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• October 27 – Hacknight at Gangplank, 6pm – ?
• October 28 – Phoenix OpenCoffee Club, 8am – 10am @ ASU SkySong
• October 28 – Phoenix Night Owls, 8pm – ? @ CO+HOOTS Creative Coworking in Phoenix
• October 29 – Young Entrepreneurs Mixer, 5pm @ Boulders on Broadway
• October 30 – Startup Weekend Phoenix Office Hours @ ASU from 12pm – 4pm
• November 17 – 2010 Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference (10% discount: swphx2010)
• November 19 – Phoenix Startup Drinks @ Boulders on Broadway, 5:30pm – ?

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Do you know of other events? Let us know! Also, schedule them on Eventification and let StartupDigest know so they can include it in their newsletter.

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SWPHX Hash Album

Entrepreneur – someone who is able to leverage scarce resources to succeed where others cannot.

This post is an example of MVP.

Well times are changing again, the old new mentality is make money. With the economy in a rough spot its almost impossible to IPO and pretty tough to sell your company. Companies get acquired for the teams they have as often as they get acquired for the users they have. Yes gaining million sof users really fast helps but don’t count on being bought out. Chances are you’ll have to be profitable first.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Build your company as a viable business. Focus on attracting customers, the official definition is: someone who pays for goods or services. If that means growing slower, attracting fewer free users then so be it. Freemium models work but only if your users convert to customers at a predictable sustainable rate.

So spend a few minutes with your team, talk about where things are going. Make sure everyone understands the importance of profitability. You’ll be surprised by how many distractions go away when profitability is taken seriously. Have fun and make some dollars.

Kerplunk – Social web aggregator
Jobs creator
41Uno
Restaurant waiting time app
Web summits
Thumbnail bookmarking
Write Room for Email
Stock-e-pedia
Safety app – car alert
Cashmeme
Time capsule
Art masterpiece
OfficeRomance.com
ModernCork – Winery information app
RoundUp – change for charity
Calendar merge
The Beggar App – social begging
Crowdsource redistricting
Segmented Yelp
Action steps out of books
Eventify

Call it iterating, pivoting, or just changing your idea, whatever it is you need to do it. Be open to it. Good entrepreneurs are not opposed to improvement. Keep an open mind, take feedback, and evolve your idea.

How do you know the idea is going in a good direction? When things get simpler not more complicated. When they get clearer. When unknowns start falling into place.

Ironically this scenario applies to the rest of the startup community at large. When you worry about protecting your idea realize that most people you talk to fall into two categories. Those who are just too busy to steal your idea, uhm they just don’t care, and those who wan’t to provide genuine feedback, uhm they do care. Thats a win-win for you as an entrepreneur.

So reach out to as many people as you can. Take advice easily, filter it, and improve your idea with each conversation. Once you get into development and marketing phases some of the contacts you make this Startup Weekend will go a long way to helping you later. Talking to people is the fun part anyway.

Startups are pressure cookers that test the emotional state of even the most hardened entrepreneurs. Spend a few hours talking with Mark Stevens from Sequoia Capital and you’ll quickly realize the brains behind the most successful startup investments, Google, Yahoo!, NVIDIA, and YouTube is also the most laid back man in the room. It’s not the money, its just that hes learned not to get emotionally invested in details, or at least thats what he projects. How you are seen by the people you do business with can make or break your startup. In a startup, business is first done between the founders.

Internally, distinguishing more destructive emotions from actual motivation takes practice. Having a cool demeanor helps calm others and motivate the team. If you feel yourself getting heated, take a break, don’t let it affect the other people on your team. Help diffuse emotional situations before they escalate, this is the trademark of great leadership.

With 54 hours of intense Startup Weekend ahead, there will be ups and downs. Meter both judiciously and remember that in the end its a learning experience for everyone. Recover quickly from emotional situations and have fun.