[empressplay]

Yeah, I've had similar experiences with my regional Startup Weekend franchise as well. The way they see it it's actually about coming up with a convincing pitch. This isn't of course "starting a company" or even in most cases developing a product. Instead, it's about coming up with an intriguing idea, that since you're just at the starting line yourself, can be jumped on and stolen by whoever else is there and has more startup capital than you do.