1. Participate in the community - when people know you, they are much more willing to help you. The first SWBA, all the Startupcamps and AIESEC Symposium were not only priceless experience but also sources of great connections.
2. Know who you need - have clear idea what skills and experience you need to your team and keep the team small at all cost (3-4 members is the optimum)
3. Be nice to others - if you try to help others, others will try to help you back and you will not only enjoy the weekend better, but also build great relationships for the future
4. Have a clear plan - write down right at the beginning what you want to achieve during the weekend and when. Then monitor your progress vigorously.
Our first plan on Friday evening
6. Test your idea - right from the beginning, try to find ways how to test your hypotheses and get feedback from real users. Nothing is more valuable than seeing customers use your product in real-life
7. Prepare a great story - at the end, you have got 4 minutes to sell all the great work your team has done over the weekend, make sure you tell the story well (simple slides, clear flow & don’t forget jokes!)
8. Practice, practice, practice - practice your pitch in front of anyone who would listen and improve it based on their feedback
9. Don’t care about winning - winning is just a side-effect if you do all the other things well
10. Have fun - this will be one of the best weekends of your lives, make sure you enjoy it!
We hope these lessons could help other teams in the future have even better experience @ StartupWeekends and would love to hear your thoughts about what you think are the most important takeaways.