Of the two parties tonight during my fly-in-out of Sydney, StartupWeekend<http://sydney.startupweekend.org/>@ Fishburners was more happening than General Assembly's Birthday Bash <http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Startup-Community/events/120578652/>(though lower in volume and lubrication. The reason? Understanding the difference between *how-how *and *know-what*.
GA is basically the implementation arm of O'Reilly, a crash-course in web development or specific in-demand skills. This is due to a peculiarity of technology adoption. Often for years it could be an esoteric field (eg HPCC multiprocessor) then suddenly it becomes hot-hot-hot (multicore) when hits mainstream. Similarly General Assembly addresses the skills shortage (or more accurately business short-sightedness) in that if one technology becomes popular, then a bandwagon effect kicks in. Example was seeing Java ads asking for 5 years experience when it was only released a couple years old. So when a new tool becomes the in-thing, then because the early majority didn't invest in upskilling/training, they suddenly have to pay a premium for previously rare skills. This is where specialist dev training colleges come in, allowing their graduates with the *right know-how to be placed in companies*. But just because you know-how, doesn't mean you know-what. Though GA teaches a course in business, it can never replace the reality of building a business from scratch (aka school of hard knocks), the 101 things that books never highlight (like chasing creditors). Whilst 54 hours is not long, the mini-cycle of forming, storming, norming and performing gives participants mettle of each other and a esprit d'coup. I have professional reservations about beauty competitions but it does serve a role in the startup ecosystem in bringing together potential founders in a speed-dating format. Best run by serial entrepreneurs (with significant know-what) they can be mutually beneficial, allowing insight into potential ideas and subjecting them to peer review. Of course, the people with know-why graduate to being angels (caveat survivorship bias). Observing the 6 teams (~3-8 size note Dunbar limits), the continual call for developers indicate GA has a steady market (buy-buy-buy). Another observation is that team self-selection means that if one team ended up with the quiet types, then it is easy for one talkative to dominate. History has shown that Donald Trump types are actually rarer than portrayed in media which glorifies personality conflict. Team balance is more important in a lean startup situation to identify & resource the value-drivers (cf Craig List). I await to see what team emerges the winner. Dr. Lawrence Lau http://www.linkedin.com/in/drllau -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Silicon Beach Australia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
