I attended ASW2 this Friday, and while I enjoyed it much more than last time, I still decided not to return on Saturday and Sunday. Consider it a mixture of laziness and desire to work on other stuff.
Update: Just to be 100% clear: I think ASW2 was a good time, I just had a lot on my plate. The main reason I quit is because weekends are the only times I can work on my own startup stuff, and it’s a big investment for me to spend that time on other pursuits. I’m glad I went on Friday, and if I had more free time I might have stuck it out. But, all things equal, the TODO stack for Obsidian Portal doesn’t shrink on its own.
My Pitch: Get Me A Date
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, do human reviews of dating website profiles to help people look their best.
Charge a flat fee of $10 for a review. This gets farmed out to two MTurk workers for a rate of $3 each, leaving a profit of $4 for the service. The MTurk workers review the person’s profile and give specific, personal criticism of their photo and bio.
Each review is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If the customer is dissatisfied, they get their money back…and the MTurk worker doesn’t get paid! Over time, MTurk workers get better, to the point that they can churn through the reviews and make $30-$40/hr, all the while earning money for us!
Essentially, it’s an excuse to play with MTurk. I think MTurk is a fascinating idea, and there are some really cool things that could be done with it, assuming the workforce is steady and high enough quality can be ensured.
Get Me A Date made it to the top 5 (out of about 30 ideas), but when the time came to pledge support for a project, only my new friend John stood up. So, we disbanded and moved to Giving Time.
I spent a little time with the GivingTi.me team, but eventually decided to quit. I liked the idea and the opportunity to work with some new people, but there was one person on the team who really rubbed me the wrong way. Chris wanted to run all the conversations, and seemed to think very highly of himself due to being a CTO of a local startup and having an MS in Software Engineering from Tech. Well, I’m also the CTO of a startup (I give myself titles for AisleTen whenever it’s convenient) and have an MS in Artificial Intelligence from Tech, but I don’t think that’s really all that relevant at Startup Weekend. Skills and personality are important, not titles.
When I was asked if I would be there Saturday morning, and I said no, Chris asked, “Is it because of me?” Rather than play it down and be nice, I was blunt and said yes. If I’m going to spend a weekend hacking away on a never-make-money project, it had better be with people I like and respect. Why spend your free time getting bossed around and talked down to? At the time, I declined to elaborate, since there were about a dozen people in the room, but I am proud of myself for being straightforward and honest.
Ultimately, I didn’t find any of the ideas all that compelling. Plus, I’ve been tweaking some stuff on ObsidianPortal, so that’s where my heart is at the moment. It’s hard to concentrate on something when you wish you were somewhere else.
Anyways, I wish everyone the best, and I hope some good stuff comes from the weekend. I know I’ll be working on Obsidian Portal most of the time, so it’s still a startup weekend for me. 
I like the idea you had about Get Me A Date and Mechanical Turk. I came across a similar idea about doing the same for a moderation service for various media, but never fully flushed it out. I am kind of glad I was not able to go to ASW2 this weekend due to school. I have always been afraid of situations like what you described. Kudos for sticking to your guns!
You should have hung out with the Mark’s Horrible Idea team, we turned it into a legitimate product and have had a lot of fun.
I think the opportunity with the new ASW format is to find the right team for you. It might have been a good idea to test several teams before calling it quits. Everyone was open to new members.
@Erik
Yeah, it looked like you guys were having too much fun to actually get anything done. Shows what I know.
The main reason I quit is because I was excited to work on some stuff for Obsidian Portal. I get it into my head that I want something done NOW NOW NOW and I can’t concentrate on other stuff.
Thought your idea was sharp. I think next time they need a better way to divide into teams (maybe by the responsibility you signed up for and better skill matching). Seemed like GivingTi.me had a lot of chiefs and few indians. But it had moola, so would you expect something different?
@Brad,
The GivingTi.me team had several good people on it, but I just got a bad vibe that first night. I was surprised at how simple the idea was, but people still wanted to change it. Managing scope creep and targeting the core value is probably the hardest thing to do at something like Startup Weekend. Getting that many people to buy into and share a vision in such a short period is quite difficult.
Thanks for the comment!
[...] got irate or upset at anyone else. Well, that’s a lie. Actually on Friday it did happen with one person but once we really got underway, it was smooth sailing. And why was that? Was it some [...]