And the Winner Is …
When the dust settled on Sunday evening, three teams emerged victorious at the inaugural Startup Weekend Evansville. First place honors and the top prize package were awarded to the furnish team, which included team leader Michael Patzer, a 2009 graduate of the USI College of Business and owner of Orange Group Apps; Andrew Markle, of Auto Trader Monthly magazine; and Andrew Heil, of Ariens Co.
Furnish is an augmented reality app for iPhone or Android devices that allows you to walk into a room and place furniture around the room virtually, using your smartphone viewing screen. The app was targeted toward interior designers and furniture companies.
“I’ve spent time in Silicon Valley and there are a lot of these types of events out there,” said Patzer. “It’s awesome that this is here in my home town of Evansville and at my university, USI. I never thought we’d have anything like this here, and I hope that we have more events like this in the future.”
The team received a grand prize package featuring goods and services from local businesses and organizations, including three months of office space at Innovation Pointe donated by the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville (GAGE), tech products donated by area Verizon Wireless Zone stores, and more.
Second place was awarded to team ICUC, which developed a business model that makes eye care diagnosis and treatment available for patients in third world countries. Third place went to the GoNoGoApp team, who developed an aggregated information application that would not only provide answers to consumers with questions, but also provide businesses with valuable market research data.
While all of the teams made fantastic progress toward realizing their ideas over the course of the weekend, these three stood apart to the judges.
All in all, it was a fantastic debut for Startup Weekend Evansville, and the USI College of Business and the local GOO (Group of Organizers) have both committed to making this an annual event in our community.
Be sure to stay tuned to this space for the latest developments … coming very, very soon!
Startup Weekend Evansville is Rocking and Rolling!
For the first time out of the gate, Startup Weekend Evansville has been jam-packed with great ideas, excited participants, and a plethora of speakers, mentors, and judges ready and willing to share their expertise and insights with budding (or seasoned) entrepreneurs.
On Friday night, the Top Ten pitches out of the nearly forty given were selected, and the teams set to work on projects and products for the remainder of the weekend. Industries represented include education, health care, finance, the environment, local nightlife, crime prevention, and high-fashion accessories!
Our participants continue to be hard at work on the following concepts:
Simply Invest: So, you’re a college student. What if you took $5 a month, just one less visit to a high-end coffee ship, or a couple (other) beverages less on a Thursday night, and invested it in your future? Do you know how much you’d have in hand by the time you’re the age of some of our Startup Weekend mentors? Let these gents and ladies point you in the right direction on investing and wealth production.
Furnish: Wouldn’t it be cool if you could walk into a room, hold up your smartphone, and see what your space would look like with some new furniture? Without having to have your husband lug that sofa to six different places?! You won’t be able to wait to see the augmented reality experience this team is working on.
Evansville Nights: Unsure about what’s going on around town? Don’t know where to look? This could be your one-stop shop for area nightlife. Find out where are the cool kids will be hanging out — and why!
Go. No Go.: Do you have a hard time making decisions? Well, do you?! Harness the power of the collective wisdom and opinions of hundreds of millions of social media users to help you evaluate where to live, who has the best strombolis in town, or whether there’s a potential market for your own startup idea.
StrapHolders: Don’t you hate it when you’re toting around a purse, laptop case, or 35mm camera (ooooohhhh, retro!), and those straps keep slipping off your shoulder? Fear not! The answer could be on its way.
ICUC: What would you pay for a new pair of glasses? What if your purchase also funded eye care diagnosis and treatment for someone in a developing nation? These folks are taking to heart the lesson from one of our speakers that technology’s highest value is in its service to the community.
Hoosier Ride: Ever out somewhere with your car, and you can’t (no, really, you shouldn’t!) drive it home? Let one of the Hoosier Riders zip on over, fold up her motorized scooter, thrown it in your trunk, take you — and your car — home, and go on their merry way!
Lion’s Head Coffee: How do college students — heck, how does anyone — survive without a great coffee shop? Java and the places the world’s second-most heavily traded commodity is sold have been fueling folks since the advent of Dutch trading and the American Revolution. The revolution could be coming to Evansville’s West Side soon!
Hybrid Fitness Equipment: Speaking of harnessing power, what if your trip to the gym didn’t drain electricity from the grid, but generated it? Are you ready to get lean and go green at the same time? If this team has anything to say about it, you could be getting a charge out of your workout in more ways than one.
CEEFU (Carbon Engine Emissions Filter Unit): Save the polar bears! Need we say more? OK, we will. With automobiles generating such a huge amount of greenhouse gases, we could all do more to reduce noxious emissions. The CEEFU may help get us there.
Those of us here at Startup Weekend Evansville can’t wait to hear the final presentations on Sunday evening! And we can’t wait to tell you who wins our inaugural competition, and what new businesses could be launched in Evansville by Monday morning! Stay tuned ….
It’s About Time
You don’t have time to do a Start Up Weekend.
No, really, you don’t.
Nobody does. I mean really – stepping away from your work, or homework, or family, for two and a half days? Who can do that?
But you have an idea, an innovation, a business waiting to launch. It might even be something great, but until you build that idea to a reality, you’ll never know for sure.
There is a part of you that’s nagging quietly in the back of you mind. “Some day I’ll build… ”. “Some day I’ll create…” “Some day I’ll solve…” And that nagging voice knows that all the “Some Days” in the world, will not add up to one single “Today”.
But inertia is strong, so is self-doubt, which makes it easy to say, “Maybe some day, but not right now. I have no time”.
This is your chance to get past those roadblocks. Inertia may be strong, but the momentum generated by a group of creative minds, all working at full tilt, is even stronger. When the pitches start on Feb 24, the room will be filled with people who know “there’s no time like the present”.
You don’t have time for Start Up Weekend, and neither do I. But when else are you going to have more time to trade “Some Day” for “Today”. See you there.
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke to Kick Off Startup Weekend Evansville
The Organizers of Startup Weekend Evansville are very pleased to announce that Evansville’s new chief executive, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, will be on hand to welcome all of the participants and attendees to our inaugural event, this Friday evening, February 24, 2012.
An Evansville native, Mayor Winnecke was elected to office following a distinguished career in the worlds of media, business, and marketing, after holding leadership positions in both the private and public sectors.
During the 2011 campaign for the Mayor’s office, then-candidate Winnecke touted a primary focus on creating new jobs in the Evansville area by, among other things, establishing an “Angel Network venture capital group” to evaluate and provide financing for suitable, local entrepreneurial ventures and creating a small business advocacy
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke to Kick Off Startup Weekend Evansville
program within the Mayor’s office itself, to further encourage entrepreneurship within the community.
Mayor Winnecke is expected to offer remarks on the importance of creating a culture of entrepreneurship as a driver of local business development and growth in our area.
READY OR NOT. HERE STARTUP WEEKEND COMES.
February 10th. It’s only two weeks till Startup Weekend. If you don’t have an idea brewing, start thinking. Innovation is coming to Evansville. You can either be left behind or join on bord. Because ready or not, startup weekend is coming. It’s the first of many events that will help Evansville become more innovative.
If you don’t have an idea brewing, that is okay. There are going to be several other people with ideas that NEED your help and your skill. However, if you want to lead a team, you better start thinking about what your product will do.
Here is some help:
Remember REAL innovation solves REAL problems. You aren’t being innovative until you solve an existing problem.
Use social media to leverage your product. There are an infinite resources like “facebook connect” to bring awareness to your product.
Hard work = Real results.
Design Matters. Team up with some designers!
