Focusing on a target market in a mere 54 hours.

I had a great opportunity to mentor some of the teams at the recent Startup Weekend Twin Cities 2. While I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs and startups over the years, there’s something magical about seeing a rough idea turned into a functioning product in 54 hours. Products and strategies quickly evolve over hours not weeks.

One team in particular reinforced the value of focus for any start up. Their original idea was to use movie theaters to raise money for nonprofits. While I challenge them to reconsider a few key points, I came back the next morning to see that they narrowed their target market focus.

Instead of focusing on all nonprofits, they decided to focus on schools only. That simple step turned a good idea into a very compelling selling point.

School funding has become tighter over the years, and many of them no longer offer critical programs like music or the arts. If you have or know kids, chances are that you know how schools fill in those funding gaps: they sell candy, candles and other crap.

Since kids don’t want to sell it, parents don’t want a haul it, and you don’t want to buy it, SitforSomething.org hosts movie fundraisers within the community. Without going into the specifics, they offer a persuasive method for schools to raise money without worrying about inventory, processing orders or other pains.

Entrepreneurs tend to hedge their bets by focusing on too many markets and in the end of rarely become successful within any of them. So kudos go out to the SitforSomething.org team for they managed to resolve a critical issue that has tripped up hundreds of entrepreneurs before them.