Startup Weekend West Lafayette

West Lafayette has had the honor of being the first Startup Weekend to -

• Launch during the weekend (Alpha the 2nd day)
• Have international co-founders (3 individuals)
• Build Facebook Ap, Blog Widget, and Firefox/IE7 plugin extensions

As the founders start to roll in incredibly early, it is hard to believe that only 36 hours ago scrolltalk was founded.

The team is diligently preparing for a 1pm Beta launch and a public launch later in the day. Usability and marketing are quickly becoming the focus, but the engineering team has plenty to do tweaking and fixing in response to all the crazy things users do to test the limits of the system.

Discussions about the best way to add more server capacity are already underway.

We are all growing quite anxious even at this very early hour.

While we all know the hard work put in yesterday and to come tomorrow, it feels like an entire startup was founded during the 18 hours the team put in today.

The sum of todays accomplishments are hard to put into a list, as the steps came so fast and built on each other to such a extent it was hard to remember how far we had come from just a few hours before.

Concluding in a Alpha Site Launch today, the scrolltalk team is exhausted but optimistic about the work and the joy of a launch just 54 hours after the first ideas were discussed.

scrolltalk is working on our tag line, and would love to hear what everyone thinks. Comment on the post or send feedback to - tagline@scrolltalk.com

• Tag that chat
• Tag and Talk
• Interest Messaging

On hour 15 of the day, the Facebook App, the Firefox and IE7 plug in versions of scrolltalk become fully operable.

The buzz in the room has jumped up a few notches and the teams continues to work well together.

Watch for a big Sunday release…

Or so it is planned. Here is where:

Development: A bit of a wish wash today on which language is best to use. .NET was chosen, but the code never really got off the ground before a PHP developer played around and had a compelling build. The PHP group thinks they can build an app that can scale, although there are concerns in the group. The discussion is ongoing, but the basic conclusion of having a compelling prototype is better than having a solid not finished app in .NET or Rails. The team is working through some differences of opinion, showing class by working together to try to be the first Startup Weekend to launch a compelling product by Sunday night (0-5 record right now). Just changed in the build are two big additions: ways to add usernames and the ability to build keyword lists automatically. A prototype is built, and quite fun to use. Autonomous internet chatting can get old quick, but when you are chatting across the room from someone, a simple “All your base are belong to us” is all you need.

Creative: The creative department is small, made up of just two. A simple, targeted user interface has been designed, with a simple design to back it up. The logo, seen at scrolltalk.com is a simple two color typeface in a lightly shadowed box. The interface is simple and intuitive. Very little feature creep has taken place.

Business Development: The launch of the site will not include an amazing amount of build in monetization, although long term plans are in the works.

Public Relations: A social media strategy and general media strategy is planned. A product needs to launch for the team to feel comfortable really going out for press. A humble approach.

Legal: The friendly folks at IceMiller, which we thank in almost every post (thank you!) came by this morning and were a pleasure to talk to. Scott Snively and Thomas Walsh were extremely good at listening to the Founders concerns and work on the Articles of Incorporation (a tricky thing to do with 40 cofounders), Terms of Service and a Participant Release Form.

Swag: General Startup Weekend T-Shirts were just brought out, and will be on sale to the online viewing audience shortly ($20 for American Apparel shirt, shipped in the US).

We’ve just wrapped up a great Chinese take-out dinner, once again provided by our awesome sponsor Ice Miller.

We came together at 5:00pm to discuss the major updates and developments. The different specializations have formed well really efficient teams which are all on pace for launching scrolltalk Sunday evening.

Winning fortune cookie of the night

“You are capable of building a thriving business venture.”
Lucky numbers: 22, 12, 24, 37, 30, 25

Developing the idea a breakneck speed today, but the pace was taking a toll. So instead of yoga, a nice 10 minute stroll down around the beautiful campus of Purdue was in order.

Big deadlines for 4:30 EST today, watch for updates.

After a Jimmy Johns recharge lunch (thank you Ice Miller) a medium sized group of core volunteers is really working away at the idea now.   A demo was posted about 30 minutes ago, almost 10 hours ahead of schedule.

The pace of progress is promising, but some major hurdles loom and if any unexpected challenges come up, the manpower left to go after them will be limited.

Just a quick update from our 10:30 meeting:

• PHP and JavaScript Libraries were chosen as the languages
• Looking at Open Source options to have jumpstart, also looking at what the team has built before
• Legal team from Ice Miller is here! Getting them on board.
• UI problems are being worked out
• General questions on online chat are being defined
• Business model developing
• Coffee is hot, Krispe Kreme donuts are as well

We will check in soon! So much to do.