Startup Weekend | Announcing the Winners
Wow…
What a weekend!
We were completely blown away by the response of the community, as well as the high level of mentors,sponsors, speakers, judges, and participants!
Over 54 short hours (yes, they actually went by quick!), we had 9 amazing teams form. Each one presented their startup on Sunday, and 4 teams were awarded prizes.
Here’s how they stacked up:
First Place:
Treatspace
Treatspace is a portal that authenticates online physician info. Products empower doctors to ensure their information is accurate and to protect them errors. Patients now have a source they can trust about their physicians.
Second Place:
ImpromptWho
Expand your network with the people you want to know – easily & efficiently. Online networking meets real world location in a simple to use tool for facilitating new connections with the people you want to meet.
Third Place:
Checkitforme,
Checkitfor.me is the internet alert for the new age. Specify a site, specify the date, place, price or keyword that you want to watch and you’re in business. Checkitfor.me notifies you through the network of your choice when your value appears, changes, or becomes what you want. Watch for prices drops on Amazon, event announcements on ticketmaster, or stay on top of specific news in the most specific way you can imagine.
Most Innovative Team:
Solid Scene
SolidScene is a site where you can share and explore 3D scenes. Depth cameras like the Xbox Kinect will soon be built into mobile devices and SolidScene will be the premiere site to share these amazing images The judges identified this concept as being visionary and dare I say… innovative
Other awesome teams included:
1. Dazz.la
Online platform to compete in coding challenges.
Tag line: Compete in coding challenges. Get street cred.
Web site: http://Dazz.la/
Presentation: http://SlideSha.re/GS2Y1a
Twitter: @godazzla
2. MentorMatch
MentorMatch is the eHarmony of mentoring. Find your perfect mentor. Find your ideal mentee. Pass on your knowledge or advance your career.
Web site: http://Mentor-Match.me/
3. Better Notes
Take lectures to the next level with BetterNotes, the next big thing for collaborative learning in the classroom. Students can add their classes’ best notes to their own to maximize their studies. Even better, it can show teachers what their students learned from their lecture, providing instant feedback on their teaching style and skill.
Tag line: Max your Cred. Ace the test. BetterNotes.
Prototype web site: http://NoteThis.com/
4. Sponsortise by blogLOCAL
Sponsortise by blogLOCAL is an advertising platform presenting a fundamentally new approach to local online advertising. Sponsortise transforms a network of passionate bloggers into a hyper-local salesforce that empowers local businesses to promote online.
Web site: http://blogLOCAL.net/sponsortise/
Twitter: @BlogLocally
5. Madmapz
Save time and do more with Madmapz: the route optimizer. No more time juggling, no more appointment guessing – Madmapz takes you from point A to point Z through L-M-N-O-P – all in the most efficient way possible.
Web site: http://Madmapz.com/
(mailing list and screen shot of mobile app they developed)
Twitter: @madmapz
Alright, that’s it for now! We sure to check back later this week, and for those who attended, please check your email boxes for updates on future events 
Thanks again to everyone involved!!
What’s been going at Startup Weekend!
Here’s a brief overview of what’s being built at Startup Weekend Pittsburgh!
The Teams
Save time and do more with Madmapz: the route optimizer. No more time juggling, no more appointment guessing – Madmapz takes from point A to point Z through L-M-N-O-P – all in the most efficient way possible.
——
Checkitfor.me is the internet alert for the new age. Specify a site, specify the date, place, price or keyword that you want to watch and you’re in business. Checkitfor.me notifies you through the network of your choice when your value appears, changes, or becomes what you want. Watch for prices drops on Amazon, event announcements on ticketmaster, or stay on top of specific news in the most specific way you can imagine.
Twitter:
@checkitforme
—–
Take lectures to the next level with BetterNotes, the next big thing for collaborative learning in the classroom. BetterNotes takes that chore and makes it a game. By anonymously ranking each other’s notes according to their accuracy and clarity, students earn badges and up their “Cred” as they study. Students can add their classes’ best notes to their own to maximize their studies.
Even better, BetterNotes can show teachers what their students learned from their lecture, providing instant feedback on their teaching style and skill.
Max your Cred. Ace the test. BetterNotes.
——
MentorMatch is the eHarmony of mentoring. Find your perfect mentor. Find your ideal mentee. Pass on your knowledge or advance your career.
——
Treatspace
Treatspace is a portal that authenticates online physician info. Products empower doctors to ensure their information is accurate and to protect them errors. Patients now have a source they can trust about their physicians.
