What really matters at Startup Weekend?
Projects? People? Networking? Team building? Express oneself? To win?
All these things represent what people look for in a Startup Weekend, but maybe none of that really matters. Surprise and emotional experience are the real “value proposition” (think about this, Should Be Do team!).
You never know what is really going to be your Startup Weekend: the place where your idea can find its first shape and supporters, where you find new like-minded people or where you will find yourself cordially chatting with the investor you have been trying to meet for ages.
The place where someone could tell you “forget this idea, how do you think to make money?”.
I also heard about some guys who came to Startup Weekend “just to see” or to search for dating! Everyone has his personal expectation.
What I mean, is that when the “game is over “, what you bring home from SW is experience and feelings (for the truth, also business cards and a new list of “first contacts” to manage, we definitely need GTouch system).
The last SW in Milano, held at Talent Garden cowo space, was amazing for many things: number of attendees (185, more than ever in Italian SW scenario), number of girls (not so many usually, girls rules) and foreign people, number of RedBull drunk, skilled people working hard on projects. It was not simple at all: 13 new ideas were developed by crowded teams where only resolute founders succeded in shore up the “focus”.
For judges, business angels and VC, it took a long long time to select the best three projects: too many good ideas, none, or we can truly believe that investors have so different evaluation metrics?
Anyway, here are the best of Startup Weekend Milano:
1 – Bon Appetour (pic on the right)- social eating platform that allows travellers to eat at local people home rather than restaurant
2 – DoneeDonee – sofisticated ecommerce service that reminds and suggest you the right gift for a person
3 – CookEat – simple service web-based that allows to select, buy and receive at home a package with a full menu ready to cook
Special mention for Meeko, a web platform to find tutor and private lessons, affordable and trustable.
Some of the investors who sat in the jury last Sunday, gave Startupbusiness their point of view, tips for startupers ans Startup Weekend organization as well.
“Teams were probably over crowded and had too little time to pitch. – said Michele Novelli, partner at Earlybird Venture Capital – But, what I realised is that a wave is rising in Italy and day after day startupers are learning something. Between one or two years we will be on the radar screen of global innovation”.
“I really appreciated the great energy and loved to meet people. Probably projects were too many and unfortunately all focused on b2c – said Pietro Bezza, founder and managing director at Connect Ventures – Consumer web is so difficult (global competition, the winner take all, capital intensive, difficult monetization, require a lot of scale / volume). Actually, the ideas were all original so it would be nice to understand how to turn them in software as a service!”.
All these new projects had their moment of glory and if they really want to go on and try to start up, Talent Garden Milano (that offered some desks to the winners) will be their first point of reference for them.
For all, the award this SW gave: a charge of good vibrations, new friends and fresh, beautiful chaos in mind to manage.
(Should Be Do and GTouch mentioned above, where interesting ideas I loved at SW, besides UGrade)
(Gtouch squad posing)
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