[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1BIlfsA4y4&w=500]
On December 10th, Startup Grind DC hosted Steve Blank (author of The Startup Owner’s Manual, Four Steps to the Epiphany, and co-founder of E.piphany) on its launch event with considerably overwhelming proportions which also happened to be on the anniversary of the first Startup Grind held outside of the Valley. Attendees from all over the DC area had the pleasure to watch Eric Koester, COO and co-founder of Zaarly, interview the father of lean methodology himself. The event was held at iStrategyLabs in the heart of the Capital. A record-shattering 120 guests for an inaugural event flocked into a packed room to mingle and listen to great insights provided by Steve (interspersed with some of his appreciable anecdotes as well).
Steve covered a range of topics throughout his interview, touching upon entrepreneurship in the modern age and how to run a successful startup in today’s market. He mentioned that today’s entrepreneurs are “inudated with news and media, not experience,” and that they need to treat their business more like medicine – “a combination of theory and practice.” Steve went on to say that entrepreneurial dissonance is key to a thriving startup community, and that today’s entrepreneurs really need to ”get out of the building” and “get their hands dirty,” for a “vision is [merely] retinal noise” that doesn’t carry very far with investors and consumers. Overall, Steve’s talk was incredibly insightful thanks to Eric’s handling of the interview, and the engagement from the crowd was spectacular to watch as they eagerly participated and learned from Steve’s various experiences. For as Steve mentioned, the best term to describe a failed entrepreneur is ”experienced,” and that’s what serves you best in the long haul.
Guests had the opportunity at the end to meet Steve with any questions about his talk, or to sign a copy of one his books.
For our next event, Startup Grind DC will be hosting Revell Horsey of HelloWallet on January 7th, 2013 at 6PM.
[links via InTheCapital]
DC Startup Grind Offers Pearls of Wisdom By Founders, For Founders
[links via Modern DC Business]