Memphis Startup Weekend

The reunion for Startup Weekend was a great success this past week. Launch Memphis, a conglomerate of individuals and organizations dedicated to helping entrepreneurs find the tools they need to market their ideas to the Memphis area, was the driving force behind the event that was held at the Emerge Memphis building.

The evening was centered around sharing the success stories that came out of the Startup Weekend event that was held several months ago (May 31- June 1). There were big wins across the board ranging from new ideas to help already existing businesses to the eventual launch of a new social networking application called Spynnr. The application will be designed to create an interactive online community for ultimate frisbee players.

The impact of Startup Weekend was apparent throughout the room and it looks like there are more great things to come from everyone working with Launch Memphis. Check out launchmemphis.com and get involved!

Be sure to mark your calendars for August 7th, 2008 from 5:00pm to 7:30pm.  This event for those that participated in Memphis Startup Weekend (May 2008) is an opportunity to return and revisit the incredible experience we had. Come learn about how Spynnr is progressing along with the other Ideas from our Idea Wall.  Food and Drink will be provided.

In a fully-booked event the weekend of May 30th, a hundred Memphis entrepreneurs, many of whom had never met before, got together in a marathon session to create the foundation of a startup company from scratch.

Startup Weekend, a national entrepreneurship program headaquartered in Boulder, CO selected Memphis, TN as one of its latest cities to host the event designed to build community and a company in a weekend. Locally organized by LaunchMemphis (www.launchmemphis.com), Memphis Startup Weekend succeeded in invigorating the Memphis entrepreneurial community.

As Gwin Scott, the President of EmergeMemphis and a participant indicated, “The weekend turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to meet others who were interested in entrepreneurship. By the end of the weekend, not only did we have one company moving forward, but also we had a community of individuals collectively thinking about multiple business opportunities that they are working on right now – a great outcome.”

The idea focused on during Memphis Startup Weekend was “Spynnr” (pronounced ‘Spinner’), a social networking application for Facebook to support the needs of the individual who wishes to find and organize pick-up sporting events such as Ultimate Frisbee, basketball, football, or even Wiffleball! The weekend focused on the immediate task of developing the vision, conducting market research, creating business plans, building the online application, and launching a first version of the core application. It worked; within 54 hours the concept had turned into a startup company. On June 1^st at 9pm, the business and all of the materials were passed over to a management team for further work and growth.

Although Spynnr was the focus during the weekend roughly 14 different groups are continuing to develop other business ideas discussed during the event. These ideas range from promoting green technology to software applications. Many of these ideas will take time to develop and the Startup Weekend was a means of bringing like-minded individuals together. There will be an August 7^th reunion for Startup Weekend participants to reconnect and report on their activities to build Spynnr and these other business concepts.

As Douglas Scarboro of LaunchMemphis points out, Startup Weekend was an inaugural event for enhancing the entrepreneurial community in Memphis. While the success of Spynnr and the other ideas stemming from the weekend have yet to unfold, the community building benefits of Memphis Startup Weekend will last for a long time.

What’s the point of starting a business if no one will hear about it? That’s right–there is no point. To be successful, word must spead and buzz must be generated.

There comes a time when every start-up business venture must decide how they will choose to generate their buzz. Word of mouth? Direct marketing? Traditional advertising? It’s a vital choice every organization must make, and a dilemma that has not escaped the marketing team at StartUp Weekend.

It appears that for this particular venture-creating a social community for ultimate frisbee pickup game players to rate the skills of other players-grassroots is the way to go. The target market is eclectic, both young and old, resistant to organization–traditional advertising most likely will not be the most effective. The word of a friend or teammate will go farther than the message of a billboard or commercial.

Does mainstreaming kill the effectiveness of grassroots campaigns?

At Memphis’ StartUp Weekend the idea of mainstreaming pickup sports is not the hope, desire or even mentioned in the business plan. Every group, from Market Research to Development, understands that ultimate frisbee players, along with other underground gamers, don’t desire to be popular or mainstream. They aren’t searching for superstardom or the fame found in the NBA or NFL.

Ultimate frisbee players love the game–the ease of quickly gathering equipment (a frisbee) and grabbing a group together to play. Symple. Easy as pie.

StartUp Weekend participants know the market and are continually sharing ideas from group to group creating the most effective and desirable user interface for the audience.

Developers at StartUp Weekend are working to create a social community where undergound gamers, specifically ultimate frisbee players, can unite to rate other players and learn how to improve their own games. At the core of the application development is Facebook.

The group of developers feel the ease of the Facebook template will be the most useful when creating a rating system for players to use. Players will connect through the social community and give ratings not only to other players, but also to venues, fields and locations. The ultimate goal is to create better games for ultimate frisbee players because they are connecting with players who have similar skill levels.

Along with the developers, the user experience group is working to design the ultimate user interface for the ultimate frisbee players. Focusing on their needs–which is being taken care of by the market research group–and keeping them in mind while designing will make the end result the most useful and effective it can be.

Walk by a table and see brains churning as they practically bubble over with ideas to lend to the brainstorming session. Sit at that table and listen to the group, whether it is PR/Marketing or User Experience, and see lightbulbs actually going off over thier heads. Ok, maybe they are no lightbulbs shining over heads, but there might as well be.

The 100 or so great minds gathered together at LaunchMemphis‘ StartUp Weekend are excited (and busy!) developing a business plan for a grassroots campaign to generate interest in a new social network presence. This network is unique and “organized” around the idea of unorganization. Interested yet?

While names, logos, business models and developments are still being worked out, the overall concept is set: A community, based on the Facebook template, uniting pickup-game players and encouraging them to join this network to rate other players and venues.

Focusing on underground sports lacking standard rules, leagues or organizations (starting with ultimate frisbee), this social community will provide a platform for players to connect with others who are on the same level as them, as well as find ways to improve their own games. StartUp Weekend is in full swing in Memphis, and there’s still a full day left! Keep checking back to see how the concept progresses–just watch out for random lightbulbs overhead.

Keep updated on all things related to StartUp Weekend and LaunchMemphis by checking out Flickr or following us on Twitter.

We’re pleased to announce that TextBound is a Silver Sponsor for Startup Weekend. TextBound is a local start-up company looking to support other start-up efforts in Memphis. Thanks to TextBound for their contribution.

We’re excited to announce Celtic Crossing as a Silver Sponsor for Startup Weekend.  Already a local legend, Celtic Crossing will continue to foster community development.

We’re excited to announce that Sun Microsystems has become a Platinum Sponsor of Startup Weekend. In particular, special appreciation goes to Samuel Terry for his help and leadership.