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11/22/11 | Uncategorized

Women 2.0 Startup Weekend: One of the Best Weekends of My Life!

By Daisy Jing (Founder, Perfect Beauty)
I’ve always loved entrepreneurship. I’ve loved being surrounded by people who are motivated by nothing else other than their vision, and will suffer through sleepless nights to make it happen.

I moved to San Francisco after college to be part of this network, because I have always wanted to work in startups. However, I never knew where to begin. Every time I went to an entrepreneurship networking event, I felt I as if I couldn’t connect with the people.

I was a girl straight from college with just a mission and a passion. I wanted to be to find women who were like me, shared the same vision and goals, and wanted to be part of something greater than themselves.

Startup Weekend Changed My Life

I was surrounded by some of the area’s most ambitious women who took a weekend off to come straight from our jobs and spend our entire weekends engaging in this masochistic behavior of working for 18, 20 hours a day. I loved the energy, the passion, the enthusiasm, because every single person there wanted to work on something that would, ultimately, change the world.

Friday night: I Pitched My Idea

I’ve always been passionate about beauty products, ever since I was a little kid, because every woman wants to feel beautiful, and if a great lipstick does that, why not share that to the rest of the world? Why not connect women from around the world to share their beauty tips and tricks?

My idea had been in my head for years now, but Startup Weekend was a way for me to put it on paper and execute. I had the incredibly opportunity to work with others who shared the same vision I did, and to work around the clock on this vision.

I credit our success to one, passion, two, complementing one another on our skill sets, and three, my great team for putting up with me 🙂 Shoutout to Lori Lee, Audrey Fischer, Anita Weiley, Hana Kellerman, Lana Kellerman, and George Kellerman.

 

Some Pointers For Future Startup Weekends

  1. Time goes by very quickly so make sure you are organized in terms of what you need to get done.
  2. Get started on the pitch deck even before anything else so you have an agenda of items you need to work on.
  3. Make sure you don’t spread yourself too thin in terms of expanding your features and functionality.

You only have a weekend, so just focus on the problem you’re trying to solve.

The pitches were all amazing, and I definitely can see every single one of those who presented being on the cover of Inc Magazine. Again it’s only a weekend, and the journey is a marathon. Startup Weekend was a catalyst for getting the ball rolling. I have a desire to change the world, and as Steve Jobs says, “Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are ones who do so”.

Thank you Women 2.0. Nothing short of amazing.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.
About the guest blogger: Daisy Jing is the Founder of Perfect Beauty, a social community for women to connect to share beauty related tips and tricks. Daisy graduated from Duke University with majors in Economics and Social Psychology. At Duke, she was involved in Business Oriented Women, was a National Women in Business Representative and part of the Alum Board, and worked with Sidewalk Deals, a real time deal service for students. Follow her on Twitter at @daiserzjing.

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