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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Nager, Marc, 1985-

Startup Weekend: how to take a company from concept to creation in 54 hours / Marc Nager, Clint Nelsen & Franck Nouyrigat.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-118-10509-2 (cloth)

ISBN: 978-1-118-15963-7 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-16023-7 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-16024-4 (ebk)

1. New business enterprises. I. Nelsen, Clint. II. Nouyrigat, Franck. III. Title.

HD62.5. N335

658.1 '1-dc23

2011024064

This book is dedicated to entrepreneurs.

Because of you, the world is a better place.

Foreword

Carl Schramm and Steve Blank

The Art and Science of Startups in Revolutionary Times

In the future, we will look back at this decade (2010 to 2020) as the beginning of an economic revolution as significant and world-changing as the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth century and the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century. We are currently standing at the beginning of the
entrepreneurial
revolution. This doesn't mean just more technology-based products (though we'll certainly get our share of those). Rather, this is a revolution that will permanently reshape business as we know it, and more importantly, change the quality of life across the entire planet for all who come after us. And organizations like Startup Weekend are at the very forefront of this groundbreaking development.

The Barriers to Entrepreneurship

Over the past 40 years, startups continued to innovate as each new wave of technology took hold. However, the
rate of innovation
was constrained by limitations we are just beginning to understand. Only in the past few years have we come to appreciate the fact that startups in the past were constrained by factors like:

1.
Long technology development cycles (how long it takes to get from idea to product).

2.
The high cost of getting to first customers (the cost to build the product).

3.
The structure of the venture capital industry (that there were a limited number of venture capital firms, each of which needed to invest millions per startup).

4.
The expertise about how to build startups (which was clustered in specific regions like Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York).

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