Seattle Startup Weekend

However you want to describe it, the weekend has been a success. We met each other, got to know one another and did great work together. We have an awesome product underway and the start of an idea of how to carry it forward.

Specifically, the code basically works. You may not be able to see it yet publicly, but we’ll figure out how to change that for you and let you start playing with the skillbit ™ code that lets you mine and manage team skills.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of our final moments here in the Adobe conference center is that the Patent Office requires an older version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to create the PDF file, when the rest of the world has moved on to a much more recent version. So, even though we have all the documentation ready to file, it’s not currently in a format that is readable by the Patent Office. That piece will simply have to wait until tomorrow to be submitted.

Meaning - while most Startup Weekend blogs are done when we all walk out the door, I plan to at least update these last remaining details before shifting over to the skillbit blog, which should also be up and running soon.

For now - off to Brauer’s to celebrate the successes we have achieved.  It’s important to recognize progress as much as celebrating achievements.

Stay cool out there and let us know what more you want to know.

In the last half-hour or so, a handful of people willing to at least consider taking on greater-than-your average-shareholder/founder-responsibility gathered at the front of the room to briefly discuss becoming members of the core team going forward. We basically have no idea yet exactly what that entails so will have to hash that out.

Patent application is still in progress - apparently there was some kind of lock-up or freeze while trying to submit something or other. I’d ask for details except that it clearly would be like trying to bug a Developer trying to hammer out that last bit of code.

Speaking of which, from what I can overhear, Dev work - for our current needs now - is basically done… with the exception of fixing a handful of last-minute bugs. “Just one more thing” kind of thing. Of course I could totally misunderstand what’s going on, too. I’ll hang out at least long enough to see if I can figure out what’s happening or has happened.

And then, hopefully we’ll all get at least one quick sip at Brauer’s before they close which, for whatever reason, has apparently become the watering hole of choice.

Having run out of other more obvious things to do and not having a lot of other updates to offer here (we’re working on it!), I have now been drafted into helping write text descriptions of “flow diagrams” for the patent application.

I already felt I had a pretty good handle on a lot of legal writing from occasionally proofreading my husband’s memos and briefs in the past, but this is a whole new world of writing. I wouldn’t want to try to do this all the time, but it’s definitely interesting. I now have a better understanding of “an exemplary process” and a better appreciation for our skillbit legal team.

Of course I already appreciated your work guys - I just feel like I get it even more.

I realize not everyone thinks of legal as being that exciting but this update really is. Go ahead and blame it on being married to an attorney, if you insist. In addition to having completed the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, these guys are knee deep now in the provisional patent application and anticipate having it completed and submitted by 9pm this evening. That’s exciting.

Okay, the funniest thing for me so far - aside from the laptop I use that constantly causes people to joke about ED pharmaceuticals - is that Elizabeth and I keep missing each other. In fact, I’m not even sure I know what she looks like - perhaps we’ve already spoken and I don’t know it yet?

Anyway, what I want to say about Elizabeth is that it’s completely awesome that she’s churning out posts on the Dev efforts from time to time. It makes me not feel quite so bad that the Dev work is still pretty black box to me.

I did get Matt (Dev Liaison) and Adam (Legal) to explain to me the IP patent opportunity, and I have to say that I agree - it’s totally do-able and cool. Best of all, it’s the kind of thing that really does realistically open up new business opportunities.