I went to Startup Weekend to support the local startup community and work on my public speaking. I shot my idea around to colleagues and friends to get feedback. Chris Keller was one of those folks. Coincidentally, his boss had encouraged him to attend. I had met Mike Schuette a couple months prior and knew it would be a good opportunity for him to meet a lot of the people in the local ecosystem. So, I encouraged him to go as well. With respect to the idea, Mike and I knew there was at least one potential customer for a ball golf course mapping solution. I knew from prior experience that finding one’s way on a disc golf course could be frustrating. I had a sense that some simple technology could solve both problems. In Madison, in front of a younger demographic skewing toward geek, I assumed disc is sexier than ball, so I pitched disc. It’s also easier for an audience to conceptualize an app as opposed to a platform to create apps.
When the votes came in for DGCaddy, I knew I had to make a decision. If I wasn’t to waste the opportunity, I had to find a bunch of talent. Fortunately, I already knew Mike and Chris and was able to use peer pressure to get their sticky notes and participation. The rest was lightning striking. A talented designer, a programmer a few weeks away from joining a startup in Cali, and two guys who had experience running their own businesses. All we had to do was execute. And we did.
Then, I had to make another decision. What to do with DGC now that we had won? As much as I wanted to own the project I had created and personally keep the momentum rolling, I knew that my prior commitments would make turning Bushwhack into a business highly unlikely. So, better to help organize and encourage a team of people who could keep things moving than to turn it into a personal hobby that would most likely be neglected.
The odds of a startup succeeding are low. But, the odds of any one idea out of more than 60 pitches inspiring the right team to come together and execute are actually much lower. I can’t even begin to quantify the likelihood that the team goes on to pitch the following weekend in front of an investor who is also an avid disc golfer. We’ve done the startup equivalent of anti-gravity. The odds mean nothing now.
I got much more than I bargained for in the course of Startup Weekend. I had not one, but two public speaking opportunities. I met some awesome people. I saw Wisconsin ingenuity shine. I celebrated with a victorious team.
Here’s our finished product:
Madison Startup Weekend 2012 pitch
