Launch48, October 2009

130 assorted programmers, designers and business folk; 6 eager teams; one crazily ambitious goal.

Launch48 was back.

The goal? Launch a web startup in under 48 hours.

I attended the first Launch48 event back in February. It was great fun and a fantastic way to meet people with entrepreneurial flair. That time, the local voucher idea I pitched was chosen as one of the projects to be worked on and I ended up leading team VouChaCha for one very hectic weekend and a couple of months afterwards.

This time around, I was keen to help organise the event and, hopefully, help edge it further towards something sustainable over the long-run. So I joined Adil, Ian, and the rest of their new organising committee, to help put the event together (this time with a one-day conference), publicise it, and make sure it ran smoothly.

So how did it go?

Well, as the last few attendees filtered out of the PayPal offices in Richmond (West London) 9 days ago, tired, yet still buzzing with the excitement of a weekend of hacking, business planning, logo drawing and generally pitching-in with a dozen or so enthusiastic teammates, I was happy.

The conference had gone well. In my opinion, the speakers were, as a rule, extremely good. The members of the six teams had worked together well. And six good presentations were given on Sunday afternoon. Best of all, it was great to see new connections made and people energised and inspired by what they’d taken part in.

Like with anything like this, there were a few glitches and issues along the way, but nothing too serious. We can learn from them and make the next Launch48 even better.

I’d like to say a personal ‘thank you’ to all the sponsors, speakers, mentors, organisers, and participants for making it such an enjoyable event.

If you’re interested in start-ups, looking for a co-founder, or just fancy meeting some interesting people and creating some cool stuff over a weekend, look out for the next Launch48.

photo credit: Kenny Miller