So a lot of people have written great posts about Atlanta Startup Weekend.  Most weren’t on the team I was on but I’ve spied one from one of the GivingTi.me team members.  I was debating if I should add to the noise and give my perspective.  In the end, I was convinced that I should.

Personally, I liked quite a few of the projects that came out of Atlanta Startup Weekend 2.  Not only was my idea one of them (GivingTi.me), but I also participated (very tangentially) in another one (Twitpay).  During the wrap up session I gave some thoughts to another one that I think has a chance to have some legs on it (Jumbis).  CloseBuy.me also has an opportunity but the other two (Seed Stage Records and Reepli) are open questions for me.  If Reepli gets bought on eBay that would be pretty cool and quite possibly the first Startup Weekend project to have a liquidity event.  That could be spun to be a badge of honor of sorts both for the founders and for Atlanta.

Okay, so some real thoughts on the weekend.  This weekend was remarkably different than last year.  Not only was last year all about one project (Skribit – which by the way is still alive and well and also adorns the left side of this site in a fancy little pop up, lightbox overlay dealio) but I witnessed a lot of people having open arguments and massive disagreements in terms of strategy in regards to the project.

This year Startup Weekend was intended to have multiple projects being run concurrently.  I’m not sure how many actually had full teams after the voting on Friday but very quickly a handful of the teams imploded.  Various reasons for this but others who were directly involved are in a better position to discuss what happened since I only heard about them after the fact.

We had some sixteen people working on GivingTi.me when Saturday rolled around (we picked up some folks whose projects had imploded on Friday evening).  It’s been proposed that the attraction of folks to this project may have been due to the fact that I already had grant money lined up for the project (thanks to the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt).  Yeah, that probably had something to do with it but I think everyone on the project really wanted to work on something that could create a positive impact not only in Atlanta but beyond.  GivineTi.me has the opportunity to do just that.

And why do I think this was the motivation of folks working on this project?  Well, a lot of the folks have said that they want to continue working on the project and some have even approached me about what I’m planning next.  Also, not one of the folks from the weekend asked me about stock, options, or anything else.  I’m not sure where GivingTi.me will land – either as a 501(c)3 (not for-profit) or as a regular company.  If it does end up being the latter, I’ve committed to making sure that all the folks from the weekend get some shares of non-voting, common stock.  When I mentioned this during the weekend, not one person asked anything about details (why non-voting or the percentage or anything else).  That tells me these folks wanted to do this because it was something they truly believed in and not for some kind of compensation.

Another indication of believing the vision comes in the fact that over the weekend I didn’t hear one disagreement between any of my team members.  That’s right, not one.  Even given the vast differences in the experience levels within the development team and the business development/marketing team no one ever 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 leadership of myself or others?  Was it sheer force of will?  Nope.  It wasn’t any of those things.  I think what it amounts to is that the folks who were attracted to this project realized that this was about helping others and thus their work on the project, and interactions with others on the project, should be about helping others.

In the end, we built a fantastic site that I could never have built by myself.  Sure there are still some issues with the site but we’ll get them ironed out.  Regardless, I consider the weekend a success because a bunch of folks got together and started GivingTi.me down the right path and along the way they helped teach one another some great things and made some good friends.  Personally, I’d start a company and work with any one of them.  And if that isn’t a good outcome for Atlanta Startup Weekend, then I don’t know what is.