Lessons from Startup Bootcamp

I recently attended Startup Bootcamp, a one-day free workshop that brings in startup founders to talk about lessons learned. Here are some brief notes about what I learned from each speaker:

• Paul English, Kayak. The team is most important: assemble the best possible team and advisors.
• Leah Culver, Convore. Show up and do something. It might be hard work.
• Andrew Sutherland, Quizlet. Dogfood your product.
  
• Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare. Build around an atomic action.
• Charlie Cheever, Quora. Looking at qualitative data is important.
  
• Drew Houston, Dropbox. Surround yourself with people you want to be like.
  
• Alex Polvi, Cloudkick. Take care of your team.
  
• Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine. Just fucking do something.
• Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb. Work hard, be creative, and keep pushing forward.
• Patrick Collison, Stripe. Starting a company is a great way to apply academic ideas.
  

The 3000-attendee registration and the number of business people looking for tech cofounders confirmed that we are indeed in a bubble.

Caramelized Leek Soup

A great dish to try as you brace for colder weather is caramelized leek soup, which requires about an hour of preparation in a heavy kettle. I tried it with ciabatta bread (for dipping) and broiled chicken with roasted green beans for the main course.