Start Up Toledo

I went to Toledo Start Up weekend for what I thought was going to be a very productive weekend.  However I found out quickly that was not going to be the case.   The event was held at the University of Toledo and was for the development of a start up business.  There were no guarantees of what was to come out of the weekend other than a great experience and networking of who's in the Toledo Tech Industry.  Well that part was true.  I met great people with great organizations.  Many thanks goes out to Sally NG of Clarity, all of the guys @ Givt, and the dudes from Seed.  What a great group of people I met.

Ok, now for the not so fun stuff.  Like I said above, I was looking forward to being very productive and was crazy excited for the weekend.  How I saw it was you were to pitch an idea, get people behind it that want to work on it, and away you go.  Great speakers, pizza (duh, winning), and a quick pitch session to get everybody excited.  I'm pumped, here we go, the rules of the pitch.  Rule #1.  You can not pitch anything you have previously worked on...............What the fuck am I doing here!  I have been working on Phototwine for almost a year but need to make it better, move it to other platforms, and try to optimize it for the iPad.  I need help!  I was looking for smart people to join me.  Thankfully, a friend of mine that was there told me to stick around for the experience.  I quickly thought of another problem that needed to be solved but did not care to solve it but pitched it anyway just for the experience.  Go figure, I came in second out of 25.  Great, now I feel obligated to stay now.

The next day I dragged myself back in at 2:30 pm.  The coordinators asked me how it went, so I told them. For those who do not know me, I do not mix my words.  However they were great and asked me what my idea was going to be.  Unbelievably, the whole group of professionals sat down with me and hammered out some great ideas for hours.  I did not feel worthy.  Ended up being a great experience even though I was disqualified from the competition.  The people I met in Toledo Start up weekend were wonderful and would not trade it for the world.  There is something to be said about not quitting!  And thankfully I did not.  And before I forget, Congrats to everyone who participated and a big shout out to Fueled, this years winners.