10 Things I Learned at Nashville Startup Weekend

10 Things I Learned at Nashville Startup Weekend about Entrepreneurship and Business

I recently attended Nashville Startup Weekend at the Owen School of Business at Vanderbilt University and had a great time. I participated with the team that worked on Planet PE, an e-learning startup focused on physical education curriculum:

1) Scenario model for pitches is great (example narrative or sample customer interaction)
2) It helps to be funny
3) Artificial demand helps your business model and revenue
4) Re-packaging content (again and again) might help scale it
5) Often your personal pain points make the best products and stories
6) Build on existing communities for starting your business
7) E-mail is old school, but can work
8] Mass customization can work as a business model
9) Re-current revenue often beats a one off.
10) Can replicate an existing model in a new market or with a new twist (aka re-mix, mashup)

Here is an article which explains five reasons business plans fail, which can provide helpful guidance when writing a business plan. (hopefully, I’ll blog about and summarize the salient points from this article soon)

Here are all the startup ideas that were pitched on Friday night thanks to Tod Fetherling of the Nashville Technology Council:

1 Luke Mobile phone carrier identification app
2 Lawrence Human value exchange (service barter system)
3 Nicholas Boffee shop
4 Kate & Jason Office Hero (ordering system)
5 Nick Buffalo club (weight loss pool)
6 Lily Daily Candy (sports for sports haters)
7 Betsy Roommates.com for songwriters
8 Darren Online doctor scheduling
9 Stephen Focus Radar automated tasking system
10 Nick-o Get Rich on Jokes.com (joke aggregator/monetizer)
11 Jason Outlook for ADD, Anti-FocusRadar
12 Bruce Golf course merchandise aggregator
13 Luke MBA-powered musicians™
14 Tod PE Teacher.com (Online PE curriculum)
15 Lee Pizza Smackdown
16 Chris Online music collaboration marketplace
17 Anne & Justin Menu planning meets video poker
18 Jake Passive Traveler
19 tod Nashehr.com
20 Chad ican’tmakedecision.com
21 Luke Everyone’s favorite restaurant (multi-delivery)
22 Tom Zombie augmented reality storytelling 2.0 kindof
23 Jake Real estate self-guided GPS app
24 Chris Simple menu-to-SMS ordering for small restaurants
25 Justin Basecamp for event planning
26 Scott Real world Monopoly® GPS-aware game
27 Lee One auto enthusiast site to rule them all
28 Amber One wiki-like legal search app to rule them all
29 Nick-a-rama Reusable Hot-or-Not
30 Kate Evernote for Lyricists
31 Matt Local news site to take The Tennessean’s lost advert $ 2.0
32 Tod Truck Sock + The Wedge
33 Nathan K. Hyperlocal calendar aggregator
34 Nathan S. Wuja Cuja (charity-a-day)
35 Jake & Nate Startup Yearround (Kiva for the First World)
36 Bayard Social Media Styleguide Generator
37 Bo Mortgage applications – shop to all mortgage lenders

And here are the finalists thanks to Andrew Duthie of Duthie Learning:

Here are the five finalists:
PE Teacher.com (Online PE curriculum)
Focus Radar automated tasking system
One wiki-like legal search app to rule them all
Daily Candy-like service for sports haters
Office Hero (ordering system)

And here are the pitches that made the first cut but not the final:
Mortgage applications – shop to all mortgage lenders
Zombie augmented reality storytelling 2.0 kindof
Startup Yearround (Kiva for the First World)
Menu planning meets video poker
Basecamp for event planning
Nashehr.com
Real estate self-guided GPS app
Online doctor scheduling