Day 6 & 7- Startup Weekend SC

Over the weekend we participated in Startup Weekend in Santa Cruz. It was great meeting locals and working together to create a business over 54 hours.

My team built StartFuel, a chat bot that helps first time founders to build their startup. Our team was made up of 4 SC participants and 3 locals. This was a common mix across each of the 12 or so teams at the weekend.

Of course, as always with SW, there were lots of things learnt and plenty of fun had.
One example is to ensure you pivot if your business doesn't have customers or isn't solving a problem people are having. This is how the winning team did it- pivoted several times and arrived at their final decision late last night.

The night was wrapped up at the local Museum of Art and History, with each team pitching to a panel of judges and enjoying dinner.
Most teams had at least some Startup Catalyst participants, including the top 3 teams.

All in all it was a great weekend, especially for the first time for Santa Cruz, and I think everyone enjoyed having a bunch of Aussies around for some different perspectives- and Tim Tams.

With only 3 days left in Silicon Valley, tomorrow we visit Equinix, Airbnb and finish with networking drinks at Covo/Kiwi Landing Pad.
Time to smash out these last couple of days and ensure we can bring the best knowledge home!

EDIT: Read the local news article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

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