The Winners of #SWORL 2012!
After careful debate the judges have selected the top teams of Startup Weekend Orlando!
The top three of Startup Weekend Orlando:
1. MoleShopper: Mystery shopping can be frustrating when you are asked to remember long and complicated surveys. Mole Shopper allows mystery shoppers to record accurate data on site while conducting shops. http://moleshopper.com
2. PicStory: Pictures with a voice http://www.picstory.us/
3. Tamposh: Tampon subscription service: High Quality, Low Cost, Convenient tampons direct to your door. http://www.tamposh.com/
Followed by:
4. StuffNet: We make a marketplace for “transferable credits” that companies can issue and sell to consumers in order to get working capital. We’ll use decentralized transaction technology based on Bitcoin and Ripple to make this online marketplace secure and easy to use. http://stuffnet.info/
5. Date-A-Base: The website/mobile application that has all of your bases covered, to ensure you hit a home run on your next date!
6. I Gotta Pee: A mobile app for moms on the go with geo location and rating services that identify clean, kid-friendly bathrooms.
Congratulations to all of the teams that participated in Startup Weekend Orlando. The top three teams will each receive $5,000 in seed funding from Startup Orange County, three months of incubation at the UCF Venture Lab and 4 months of internet marking and social media consulting by Pro2Go Designs.
The top team will also receive 2 months of legal services by The Entrepreneurship Law Firm, $500 credit for VoicBunny and a subscription to Startup Threads.
The top six teams will also gain access to the resources of Startup Orange County and the UCF Venture Lab
The Ideas of Startup Weekend Orlando!
Here are the teams and what they are building this weekend at Startup Weekend Orlando March 23-25th 2012.
Bitcoin Gift Card
An easy way to convey cash into digital currency, which can be sent anywhere in the world, instantly.
http://lovebitcoins.org
In Touch
Develop mobile app / web site that reminds you to call important people that you haven’t talked to in a while.
Standing Offer
We make it easy to share your adventures by polling your friends to see when they are available.
http://standingoffer.herokuapp.com
Stuffnet
We make a marketplace for “transferable credits” that companies can issue and sell to consumers in order to get working capital. We’ll use decentralized transaction technology based on Bitcoin and Ripple to make this online marketplace secure and easy to use.
stuffnet.info
Optimal Learning Environment
A company to provide products and services designed to quantitatively optimize the learning environment. This will lead to higher test scores, increased motivation, lower dropout rates, and greater educational accountability. Because this will positively change the way humans learn forever, it will make a substantial contribution to society and national competitiveness.
Picstory
Pictures with a voice.
www.Picstory.us
I Gotta Pee
A mobile app for moms on the go with geo location and rating services that identify clean, kid-friendly bathrooms
Date-A-Base
Date-A-Base: The website/mobile application that has all of your bases covered, to ensure you hit a home run on your next date!
Mole Shopper
Mystery shopping can be frustrating when you are asked to remember long and complicated surveys. Mole Shopper allows mystery shoppers to record accurate data on site while conducting shops.
http://moleshopper.com
OpenBuyer.com
Simplifying the B2B purchasing process. Buyers create a request for quote(RFQ) online. Vendors reply with a quote online. No commitment to buy, no auctions no transaction fees. Buyers find the right vendor. Vendors find the right buyer. Both save time, money and expand their options.
http://www.openbuyer.com/
WITH
Scalable social gaming on mobile devices using geolocation technologies.
MentorMatch
Language learning is challenge that many people still face on a daily basis. Learning materials are static, software out-dated, and paying for human interaction is generally out of the question unless you are willing to drop as significant amount of money. To start, we hope to provide a better learning environment for languages and, in the future, expand our approach to many subjects and disciplines. We have a few core beliefs that have influenced the design of our product: 1) Motivation is a per-requisite to sustained engagement in a learning program. 2) There’s no one-size-fits all when it comes to learning – multi-pronged approaches improve student performance. 3) It’s always best to learn from a native speaker.
TouchBase
A web application that enables users to create hyperlocal marketplaces within their school, business, organization, or event.
TVto.Mobi
Learn more about what you are watching. By providing additional content, we help TV viewers engage with the shows that they love. We sync what’s on your TV to your mobile device by providing apps for your smart TVs, media boxes, and smartphones.
http://www.tvto.mobi/
Startup Weekend – Directions and Parking!
Startup Weekend Orlando is hosted at UCF in Classroom Building I.
You will need to park in Garage H, the closest garage to Classroom Building 1. Take Gemini Blvd on the North side of UCF (across the street from the BP gas station at 4600 N. Alafaya Trail).
Once on Gemini Blvd, you will drive about half a mile to Garage H on the right. Garage H is the first parking garage you will see and is before the UCF Arena. You can park in any unmarked spot in the Garage, just make sure that you display the appropriate parking pass in your windshield. There is a different parking pass for each day so make sure the right pass is displayed.
Once parked, just walk out of the garage on the opposite side that you entered (you will be walking towards the main campus) and you should see the Classroom Building 1, shown below. Registration will be located outside the auditorium, room 121.
Don’t forget to print your parking pass!
What are the judging criteria?
The Startup Weekend judging criteria is broken up into three sections. Teams are judged according to the following 3 criteria (weighed equally):
Business Model
The heart of it all. If you haven’t got answers to these questions, you’ve spent too much time on frills & features and need to get back to the basics:
- Who is your customer?
- What is your core value proposition?
- What are your key activities?
- What are your revenue streams?
- What is your cost structure?
- Who/what are your key partners/resources?
- What are your distribution channels?
- What is your roll-out strategy?
Customer Validation
Have you taken the proper steps to ensure that the people who matter (your future customers) support and reinforce your assumptions? Think of Customer Validation as ‘evidence’ to back up the core structure of your ‘theory’ (your Business Model). The more feedback you gather (quantity), the more this feedback comes from your specific target market (quality), and the more you’re able to actually integrate this feedback into the Business Model and product development (execution), the better.
Execution
The nitty gritty: what has your team been able to actually build over the weekend? Even the strongest of Business Plans are useless in the hands of those who can’t properly execute on them. Getting as far as possible in the development of your product/prototype not only helps give Judges a tangible vision of what the final product could be, but proves your strength and skills as a team. This is what truly matters: investors don’t invest as in ideas so much as teams.
What to expect at Startup Weekend Orlando!
What to bring
- Laptop
- Business cards
- Something to take notes on
- Lots of energy
Pitches
Pitches on Friday night be in a “pitch-fire” format, which means you will have just 60 seconds to get the audience interested in your idea. You will have no slides or props – just a microphone and a smile. You won’t have time to go over features, so just focus on the core of the idea and make your enthusiasm contagious. Here is the format for pitches that we recommend:
- Who are you and what is your background? (5-10 Seconds)
- What is the problem that you product is solving? Or, begin with a story (10-20 Seconds)
- Explain the product and how it solves the problem (10-20 seconds)
- Who do you need on your team (a developer, marketing, designer?) (5-10 seconds)
- Finally, make up a name for your startup so the facilitator can give it a title
Voting & Forming Teams
After pitches, you will have more time to mingle. If you pitched an idea, this is your time to start recruiting others that are interested in your idea. If you did not pitch, or if you are having trouble finding others to join your team, use this time to seek out those that pitched other ideas that you found interesting.
Next, the crowd votes on their favorite pitches. This is a simply a way to encourage quick team forming. This is by no means an exclusive process and if you pitch an idea and it is not voted as one of the top ideas, you are more than welcome to work on it if you find some other people who want to work on the idea with you. From there we will form teams and these are the startup ideas that will be worked on over the weekend.
