Pushing It – Aiming For a Quick BootUP! Weekend, Build a startup in 54 hours!

Man, event after event, massive conference call with startup weekend guys in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai. Weibo threads (Twitter in China) going on about startup meetings, networking, business…..building relationships. All while doing my ecommerce stuff…..

Yes, I am passionate about this startup community building in Shenzhen. Its past due, as my buddy @i4harold says its past due and needed in Shenzhen…..and the people here are asking for it. We are pushing forward with a “quick” BootUP! event, Shenzhen edition.

Why BootUP!? The name comes from my buddy Jon Buford and the guys at boot hk coworking and startups HK…. I attended the 2nd BootUP! in February (blog.startupshk.com/bootup-2-the-startup-weekend-teams startup teams listed here) and was like a kid in a candy store…

I have always been told I’m a scatter brain and should be in an idea lab! Well now is my time to execute, so lets push this sooner than later…..The members are pushing for one NEXT WEEKEND, (Sept 2 – 4) lets see if it can be done. Maybe if not enough then, can push back to Sept 16 – 18, Or do 2!. But the meaning of BootUP! weekend is quick, bootstrapped (not heavily sponsored) and small. The Startup Weekend organization is talking about hosting a big one in November (19-20) so lets see if that happens.

I originally posted the following blog below earlier today on startups shenzhen, but I think my blog readers here would enjoy, and help spread the word. It is meant for local Shenzhen community members…but hey, if you wanna fly out, welcome!

Startups Shenzhen + SZteam are doing another first for Shenzhen here at Shenzhen Team. For three days, 20 eager entrepreneurs will both learn and work on their own startups. If you are a student, designer, developer, or just enthusiastic about starting your own company, this is something to not miss.

We are aiming for September 2nd to the 4th….we know that is one and a half weeks away….but so many people at Startup Tuesdays want it, we are gonna see how many applicants we can get, we have a good amount of support from mentors and judges and sponsors.

Here is a quick overview of what to expect:

Friday, 7pm:

Intro/Meet and Greet
Startup Lifecycle and Weekend Plans
Brainstorming and Teaming up (groups up to 3 people)
Initial Planning

Saturday, 9am:

Coffee
Business Models vs. Business Plans
Prototype, Develop, and Plan (Teams working on their startups)

Sunday, 9am:

Coffee
Continue to Prototype, Develop, and Plan

Sunday 7pm:

Team Demos
Break for Judging
Announcement of Winners

We are working on getting some sponsors for the weekend, so we can have prizes available for the top teams. Also, we will attempt to have a wide range of judges available for the final demos, including investors and successful entrepreneurs.

The space will be limited to 20 participants, please fill out the michelini.wufoo.com/forms/shenzhen-bootup-weekend form here. Also email add @ startupscn.com with BootUP in the subject and a short description of why you want to be part of BootUP! and what skills and interests you might have. We will try to select a balanced group with a range of skill sets.

If you are a student, designer, developer, or just enthusiastic about starting your own company, this is something to not miss.

Similar events around the world have resulted in real, viable businesses or have connected up founders that went on to make a successful business together.

We had a discussion at the last Startup meetup, and one of the big topics was the arrangement of the ownership of the work done during BootUP!. The gist is, if you have a very awesome idea that you want to have clear control of, don’t do it for this event. We would prefer that people focus on doing something interesting and go through the process while getting to know other people and keep that killer idea to start later once you have a better idea of who you want to partner with.

So that is what we got, I’ll keep you posted, please help spread the word!