——-
Sponsortize by blogLOCAL
Sponsortize by blogLOCAL is an advertising platform presenting a fundamentally new approach to local online advertising. Sponsortize transforms a network of passionate bloggers into a hyper-local salesforce that empowers local businesses to promote online.
——-
ImprontWho
Expand your network with the people you want to know – easily & efficiently. Online networking meets real world location in a simple to use tool for facilitating new connections with the people you want to meet.
——-
Solid Scene
SolidScene is a site where you can share and explore 3D
scenes. Depth cameras like the Xbox Kinect will soon be built into
mobile devices and SolidScene will be the premiere site to share these
amazing images.
——
Online platform to compete in coding challenges.
Startup Weekend Pittsburgh Receives Official Proclamation!
Thank you to the members of Pittsburgh City Council, and special thanks to Councilman Bill Peduto !
First time attending Startup Weekend? Read this First
Alright everybody, here’s a quick recap of what to expect!
*Reminder, you don’t need to participate in the entire weekend to attend Friday or Sunday, and you don’t need an idea to participate in the entire weekend*
All the information below is taken from: http://startupweekend.org/firsttimer/
Friday: Participants arrive between 5-7 PM, begin networking, and eat dinner. After an ice-breaking game and a short introduction by the Facilitator, there will typically be 1-2 short speeches on practical topics ranging from Pitching Best Practices to Lean Startup Methodology and more. Then the “Pitchfire” will commence: anyone intending to pitch will have 60 seconds (this varies occasionally) to give their best pitch. After pitches are finished, all attendees will vote on their favorites, and using these votes the top ideas will be selected to be worked on over the weekend. Teams will form organically, consolidate, and begin working.
Saturday: Teams will work all day, with the occasional breaks to eat or listen to 1-2 short talks. Mentors will be circulating to provide concrete advice in the field of their expertise for those teams that want it.
Sunday: Teams will work uninterrupted from morning until mid-afternoon. They’ll begin wrapping up their product/prototype and/or presentation around 3-4 PM to do tech-checks and practice their demonstration. After all Judges have arrived presentations will begin: each team typically has 5 minutes plus 2-3 minutes Q&A from the jury (this varies occasionally.) The jury will select the top teams, give out prizes (if applicable), and the event ends (and celebration begins!)
Depending on the number of ideas pitched and the schedule, you may or may not be able to pitch multiple ideas. Prioritize your ideas: pitch your best idea (and the one you have most prepared for) first.
The short answer is that you can’t. If you’re very concerned, you can limit your pitch to the rough outline of the idea without giving away key information.
The longer answer is that this is not something worth worrying about. Unless you are confident your idea is a ‘key-in-hand’, easy-to-implement innovation that hasn’t yet been thought of (which it almost surely isn’t), the advantages gained from getting broad-based feedback and a strong team motivated by collective ownership far outweigh the remote risks of someone stealing and executing on your idea. The truth is that over 90% of ideas pitched at any given Startup Weekend have already been pitched – probably many times – in the past. This doesn’t imply that the idea isn’t a good one, but rather that what truly matters is how well you and your team execute the idea.
“One can steal ideas, but no one can steal execution or passion”
Attn: What to expect Friday night
Alright everyone
Startup weekend is fasting approaching. Here’s are quick overview of what to bring and expect for the Friday night open mic “pitch sessions” and team forming.
What to bring
- Business cards
- Something to take notes on
- Lots of energy
Pitches
Pitches on Friday night be in a “pitch-fire” format, which means you will have just 60 seconds to get the audience interested in your idea. You will have no slides or props – just a microphone and a smile. You won’t have time to go over features, so just focus on the core of the idea and make your enthusiasm contagious. Here is the format for pitches that we recommend:
- Who are you and what is your background? (5-10 Seconds)
- What is the problem that you product is solving? Or, begin with a story (10-20 Seconds)
- Explain the product and how it solves the problem (10-20 seconds)
- Who do you need on your team (a developer, marketing, designer?) (5-10 seconds)
- Finally, make up a name for your startup so the facilitator can give it a title
Voting & Forming Teams
After pitches, you will have more time to mingle. If you pitched an idea, this is your time to start recruiting others that are interested in your idea. If you did not pitch, or if you are having trouble finding others to join your team, use this time to seek out those that pitched other ideas that you found interesting.
Next, the crowd votes on their favorite pitches. This is a simply a way to encourage quick team forming. This is by no means an exclusive process and if you pitch an idea and it is not voted as one of the top ideas, you are more than welcome to work on it if you find some other people who want to work on the idea with you. From there we will form teams and these are the startup ideas that will be worked on over the weekend.
