Ask HN: How worthwhile is Startup School?

Of course it's general information and a rah-rah-rah motivational pep-talk.

I went to startup school last year. I was trying not to fall asleep during the presentations.

Ok that sounds worse than it is, I was physically trying not to fall asleep because I was really super-tired from my 3 day extravaganza walking throughout all of San Francisco with my airbnb-mates.

The point is you go for the experience and the people, surely not the content. I'm not trying to take anything away from the speakers, they were great. But it's not like they are standing there giving you this secret information that nobody's every heard before. There are no secrets to success! (really)

Startup school is awesome (and super exhausting) because of all the smart and motivated people you meet. I met the who's who of YC startups, pretty cool! I also met PG and surprisingly he wasn't levitating around the room.

Startup school is also awesome because you get to play around in San Francisco.

Go for those 2 reasons.

You can decide if the talks themselves are worth it by watching the previous year's videos: http://www.justin.tv/a/startupschool

Most of the talks are brilliant.

That said, I've never been to SXSW, but my second-hand impression of the event is that it's less focused on startups and technology, and more generally about promotion, business development, schmoozing and...well, music. It's primarily a music/arts festival, with an "interactive" component tacked on. But it's also much longer, and will fill up more of a week's trip.

My advice is to remember that these are social events, and to choose appropriately based upon your interests. Like any other convention, the talks are just a reason to get people together.

I run the Hackers and Founders meetups, and we get a ton of people coming to the meetups that are visiting town for a week or two. The vibe that I get from most of them is that it's the trip is valuable.

If you are going to make a trip of it, I'd suggest coming in for a week or two. There's tons of startup/technology events and you can probably schedule one every night for the entire time you're in the area.

Bring business cards,introduce yourself to people at events, and you can be having coffee with people twice a day the entire time you're here. That's what being in Silicon Valley is about, and that's what's amazing about this place.

If you're not having a coffee with someone, spend the extra time in Palo Alto along University Ave, Mountain View along Castro Street or hanging out in bars and coffee shops in SF. I'd also suggest hitting Noise Bridge and the Hacker Dojo while you're here.

And since Twitter really exploded at SXSW, every year a lot of startups go there hoping to be the next Twitter, so if you go be ready of being bombarded by pitches and stickers.

If you want a taste of SS, I believe you can find recordings of previous years online.

How do you make the most of the day?

incidentally, i'm probably going.