Recently, I attended a Portland Startup Weekend #pdxsw for the first time. Since It’s been only two years since I’ve relocated to Portland area from Massachusetts, I wanted to connect with local developers, designers and see who’s out there. I also wanted to find someone who is experienced with Facebook Authentication and Facebook graph API. I was able to find some developers who are familiar to it and have played with it. I’ve also connected with a lot of Biz Dev, marketers, and designers. Now I have so many local connections, it’s incredible. I’m impressed and would love to attend again in the future.

In addition to that, I’ve learned so many things about Startups. Just by listening to ~80 Business pitches on Friday, I’ve learned that my business idea is not as good as some other ones out there. 🙂 Then on Saturday, while doing Front-End work for our www.realpropertypartner.com team, I was able to  listen to the business conversations, and learn a lot from that too. The mentors that came up to us and talk to us about competition, need, and whether or not the business could be successful or not was extremely eye opening.

To top it all off, I could see other teams who were extremely awesome. One  team that stood out above everyone else was www.shopmypins.com. The CEO Vanessa was amazing manager, encouraging, and very sociable, which I’m sure played a big role in their team’s success.

If I could summarize my experience at Portland Startup Weekend #pdxsw in one sentence it would be. I was worth every 54 hours this weekend