Correlation Between Burning Man Participants and the Founders of Successful Startups

• No new comments have been added to the Facebook post since the first analysis.
• One commentator identified the time pressures of starting a second startup while working a full-time job. He did not make any general comments on the correlation between Burning Man participants and the founders of successful startups.
• Another commentator felt that the length of the "Burn" meant that "die hard burners" left their current jobs to attend, meaning they were more likely to found startups.
• A comment was made that suggested that "burners" are likely to have similar values in life and business.
• One person alerted the members of the Burning Man group that a separate Facebook group had been started "Burners in Business" Facebook group had been started. This suggests that the event fosters future collaboration between participants.
• There was no indication in the comments whether there were a high number of startup founders attending the event.
• None of the comments addressed whether there is an advantage in using the pool of participants attending the Burning Man event to choose companies to invest in.

Useful Findings

• In 2017, about 13.3% of Burning Man attendees said that the reason behind attending the event is to create/work on a project. This was 12.0% and 13.7% in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
• In the same year, after attending BRC, some attendees were inspired to learn or practice various skills. Some skills that attendees indicated they engaged in the most were self-awareness/emotional skills (57.7%), art creation (56.2%), leadership/interpersonal skills (39.1%), mediation skills (27.2%), project management (26.8%), and others.
• Of those who indicated that they were inspired to learn or practice various skills, the majority (58.4%) found these skills useful in the outside world. Furthermore, while 66.0% indicated that they used these skills to create things for themselves and families, 34.9% said they used theirs to create things for their home communities.
• The desirability of greater self-reliance, as a potential benefit of participating, was mostly very high (47.6%) while the attainment of this benefit is mostly very high, equally, by 33.2%.
• Pablo González Vargas' got his passion for art and rekindled after he attended Burning Man in 2012, at the advice of his friend, Paolo.
• One of the reasons behind burners/attendees coming to BRC for the Burning Man event is "to get away from the relentless consumerism of mainstream society — to enjoy experiences that are unmediated by corporate influence, where relationships aren’t transactional and are instead based on things with unconditional value." Hence, the event shouldn't or mustn't be used to promote or advertise products.
• Some opinions hold that the "'Instagram Culture' may finally ruin Burning Man the way tech billionaires, DJs, frat bros, and literally everyone else has not." However, the author believes that Burning Man can triumph over this, as it is still in the appropriation stage.

Research Strategy