Movin on Uh Up!

We were tired of running into the ‘fridge when we opened the oven.

Check us out at turn2live.wordpress.com

-V

Themes of the Weekend

VentureWeekend was a smashing success and it wasn’t always clear that it would be. Big props to everyone who participated because at the end of the day, you answered the questions and concerns and you made it happen. Here were the themes of the weekend for me, what the weekend proved, and what this experiment tells us we must do here in Austin.

1. On Friday, 7PM, we were a group of 40+ strangers, sitting and eating awkwardly. 48 hours later, we were an enormous group of friends. The pictures, this blog, and the project we created is a testament to that fact. Name me another scenario (short of war or natural disaster) where you can achieve these kinds of results amongst people from close to a dozen academic disciplines and half a dozen cultures.
2. Can you get 40+ brilliant people in a room and make them do something other than just be brilliant? Can you actually get them to work together, to use each other’s talents and create something?
3. Austin exports talent like a 2nd or 3rd world country. The Computer Science and Engineering guys go to Silicon Valley. The business people go to Dallas, Houston, New York City. The law people go absolutely everywhere. We lose some of our most brilliant people because there is this idea that the biggest opportunities are in other markets.
4. The truth is that few other cities have the mix of creative, technical, and busines talent that Austin has. Being the live music capitol of the world, having one of the greatest Universities in the world, and having a beautiful city makes this city the right place to have the Talent capitol of the world.
5. Through programs like VentureWeekend we can show this wild mix of skilled and gifted people that together we can make Austin into an international city that offers an unparalleled access to talent, opportunity, and entertainment.

These are my reasons for why VentureWeekend rocked and this is my vision for turning Austin into a truly global talent capitol.

If they build it, will they fund?

“As fast as it needs to come, if you come back with a real pitch.”

Have: Law. Tech.

Big needs to be filled:  Finance.  Marketing positions.

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Suggestion: Rely on the students (heart and soul of it all)  to get the viral buzz.

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They like the name and logo.  But it should have “music” in it.  Music2Live?

The Pudding

Capitalizing on a need so relevant to Austin.

Mobile platform=huge.

Stumbling blocks

Consider other competitors such as City Search.

Encompass the whole night out.

How to capture revenue from all those things.

Advertising. Positioning statement and differentiation.

Challenge

The secret sauce mix.    Again The Google is referenced.

“It kicks Google’s ass, anytime. ” -Guy

Suggestions:

Basic data needs to be in power point.    Identify provisionally “The team” in a slide.

Sidebar comment:  “Spectacular upside as a niche application.”

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Throughout the weekend, people have been saying “Google has that.”   Every time I hear that I think to myself of that Southpark episode where the annoying kid says “Simpsons did it” to every good idea.

What should we do next?

“So they can pitch it for real when they had more than 48-hours to put it together.”- Justin

What will motivate consumers to review the venues?

Social/mobile motivation R says. ”It’s a way to coordinate social action.”  -R

Broadcaster voice says user’s responses can build their calendar.  Time is on their side.  They want to keep it short and sweet.

Power users can evangelize.

The devil is in the details

Judges want to see the financial model developed more.

“Where the rubber hits the road”

The judges questions are being eloquently addressed by the brains.

One judge asks, Who will actually run this thing? Who cashes the check?