Over this past weekend – June 10th-12th – twenty-five startup companies were invited to come together and be part of Project Skyway’s first “bootcamp.”  See who was there from the official list, and the “speed pitch” videos that tech.mn’s Jeff Pesek shot.  Naiku was honored to have been invited.

This is a post about founders.  The founders that we met during the weekend were absolutely amazing.  Every time I started talking to someone, it was fascinating to discover how hard they had worked to identify markets, write code, and in some cases how far they had already come (more than a few were post-revenue).

During the weekend (in addition to the Jamba Juice, lunch and speech coach) we were given access to business and IP attorneys, accountants, and angel investors – and every one of these people had great insight they were willing to share.  They were great.

The grind that the bootcamp organizers put us through required some brain cells too.  We had to pitch our company to investors, potential employees, and a customer in 90 seconds.  Try taking something like America’s education system, its problems and how you intend to fix them, and delivering a competitive pitch (because they were all great) to a specific audience in that time.  It was a great way to get message focused.

All this being said, the other founders were fantastic! Shout out to all of them. The insight, encouragement and wisdom they provided was priceless.  Everyone was helping each other out, sharing connections and trying to help each other succeed.  Wow.  There were some women there, otherwise I’d call it a fraternity.

Being invited to bootcamp was an honor, we all owe Cem Erdem, Casey Allen, and the rest of Project Skyway a big thank you for putting everything together. Being in the same room with 48 other co-founders and listening to some of their BIG ideas for an entire weekend has put a spring in my step and refreshed my perspective on the Minnesota software start-up scene.