By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC –About 50 regional entrepreneurs banged around ideas and code for 54 hours under the watchful eyes of NBC/CNBC cameras at Startup Weekend in Raleigh from Friday through Sunday, and launched four new Web-based companies. NBC plans to air a two-minute piece on the event Friday.
Startup Weekend is a national event handled by local organizers.
Lilyn Hester, media coordinator for the event, tells TechJournal South the 50 attendees, who paid $40 each to participate, split into teams of about 10 people each after winnowing a batch of initial ideas down to four.
“You’re going national Friday,” she warned them, “so you might want to have your startup ready.”
Hester says the launch she thinks may have the best shot is Myfriessuck, a way for restaurant patrons to complain about food or service. The founders think that once enough data is amassed they could sell the information to restaurant owners and chains.
Able to finish
“RTP Startup Weekend enhanced my entrepreneurial spirit in many ways,” said Jeff Cohen, My Fries Suck spokesperson.
“Through working with a team, I was able to support the new business and hone in the fine details. It is exciting to be a marketing person working with a team of six programmers, who divided the workload and finished it. I had provided strategy about how to market the company.”
The NBC crews, however, seemed to like Scavengja, (http://scavenja.com) a real world, photo-based scavenger hunt. Time-limited games challenge players to complete thematically connected goals. Players post photographs to document completed goals and goals are awarded points based on difficulty level.
“We were completely blown away with the amount of talent and great ideas at RTP Startup Weekend,” said Jason DiMambro, president of Raleigh-based marvel Internetworking, who launched his company back in 2003 to provide turn-key IT solutions for small and mid-sized companies.
“As an entrepreneur, I’m really impressed with how all groups were able to think creatively within a short period of time and produce real results for real companies.”
Others were:
Bars for Us (http://barsforus.com) is an online resource that takes the guesswork out of finding great bars in Raleigh. It also lists drinks, games, food and tourist attractions.
“The team researched that by going to local bars,” says Hester.
DealCastr (http://dealcastr.com) is an online service that allows subscribers to announce and to take advantage of special deals For example, the founders say, “local businesses have items that they want to get rid of – quickly – such as hockey tickets for tonight’s game.
“Tomorrow, they’re worth nothing. How much is the value of these tickets – just hours before the game? Choose the deal you want and DealCastr sends the deal to your mobile phone or e-mail address. The only way to find out about these special deals is with DealCastr.”
Most Startup Weekend working groups will continue to work to make their companies successful.
Some companies have created blogs, Facebook accounts and/or have set up Twitter(@myfriessuck, @scavenja, @barsforus, @dealcastr) accounts to provide updates.
While at SUW, each working group is responsible for making sure that their new companies/ideas are properly registered and/or protected. Most companies have secured URL’s and have taken other actions to protect their ideas.
Hester says the way techies use Twitter for everything impressed her.
On the Web: for streaming video of the event see:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rtp-startup-weekend.
RTP Startup Weekend is an official event of Startup Weekend: http://startupweekend.com.
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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