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We are hosting Startup Weekend at DBC this Sept. It’s going to crazy awesome. This was an idea I had envisioned right after getting accepted to the program. I had emailed Shereef to see what he thought about the idea. Little did I know he had actually WON a Startup Weekend last year and knew the main coordinator for the Bay Area region.  We got a hazy plan together and Shereef agreed to host Startup Weekend at the DBC offices if I managed it as him nor the staff didn’t have the bandwidth.  I said ‘yes’ and figured it would be no problem. Of course I didn’t calculate the I’d have zero time once school got under way. So planning has been much slower than I’d normally have liked, but we are in a good spot and about to really ramp up.  Already about 16 boots from Summer have signed up. Sponsors are joining and a ton more planning is about to happen once I have some time after class officially ends next week.  I can’t wait to see what everyone builds in 54 hrs. 
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We are hosting Startup Weekend at DBC this Sept. It’s going to crazy awesome. This was an idea I had envisioned right after getting accepted to the program. I had emailed Shereef to see what he thought about the idea. Little did I know he had actually WON a Startup Weekend last year and knew the main coordinator for the Bay Area region. 

We got a hazy plan together and Shereef agreed to host Startup Weekend at the DBC offices if I managed it as him nor the staff didn’t have the bandwidth. 

I said ‘yes’ and figured it would be no problem. Of course I didn’t calculate the I’d have zero time once school got under way. So planning has been much slower than I’d normally have liked, but we are in a good spot and about to really ramp up. 

Already about 16 boots from Summer have signed up. Sponsors are joining and a ton more planning is about to happen once I have some time after class officially ends next week. 

I can’t wait to see what everyone builds in 54 hrs. 

Today

Today was a big day. A lot happened on many levels. But the biggest was that the decision about staying on as a TA at dev bootcamp has been finalized.

Originally I was 100% wanting to stay. I talked to Shereef and he was stongly leaning towards having me help for the next cohort. Then over the next few weeks I went back and forth with myself about the idea. Afted talking to teachers, teachers in training and TAs, I started to think I really wouldnt be learning much more rails or ruby if I stayed on. This week I was pretty much settled that it wasnt the best idea for me.

Then today Shereef told me that after talking, the staff felt like having TAs was not a good experience. For all the same reasons I had come up with.

I left our talk feeling very good that everyone was on the same page and up front about everything.

Then about 20 minutes later I realized Im not going to be at DBC soon. In a month or two this place wont be my home. Sure Ill always be welcome, but there is a very different quality to a space when its your full time thing. And very soon DBC wont be my full time thing.

And all of a sudden I got really sad. Actually, I almost started crying. Right.there on the couch with my laptop. Which is weird, becuase I dont really cry. But for about 5 min I thought I might.

I guess I just really hope I can find a place to work after DBC that feels as inviting and has a sense of meaning to totally draw me in.

Today we pitched ideas to work on for the last two weeks. About 30 ideas where put on the table. Then we had to figure out how we’d break into teams of 4. It became super hard and everyone was yelling ideas at Shereef on how to decided. After a while of no one listening to him Shereef asked who thought they could do a better job of facilitating. Gavin jumped at the chance.  Basically it was the first time in 8 weeks that class turned into to total chaos. Gavin asked Dom to leave the room to which Dom gave his classic incredulous look and said “No.” Then Dom took a turn at facilitating and got us pretty close to making it happen.  Shereef came back and we are now in the middle to working through it again. I’ll say it was also one of the more fun moments because chaos is fun for limited periods.  
Zoom

Today we pitched ideas to work on for the last two weeks. 
About 30 ideas where put on the table. Then we had to figure out how we’d break into teams of 4.

It became super hard and everyone was yelling ideas at Shereef on how to decided. After a while of no one listening to him Shereef asked who thought they could do a better job of facilitating. Gavin jumped at the chance. 

Basically it was the first time in 8 weeks that class turned into to total chaos. Gavin asked Dom to leave the room to which Dom gave his classic incredulous look and said “No.”

Then Dom took a turn at facilitating and got us pretty close to making it happen. 

Shereef came back and we are now in the middle to working through it again.

I’ll say it was also one of the more fun moments because chaos is fun for limited periods.  

Our team came up with a great idea and then killed it at Stripe today. And by killed it I mean, got confused a lot by javascript, needed help from Stripe employees and other participants, banged our head a lot and eventually get a token back from the Stripe servers. So basically nothing substantian to show by the end of the day. But we have an idea we want to pitch for.monday so this might continue on.
Zoom

Our team came up with a great idea and then killed it at Stripe today. And by killed it I mean, got confused a lot by javascript, needed help from Stripe employees and other participants, banged our head a lot and eventually get a token back from the Stripe servers. So basically nothing substantian to show by the end of the day. But we have an idea we want to pitch for.monday so this might continue on.

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