Boulder Startup Week - May 16 - 20th, 2016

This is my first time attending Boulder Startup Week and I can see why it is an amazing event.  With 203 events, 421 speakers at 71 venues around Boulder, it is so amazing the event can be made free. Applaud to the organizer, core team members and sponsors who made this event possible.

Given that I'm still early in my startup phase, I tried to take the benefits of this event and visited many talks, from a hardcore sessions such as Algorithm, Virtual Reality, Manufacturing to Funding, and to the Mental Health of Entrepreneur, speeches by Brad Feld, Tom Higley and Sarah Jane, which exceeded my expectation.

Mental Health of Entrepreneur

I also have the opportunities to talk to several mentors to get their perspectives and experiences on the business I started: Tim Wolters, Tom Keller, Brian Ardinger, Jose Vieitez, Manny Ladis, and Allan Shriver.

Overall the events have been very educational for me.

Here are some of my takeaways from the events that hopefully others may find useful as well. There are more notes that I took, but I selected a few that are more general.

On Funding:

• In doing bootstrap company, if it takes years to be profitable, it may not be the right approach to do bootstrap. 
• Doing bootstrap, it is assumed it will be a slow growth.
• A good book to read:  Hackers guide to raise fund by Fletcher Richman.
• New crowdfunding rule by federal on Title 3 was discussed in the session about funding. Interestingly the first day the Title III is allowed by law is happened on May 16th, the first day of Boulder Startup Week.
• Before going to get funding, make sure do your own due diligence.  Talk to investor first, not to ask for money, but just ask for advice after showing the product.

On Technology:

• If you are developing IoT product, it is better to start with Off-The-Shelf product, where you can take the benefits of the certification that product has passed.
• The main strength of Virtual Reality is to play in the scale manipulation
• Intellectual property, as you are using open source code, make sure it's clear what is Open Source, and what is yours.
• Starting from 2012, US Patent rule changed from "first to invent" to "first to file"

Intellectual Property

On Mental health:

• It is important to manage the mental health of entrepreneur. Brad Feld talked about incorrect sense of responsibility that makes us do many things that we don't need to
• Starting a business is hard, so make sure it is fun. Make sure to understand the sacrifice being made by member of the family. At the end, the family is important.

On Mentoring:

• Be prepared when speaking to mentor. They are busy people, so make sure the goal is clear. Learn about their background so you can ask relevant questions.
• Advisor vs Mentor: advisor is more public facing, while mentor is more informal.

On getting into Accelerator:

• Your team is important, 
• Show that you are coachable
• Show your traction, show the progression
• Understand what you want to get out of the accelerators
• Think from the accelerator perspective: create the sense of missing out