Students were challenged to create startups in 54 hours at this year’s Startup weekend Tallahassee.
Co-sponsored by the FSU Division of Undergraduate Studies and the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, Startup weekend is an annual student entrepreneurship contest in which students compete to create a viable business startup over the course of one weekend. Starting Friday of last week, the competitors worked long hours to make their ideas a reality. |
Organized by Chris Markl in conjunction with the SGA Office of Entrepreneurship (who paid for the 40 student tickets to the event), Startup Weekend gave students a chance to compete for bragging rights and recognition of their startup ideas.
At the start of the competition, students pitched ideas for potential apps, websites, products, and more. After the ideas were pitched, the various participating students voted to determine which ideas had potential and which were duds. The students then formed teams of developers, business experts, and marketers in order to build the company as well as conduct quick market research and survey potential users.
Lucas Lindsey of Domi introduced me to some of the teams. As I toured around the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House where the contest was held, the students' energy was palpable. Competitive teams of passionate entrepreneurial students worked feverishly to create a potentially profitable business in the short time span allotted.
At the start of the competition, students pitched ideas for potential apps, websites, products, and more. After the ideas were pitched, the various participating students voted to determine which ideas had potential and which were duds. The students then formed teams of developers, business experts, and marketers in order to build the company as well as conduct quick market research and survey potential users.
Lucas Lindsey of Domi introduced me to some of the teams. As I toured around the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House where the contest was held, the students' energy was palpable. Competitive teams of passionate entrepreneurial students worked feverishly to create a potentially profitable business in the short time span allotted.
At the end of the event, the teams presented their startups before a panel of judges made up of investors, entrepreneurs, and local tech gurus. Their startups were judged based on three criteria:
1. How validated the start-up was, was there a potential market? 2. How does the prototype or mock-up function? 3. How realized was their final product? |
Walking the floor, I saw some truly innovative startups, and I was amazed that some of these projects had only been ideas less than two days ago. One startup called "Emogizer" lets mobile users draw and create custom emojis for use in texting. "Foundri," the largest team assembled, was a website application designed to help people create or join teams of people with similar passions to solve problems or start businesses.
Another team was building a floor mat designed to use UV light to sanitize the bottoms of people’s shoes as they enter a building. "Belle" was a startup fast food chain that would serve pasta and Italian food at low price. On Sunday, the final day, the frontrunners were decided. Chris Markl, faculty adviser for student organization TechNolegy announced the winners: 2nd Runner Up: Unhoused Humanity, a website and startup focused on “charitable crowdfunding.” Instead of using crowdfunding campaigns to finance new consumer gadgets or student trips to Europe, Unhoused Humanity lets people donate to help homeless people with income enough to pay monthly rent cover the initial costs of moving into a house (down payment, deposits, etc…). The project is about “leveraging technology to solve social issues.” 1st Runner Up: Foundri, see above. 1st Place Winner: GamerLance, an online marketplace for e-sports lessons, tips, and tutorials. GamerLance hopes to capitalize on the billion dollar fantasy sports industry by providing e-gamers a resource for training and coaching. Overall, the competing teams came up with some awesome startup ideas and were able to produce amazing results in such a short period of time. As stated by Chris Markl during the awards ceremony, "Nobody builds a startup by themselves.” This exercise in innovation, teambuilding, and entrepreneurship contributes to an emerging startup culture in Tallahassee, and is an example of Florida State's strong entrepreneurial spirit. |
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-Nicholas Farrell Editor in Chief