Che cos’è Startup Weekend raccontato da chi l’ha vissuto.
Abbiamo ritrovato i tre founder di BonAppetour che ha vinto l’edizione 2013 di Startup Weekend Milano in quel di Singapore. Giovanni Casinelli (technical development), Rinita Vanjre Ravi (business development) e Inez Wihardjo (marketing and customer relationships) sono i tre rimasti insieme del grande team di oltre 10 persone che ha lavorato al progetto durante quel weekend, le due ragazze erano le founder.
Il progetto si colloca nell’ambito dell’eat e food sharing, ma anche del turismo, delle relazioni. BonAppetour è una piattaforma che permette ai viaggiatori di entrare in contatto e cenare a casa dei locali, mangiando cibo locale, genuino, incontrando persone interessanti del posto. Insomma, un pò l’Airbnb del food.
Qui il loro sito.
I tre ragazzi sono andati avanti pur essendo ancora molto giovani e alle prese con l’Università, in particolare le due founder.
“Siamo a Singapore perché loro stanno facendo l’ultimo anno di università alla National University of Singapore (NUS). – mi racconta Giovanni, l’italiano del gruppo – Erano a Stoccolma per un anno con un programma tipo Erasmus e da lì sono venute a Milano per Startup Weekend. Dopo l’evento, mi sono trasferito con loro a Stoccolma per circa 3 mesi, dopodiché loro sono tornate a Singapore e le ho raggiunte lì.”
Aggiunge :”Non lavoriamo ancora a tempo pieno su BonAppetour, ma è in programma tra qualche mese, appena finiscono l’università e/o concludiamo un round di investimenti.”
Pur dedicando solo una parte del loro tempo allo sviluppo del progetto, sono rimasti saldi nell’intento, visti anche i risultati raggiunti finora con un approccio molto leggero: la piattaforma conta una community di oltre 200 host molto selezionati in 30 diverse città.
Ecco cosa racconta in modo molto coinvolgente Rinita Vanjre Ravi, che intepreta il sentimento di tutto il team.
BonAppetour – the makings
It is an absolutely incredible feeling to be writing this article for Startup Weekend, Milan. It is a very special competition, and will always hold a special place in my heart as the turning point for BonAppetour. What was initially just an idea, the 54 hours weekend transformed it into a fast growing, confident and energetic startup.
How does the competition work? The mechanism is simple; for those who wanted to share their ideas, they had one minute to present an elevated pitch to explain the idea, after which everyone would vote for the best/most interesting ideas. Once the top 10 ideas were chosen, participants were divided into the 10 teams to work on them and develop the idea to best of their abilities. 180 exited people, 60 amazing ideas and participants from different parts of Italy and of the world (!), all having a varied range of talents, from marketers to designers to programmers.
For BonAppetour, being a webbased platform for travellers to have authentic homemade meals at homes of local hosts around the world, Startup weekend, Milan, was a turning point for us.
The team was made up of passionate foodies who loved the idea, and gave fresh perspectives on how to grow it, we had a wonderful designer who designed our logo, and a talented programmer who is a founder on the team today, and has built the entire web structure.
The exposure to investors, judges as well as the press was really helpful. We managed to get people to know about our startup, and being featured on the magazines and newspapers meant that business partners we approached also took us seriously. In fact hosts started contacting us, telling us they read about us, and loved the idea and wanted to be listed on the website.
Alessandra, for example, is a wonderful host whom we could not have found in Milan if not for this amazing platform.
Today, we have grown to a community of 200 hosts located in 30 different cities around the world, who are all excited to host a BonAppetour experience at their very own homes.
Congratulations to all the individuals who have registered for this competition. I am very sure that you will have a great time, learn a lot, and go back home with new friends, new ideas and unique experiences. All the best!
Rinita Vanjre Ravi
Ricordiamo che Startup Weekend Milano 2014 si terrà prossimamente a Talent Garden, in palio una borsa di studio della Fondazione Mind the Bridge e lo spazio di working gratuito per tre persone a Talent Garden per un mese.
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