Many of you will be familiar with the Chinese proverb –
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step
In the case of a Startup weekend, the journey starts with a lightning-fast, 10 000 metre sprint.
Except you’re not running the race on your own: you’ve just formed a team with people you don’t know who you’ll need to rely on to cross caverns and scale mountains. It’s all rather nerve wracking.
On 22 September, Team Speckio won the Global Techstars Startup Weekend Women event with their idea being to use behavioural nudges to raise self-awareness and understanding of others.
The event was held at the River City Labs in Brisbane and the team comprised – Christina Cardarello, Britt Furlanis, Patrice Cotter, Tanya O’Shea, myself Tracy Stanley and Michael Moore. (Michael was invited to join the team when we recognised we would benefit from additional tech skills. He had come along to the event to support his Mum who was in one of the other teams).
The Speckio team provided a few insights into their motivations for participating in Startup Weekend and what they learnt from the experience.
1. What prompted you to sign up for Techstars Startup Weekend Women?
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. I’d heard a lot about Startup weekends but had never experienced one. (Tanya)
Challenging myself by trying something far outside my comfort zone. I didn’t know anyone beforehand and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew I’d be surrounded by like-minded people. (Christina)
The women only aspect prompted more than anything. I’ve never attempted a startup weekend before so this seemed like a, dare I say, “safe” entrance. I wanted to learn about what it takes to startup a business. (Britt)
I’d done startup weekends before and knew what could be achieved working with highly motivated folk with a clear goal and the clock ticking. (Tracy)
I love the idea of discovering a problem and solving it. The startup weekend seemed like the perfect place to channel this love of problem solving and join forces with a great bunch of like-minded people. (Patrice)
2. Why did you choose the Speckio idea/group?
I’m passionate about helping teams thrive, and I really believe that begins with building self-awareness, and then applying that awareness in the context of the people you’re working with. You only need to look back in history to see the incredible things that teams can achieve, and I’m determined to make more incredible achievements possible for more teams. (Christina)
Speckio resonated with me instantly because I have lived the benefits of authentic connection in my life, both personally and professionally. (Britt)
My tertiary quals are aligned to mental health, I’m a DISC Advanced Accredited consultant and I have a genuine passion for igniting human potential. When I heard Christina pitch Speckio, I don’t think I heard another pitch after that. (Tanya)
I knew from my time in HR that we had paid for hundreds of behavioural insight reports that were only ever used once and that this knowledge could help to build better teams. (Tracy)
Speckio captured my interest as I’m a strong believer in the idea that the difference between success and failure is a high-performing team. The concept of improving team performance through increasing the awareness of human behaviour seemed fascinating and I was thrilled to be involved. (Patrice)
3. How did you find the process? (Pitch, select idea, discuss together, discuss with potential clients and run surveys, prepare final pitch).
I got to work alongside an incredible tribe of talented people who each taught me so much – not to mention the guidance we absorbed from the amazing RCL mentors. I couldn’t be prouder of what our team achieved across the weekend – from validating the problem, to crafting a business model and even executing a working demo during the final pitch. (Christina)
Despite my natural urge to know things and be in control, I knew that I knew nothing about startup weekends so I was ready to sit back, be a team player and be of service to the process. I really enjoyed putting the Lean Startup process into practice. This reinforced what I needed to do to develop my own startup. (Britt)
Excellent. It truly is about following and trusting the process. It was challenging at times to sit back and not take the lead role (as that is what I am used to in my day job). But, that was also part of the learning – identifying and committing to the role that I played in the team and respecting the knowledge and wisdom that the rest of the team would bring to the process. (Tanya)
Fast and furious. (Tracy)
Before the weekend, developing a startup seemed overwhelming and unachievable – taking the first step seemed almost impossible. During the weekend, we were guided through the process of validating the problem, developing a business model and building a minimum viable product (MVP). The knowledge, resources and support provided by the River City Lab mentors were invaluable, and as a result my perspective shifted entirely. By following simple steps and trusting the process, a startup can transform from a humble idea into a real, tangible product. (Patrice)
4. What was the hardest part of the process?
The hardest parts of the process were also the best parts. From working under extreme time pressure to test our hypotheses, to exploring the competitive landscape, and even thinking through a potential go-to-market strategy, we actually got to live the experience of one of the questions that Speckio set out to answer – How can a newly formed team quickly get to a high-performing state? (Christina)
Validation…speaking to your network! Not being in control. Haha! (Britt)
Remembering that finding the solution is at the end of the process – not at the start. Asking open questions and listening to the information being provided by potential customers without trying to link it to a potential solution. Detaching from what may be perceived as the ideal solution. Retaining the energy and engagement of the team throughout the process. Identifying a low-cost way to demonstrate traction. (Tanya)
You have to move so quickly, overcome your discomfort with talking to customers and work with often limited information to make decisions. So important to identify your assumptions. (Tracy)
Conversing with stakeholders is highly essential for startup validation. For me, talking to new people in the corporate world was rather nerve-racking and was a key challenge of mine. Thanks to my team members, I was inspired by everyone’s unwavering efforts to contact as many stakeholders as possible, in the aim of thoroughly validating the problem and idea. I quickly gained a strong sense of confidence from the Speckio tribe and undertook the notion of: “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” (Patrice)
5. What was the best bit of the process?
Being a part of a team, who by the power of our collective strengths, discussed, validated, debated, brainstormed and delivered a pitch we were proud of. Discovering parts of ourselves in each other. (Britt)
Learning lots about myself, meeting and working with people who I had never met before but learnt so much from, working with an impressive group of young people who taught me heaps, coding without code, seeing and hearing the final pitch – watching all the hard work from the weekend coming together! (Tanya)
Living within a high performing team and seeing what can be achieved with a common goal and shared working values in a short period of time. (Tracy)
The best part of the weekend was working with an amazing tribe of people! Each person provided various strengths, values and experiences which contributed to Speckio’s success. Seeing everything come together in the final pitch was a proud moment and it was all thanks to the hard-working team behind it. (Patrice)
6. What were the key takeaways from the weekend?
Being able to work with such an amazing group of gifted people who believed in my idea, and thanks to each of them I’ve walked away with a new-found sense of self-belief. (Christina)
Get out of the way of yourself to VALIDATE! If no one is trying to solve the problem you have identified then no one is going to buy what you are offering. There is nothing you cannot do until you receive a ‘cease and desist letter’. (Britt)
Trust the process, trust and respect the people in your team, respectfully share your knowledge and insights and then sit back and allow others to share theirs, be prepared to immerse yourself in the problem that you are attempting to solve, be patient, be kind and considerate of everyone going through the process, check in with your team regularly, share small insights about yourself with your team early, be open to whatever is going to happen and allow it to just happen. (Tanya)
Our team learnt so much from the process about testing and validating ideas and about using the different skills in the team. This learning was the main takeaway with the announcement that we had won being the cherry on top. As every start-up will know, completing the start-up process is just the beginning of another, much longer journey. (Tracy)
If you have a startup idea that you’re passionate about pursuing – just do it! By following the startup steps, pivoting when necessary and surrounding yourself with a great tribe of people, anything is possible! In the words of Seth Godin, “The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.” (Patrice)
Next Steps on the journey
The team will be supported by mentor Chris Raethke to bring the idea to realisation and Christina will be representing the team at Startup Weekend Women in Singapore next March.
If the team had one message for those with entrepreneurial aspirations reading this article it would be to just do it. Take a step in the direction of your dreams or take a sprint through a Startup Weekend. It’s worth it.
