#swedu

Its Thursday. February 14th. I told Adam, COO of StartupWeekend that I'd get back to him on Tuesday.  I'm still struggling with the decision.  

The StartupWeekend Education film has been accepted to SXSW (EDU) and will be screened there.  Adam called on Monday, the first time we've talked since he and Frank and Marc jumped on a skype call to fire me on December 6th.  

Post being fired I still worked on getting the film into SXSW. Making the film meant a tremendous amount to me.  Vinny Verma and Darius Basharya the director and producer from the film company "1880" have become two of the best friends I've made in a decade. We've shared so much and learned so much and are really proud of the film which unfortunately is just the tip of the iceberg of what we produced.  Not only did we produce the film which is a 28 minute real-time story of two educators going through a StartupWeekend 

I'm incensed by the arrogance of the request.  That they've never apologized or felt the need to apologize.  Pride and rage are the theatrics that cover up hurt. I was lied to, exploited. Ingratitude is one of my hot buttons, but they've actually gone past the point of no return by repaying passion and energy and ownership and sacrifice with indifference and dismissal and malice.      

I've been stuck her for a while but today I give up pride for lent.

Here are my principles.

1) I will not represent SW or make an appearances at any cost to me.

2) I am willing to represent the film as a catalyst for a movement but not as a promotional tool for StartupWeekend Education

3) I will not be part of a general panel of individuals that had no role in the making of the film and somehow give credence to their presence. 

Those are my principles and here is the note that I sent to Adam:

On Feb 17, 2013, at 0:02, Khalid Smith <[email protected]> wrote:

Adam,

Thanks for your patience.  I’m excited about teaming up with Vinny to talk the why and the how behind the film.  Here’s what I can agree to.

Travel \ accommodations \ per diem:  $4k

Panel discussion members:  limited to Vinny and I

Film rights:  i’ll need official use rights if I'm to promote the film.

 If that works for you then let's get something signed and get to the sxsw people.

Khalid

On Feb 18, 2013, at 3:08 AM, Adam Stelle <[email protected]> wrote:

Khalid,

As much as I'd love to have you there to represent the film, there is (as I'm guessing you know) simply no way I can agree to either of those points. Thanks anyways for getting back to me, and if you do end up in Austin, I'd be pleased to see you.

Best,

Adam

Sent on the go - please excuse the grammar or brevity.

Adam:

I'm not sure of your objections, there are actually three points, but I found your opening offer of, well ... nothing, objectionable myself.  I tired to keep my requests as straight forward as possible but I'm happy to discuss the principles behind each to see if we can come to something we both can live with.      

From September of 2011 to December of 2012 I ran a startup called StartupWeekend Education.  I didn't found it, but I was hired to give it life and figure our what it could be.  Over that time, I pushed my self, this new brand and a parent organization to embrace a purpose of creating a process and place for educators to be introduced and invited into the world of entrepreneurship and innovation.  To learn to contribute, to lead and to succeed in bringing their ideas and vision to life with their principles still in tact so that they can move education forward.  This film captures the journey of two such educators that started their journey in one of my 54-hour events.  I poured my soul into starting that organization but nothing more so than this film.  I'm sad for where the organization is headed (I was fired without cause in Dec 2012) but I'm incredibly proud of this film and the change I catalyzed in people's lives.

I feel like I am about to explode!  I've been positively grinding and with my head down for so long, but I'm finally starting to get a glimpse of what the future will be like.  Getting to the point where I really understood my purpose, what my role was and how StartupWeekend, StartupWeekend Education, and LessonCast all came together to help me express my purpose has been tremendous.  As I encountered gifted creative thinkers and have been able to articulate that purpose what they've been able to do with that message has been amazing.  

This guy Falade (Fal-a-day) and his partner Brian were possibly the most memorable team I've had at any StartupWeekend Education.  He's from Orlando, his partner is from Dallas Texas.  Their story is amazing.  

The only two black men at the event they both pitched two of what I felt were the strongest pitches of the Friday night pitch fire.

During the team formation session Brian struggled to form a team around his idea.  Falade formed a good team and went to work.

After checking on the teams.  I left at 11:30 Friday night to get some sleep and prepare for Saturday while the teams worked.  Sometime during that night, Falade began to get cold feet.  There was an added prize of funding and a spot in an incubator and he began to fear the possibility of success.  Without anyone to talk to he sent a text to his team in the early morning hours saying he wasn't sure if he could do this.  By the time I found out 8AM the next morning the damage was done.  His team bolted, they joined other teams and though Falade showed up ready to work Saturday morning his teammates politely told him that they were happy with their new arrangements. (Trust lost is nearly impossible to regain)

Eventually Brian and Falade team up.

They have a breakthrough on Saturday night when they realize that they'd been focused on trying to scale Brian's successful after school program that taught math using garage band the wrong way.  They'd been trying to REPLACE  Brian using technology and build a way for them to run a scalable program when they had the epiphany that what the really needed to do was to TRAIN other teachers to use his content and approach to build their own programs.  A highly technical project (which seriously infringed on some Apple IP) all of a sudden became a low-tech professional training program that was highly scalable and easily executed.

But they had to get the communication down - and Saturday night, it was rough and unclear.  Eventually as coaches we had to back off and just tell them that these were problems that they could solve on their own.  

For tech check they brought their computer, still hadn't heard the presentation but I had faith. 

They were up 4th, when they went to set up, they had a different computer!  Not just different but one of those, you-have-to-hold-the-power-cord-partially-in-and-up-to-the-left-to-work computers.  So they fumble, fumble and finally the computer completely shuts down.  After 5 minutes of stalling I tell them that I have to be fair, we don't stop for technical failures they have to do on without slides.  I am destroyed.

What ensued was magical.  Brian takes the mic and proceeds to give an amazingly clear, empassioned, story driven problem-solution pitch.  He has the judges eating ut of his hands.  Plus the idea is so simple, not having a tech demo doesn't really hurt them.  The idea is clear and powerful and they get the idea.

The judges come back and award them 2nd place.  I punch them for giving me a heart attack.  A lot of people love working on education and I do too.  I love StartupWeekend because I get to be a part of changing people's lives.