It’s the Sunday after my first 3 full days at . I’m sitting at the Starbucks on the Plaza, a stone’s throw from my apartment catching up and getting ahead (don’t have internet hooked up in my place yet). After plowing through stuff for 3 hours, wanted to write about the first couple of days at the new gig.

I walked in on Wednesday morning ready for orientation. Man, I should have listened to when he said this place isn’t like any other. After a quick chat with HR and IT to make sure I could swim, and numerous texts from Bo inquiring as to my whereabouts, I headed over to to touch base.

I walked into exactly what I was looking for! 50 ridiculously talented and driven people looking to start companies that will change education. We’re in the middle of the selection process for the next iteration of Kauffman Labs Ventures – 4 month program where we bring in founders and help build companies. The focus of this iteration: education. We’re looking for founders of high-growth, scalable education enterprises.

We had applicants in from all over the country ranging in age from 18-55. These folks were incredibly experienced and credentialed: graduate and post docs from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, etc, folks working in the major school districts around the country, people who have started businesses in the past. All of them have great ideas or already existing companies in the education space.

After a few exercises/challenges early in the week, we utilized a format I know and love to continue to evaluate and learn about the group. We ran a . Though they are all experts in education, we asked them to build companies in the food sector. (Startup Weekend COO) was in town to facilitate. Along with Shane, and a bunch of us from Kauffman, we had some friends of the foundation in to help out. That group included entrepreneurship professors, psychologists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

So, while the teams formed, worked and presented, we observed and learned. We got to see how people worked in groups, how they thought, how they led, how they solved problems. In short, we got to interview founders.

What an awesome way to interview, right? I found it a powerful and useful utilization of the Startup Weekend format we’ve refined over the years.

While the companies/ideas were meant for evaluation purposes, any time you bring talented people together, great things happen. Some of the ideas/companies were great! I expect to see a few get started. Per my usual experience at Startup Weeekends, the energy, creativity and collaboration was incredible. It always amazes me how people who don’t know each other can come together and achieve so much in so little time.

The participants got a lot out of the exercise too, I think. While we observed we also coached – refining problem solving and approach constructs.

So, not a bad first few days on the job. It was great to meet everyone and be a part of something so high pace and so productive. Ideas and partnerships emerged and I think it will help the Labs program pull together a great group to launch companies.

Of course, I’ve been keeping up on things at too. Thank you technology for enabling me to do our weekly traffic meeting and stay up on all of our projects. Will be challenging but fun balancing everything.

A quality I really appreciate in people is the ability to get sh*t done. Talk and ideas are great (I do a lot of both), but without execution and action, they don’t do much beyond provide mental stimulation, or make noise.

Thus, I was in a very appreciative mood a few weekends ago at Startup Weekend Indianapolis. Though I’m part of the technical/entrepreneurial/innovation community in the Midwest, I’m quick to out my region for what it is – the conservative

Midwest. We talk about coastal mentalities, we yearn for a culture of innovation, we are quick to latch onto and promote success stories, but in the end it’s pocketed and systematic. Until curiosity, innovation and un-dictated action become part of our DNA (they might be already, but the genes aren’t fully active), we’ll stay on the sidelines watching the studs play and go home after the games, look in the mirror and imagine glory.

I digress… The reason I was in a very appreciative mood at Startup Weekend Indy was because people GOT SH*T DONE! (and they did it on their own) We went with an organic grouping effort – no voting – everyone pitched their ideas and naturally gravitated to their pick. No one asked for direction, no one needed structured learning. Honestly, we had trouble pulling people together for check-ins. It was a weekend of GO GO GO [IUPUI police actually kicked everyone out one night at 1:30am as people were still working]. Things happened naturally and fluidly. Groups formed, groups split, and ideas kept moving. Individuals were resourceful, from code-bases to available skill-sets, and they weren’t looking to anyone but themselves for procurement.

It was refreshing to see. It was empowering to be around. Watching people who understood things were going to be iterative, that grooming until perfection wasn’t an option, was invigorating. In the end, businesses were born. Good ideas were fleshed out, and the bad ones killed quickly. The weekend and the approach is about productivity and problem solving. It’s not about lots of talk and speculation. It’s about getting sh*t done. There’s room for this mentality, this workflow, this passionate and sometimes crazed process in all types of business these days. Of course, it needs to be honed for each situation, but the conservative Midwest will do well to take note.

*I was in Indianapolis earlier this month facilitating . My company sponsored this past summer and I participated in one of the groups there as well. For those of you not familiar with – it is a 54 hour (weekend) marathon where people come together and, quite simply, try to start a business.

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