Startup Weekend coast to coast - Who won in Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver?
Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups.
Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.
Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts.
This past weekend, Canada hosted not one, not two, but three Startup Weekends - Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver. The events wrapped up last night and prizes were awarded to the top startups to emerge over the weekend. The winners were:
Halifax:
- First place: GrnWithEnergy - @GrnWithEnergy
- Second place: Critiqly - Critiqly
Toronto:
- First place - HeroBox & @goherobox
- Second place - Unboxed
- Third place - Code With Friends
Vancouver:
- First place: My Best Helper - a web-based service that makes family life better by helping families find any type of in-house caregiver that they need.
- Second place: BagTag
- Third place: JukeNuke & JukeNukeApp
- Best Presentation: EPIC Bets
- Best Social Cause: OrganizedGood
If you've never heard of Startup Weekend, check out this video that was screened in Toronto on Friday night. This film captures the journey of two individuals at the last Startup Weekend in Toronto: Ronan Levy (Delirious App) and Eugene Woo (Vizualize.me), and explores what it means to start your own business.
