StartupSD.

“You are the average of the five people you hang out with the most” - Jim Rohn

I stumbled upon that quote from a TED talk that a friend shared with me. I was in a place where I didn’t feel I was progressing in my career and didn’t know what to do. I wanted to take on new challenges. I had my startup but was facing stagnation.

StartupSD became the first large-member community I joined

I love building, and I love innovation! The first time I walked into San Diego Startup Week 2016, I absolutely fell in love with the education, the people, and the atmosphere. It was my Disneyland!

January 2017— StartupSD held a volunteering event to recruit the next leaders who will host San Diego Startup Week for the 5th year in a row. Managing Director of Programs was presented as an opportunity. I wanted the apprenticeship from talented entrepreneurs who have served in various communities, accelerators, and the wonders. I was interviewed by the team and cautioned that it would be over 100+ hours of work.

Managing Director for San Diego Startup Week

Thanks Austin! Now what? “Here’s a team of 20 people. Host your first meeting.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.”

I had second thoughts. What if I’m not good enough? Did I deserve to be here? I could choose to either worry about my feelings of failure, or focus on what I’m committed to creating and do the best I can.

6 months of a long journey

I was responsible for all 15 tracks: Idea, Seed, Scale, Developer, Design, Sales/Marketing, BiNational, Bio Medical, Cannabis, CyberSecurity, CleanTech, Craft Beverage, Impact, FutureTech, Social.

Every track had a captain and co-captain. Many of them had their team of volunteers they operated. We would all physically meet every two weeks in Downtown reviewing our overall progress, doing standups, offering support to one another. We were a team.

It was my responsibility to continue raising the spirit of volunteers, stay on course, and ensure we have a quality curriculum

I was consistently on phone calls, coaching calls, team calls, and dealt with literally 20 emails a day. I certainly felt like I was operating underwater through many parts of the journey.

I felt I needed to consistently build new processes every week to streamline the chaos and request new volunteers on board.

Occasionally I’ve been invited to pitch why StartupSD is a great organization to contribute, and what value volunteers can get out of this — the exposure to the community, the talent they surround themselves with, the impact they’ll create, and of course a free ticket. I had other talks on WSRadio, presented at Symphony Towers, earned a spot on the San Diego Business Journal, and interviewed on KUSI News.

We grew from 20 to over 300+ volunteers (120 were active), connected to dozens of local organizations, academic institutions, and the City of San Diego.

286 sessions among 15 tracks, in a 5-day event… for less than $100/person.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, but very different than I had before. While my team and I learned a whole lot from the experience, here are some of the takeaways we recognized:

• Your time is valuable. All the material you contribute towards the organization should be made accessible to everyone so that we don’t have fragmented places of information.

• 286 sessions was wayyyy too much. It threw many attendees into analysis paralysis given there were so many competing sessions all at competing times.

• Although we had quality content, the mass quantity of sessions appeared to dilute the overall value of San Diego Startup Week.

In March 2018 I had to make a conscious decision to step down and take care of myself. As much as I enjoyed contributing to the foundation of the entrepreneur ecosystem, I needed to focus my time and energy on creating a foundation for myself. One month later, I met the woman that I’m getting married to.