There are two things I really enjoy, startups and traveling, so it is a true pleasure when I get to combine the two like I did last weekend when I traveled to St. John’s in Newfoundland to mentor at Startup Weekend and speak at a startup conference.
Startup Weekend
This was the third time I mentored at a Startup Weekend event, and I always enjoy them so much. You bring together a group of people who, in the span of one weekend, turn an idea into a business or close to it. It really opens your eyes to what you can achieve when you put your mind to it, and the teams this time were no exception. In one weekend, we saw teams turn ideas into cool prototypes, and one team even managed to create revenue.
Startup Soiree Conference
The conference was held on the Monday after the startup weekend, and its focus was startup funding. I really liked how they got founders from each of the main stages of funding to share their stories (early stage, seed, and series A) and then added investors into the mix to create a real discussion.
The keynote speaker of the day was Luigi Calabrese, president of Frontier Networks Inc. He shared his thoughts on startups and bootstrapping and also played a fun game called Guess the Garage, which I enjoyed since just two months earlier I had been in Silicon Valley visiting those garages and taking selfies.
“A startup customer is always better than startup funding.” – Luigi Calabrese
“You better run like hell.” – Luigi Calabrese
I came on stage next to talk about early stage funding and how I had started my startup under very extreme conditions by using creativity and hard work instead of money. I thought it would be appropriate to call the talk The Viking Bootstrap 🙂
Gillian McCrae from GetGifted was next on stage and shared with us the amazing story of how she built her business and secured seed funding. I really appreciated her honesty and her do’s and don’ts list when it comes to pitching investors.
Mark Kennedy from CeltX then shared how he had closed his series A round and really drilled down into the details you must know when looking for investors. He also emphasized that it is very important to decide whether you really want to go through a series A funding round or not because it changes the game quite a bit.
We then did a panel with the last three speakers and investors from BDC, GrowthWorks, and First Angel Network. We talked openly about the challenges of getting the attention of founders and then turning that attention into an investment.
Beers, whales, and icebergs
As good as the events were, the people were even better, and I had such a blast meeting some awesome people there. I finally got a chance to visit George Street (which every Newfoundlander I have met so far has told me to visit), I drank beer made from icebergs, tried traditional screech, went on a boat ride searching for whales and icebergs but only found very large waves, and I got to spend time with the organizers (Jason and Roger) who are awesome guys and deserve thanks for their hospitality.
I really enjoyed my trip to Newfoundland, and even though the startup scene there is still somewhat young, it has great people who will ensure that it prospers. Events like this are a great opportunity to build more international connections and bring a more diverse group of people into the community to mentor and guide entrepreneurs.
I am looking forward to visiting again next year
Ohhhh… and just because a few of my friends enjoyed the boat ride so much, I thought I would share a video of it here for them to enjoy again.
Frumkvöðull í meira en 20 ár. Stofnandi 7 fyrirtækja og Frumkvöðlar-samfélagsins. Skrifar um ferðalagið — gott og illt.
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