ho coder, but I quickly found out that everyone was there to just have a good time. If the concept of coding for three days straight and building something from scratch is not appealing to you from the outset, you MUST attend one of these so you can be disabused of that notion. 

Anyways...back to the story. 

I sat a table and started to socialize with everyone within 10 ft of me (for those who know me...thats pretty standard practice). I met people doing some interesting things and wanting to try out some new ideas or just learning how to code. I ended up pitching some quirky idea to a random hodgepodge of people and lo and behold, some of the guys around me liked my idea. We tossed around several more ideas, but then we decided to stop wasting time and just start coding. After some preliminary planning, we identified what we wanted from a minimum viable product and started to code. 

But wait....i'm not a coder. What did I end up doing for three days? The answer is everything. Just because you can't code, doesnt mean you can't contribute. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off the entire time, helping with design, functionality, marketing, and finally making a presentation. Just to be fair, I am a little technical, but not technical enough to get dirty in the code.  

I am clearly not Neo from the Matrix

Anyways, after three days of development, we ended up with the bare bones basics of what is now Edit Huddle. We ended up adding to the Edit Huddle idea at Startup Weekend Chicago. We placed pretty well at both events and now Edit Huddle is up and running into a real company. 

Actually, dont take my word for it. I'm pasting a post from one of our helping hands at Startup Weekend, Rachel Hyman. You can see the original post here.