Just spent an amazing weekend down at SpaceCubed in the city with 100 start up crazies, various organisers, mentors, pitch coaches and sundry other folk. Even the Lord Mayor was there at the outset on Friday night wishing us well.
Yes, StartUp Weekend Perth 2 has just concluded, 6 months after the first ever attempt at this full-on entrepreneurial frenzy. I was blown away then, and again this time round. The sheer range of ideas, code cracking, designing and business thought, all condensed into a frenetic 3 nights and 2 days… amazing to behold.
As ever, I come away humble at teams of 7 or 8 folks who’d not met before Friday night, had not worked on the business idea before, yet turned a 1 minute pitch into working website, customer research, apps and fully worked through business models and in some cases, revenues by Sunday evening. When I consider how long projects take me, it’s jaw dropping. But it’s not just the speed, it’s the quality of the design, the UX, the thought, the effort and execution that impresses.
Its unfair to pick one or a few, so let’s name then all: Squidee (allows you to show changes to design between client, manager & designers/programmers; Air Tutor (using up unused tutor time with students); GetontheList (getting you into that nightclub); Virality (predicting the next viral video and selling this as a service to business); Maileo (using connections within your near networks to connect you); Raffle Rabbit (making raffles easy for school fund raising); Styleable (trying on clothes online before you buy); WhatSportsWhere (you never miss you favourite sports action); ZeroDay (augmented zombie game); HandUp (making it easier for women to find part time work); OpShopin.co (Op Shops online); Naughty 3D (3D printing for adult products), iConnect Catering (gets you food/drink at events to your seat) and NinjaVest (making it easier to invest).
I spent some time with NinjaVest, Virality & Maileo. I was especially impressed by Squidee, iConnect & Raffle Rabbit. In my humble opinion, these have a real chance of making a go of it.
And the winner is (judges panel choice):
1st – iConnect
2nd – Naughty 3D
3rd – Squidee
… so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad 🙂
Last time, 3 or 4 businesses kicked on. I wonder which of these will…
for more on StartUp Weekend:Â http://perth.startupweekend.org/
I had the priviledge of being on the AirTutor team and it was amazing to see how 6 never met before people shared their collective ideas, offered each other support and fused easily to create something viable in a short period of time. I felt honoured to be part of this event and now 3 days on the memory of this event havesn’t diminish at all. In fact the idea of reconnecting with these guys (I was the token female) to see how we can keep the idea alive is exciting. I dont want to be a Startup Hog, however I would do this again in a heart beat.
Great comment Marjolyn! StartUp Weekend is a buzz is it not – an intense learning experience, and even an old hand like me loves it 🙂
Thank you for the shout-out for Raffle Rabbit! We are making a go of it and our team is super tight knit. We’re furiously registering what we can this week and we’re booking meetings with stakeholders as we speak! Watch this space!
Well done guys – as a parent and Chair of a primary school I appreciate what you are doing; in fact, once up and running woul deb interested in getting you to present to our P&C which regularly raises $60k a year for our school. You have a good business idea he, so I really hope you crack on. Any help/advie, do let me know.
Thanks Charlie! We’d be honoured to present to your P & C! Please hare with us as we are still rabbiting around. We’ll hop to it as soon as we can! Thanks again 🙂
[…] those who missed it, Perth Now published a great wrap of the event yesterday, Charlie Gunningham blogged from a mentor’s perspective and the awesome people at Perth Linux Users Group posted the […]