Techstars Startup Weekend Brisbane 2018
This weekend, around the world, TechStars Startup Weekend is back on. This weekend was targeted towards women, although it is not exclusive to women. Men could come along and join if they wanted. I am not taking part, but I did turn up for Friday night initial pitches. I also gave a pitch, but I didn't do any recruiting for canvased for votes obviously. I mostly enjoyed listening to the pitches.
So where the pitches different from the Startup Weekend in November? Not as much as I thought they would be. There were three extremely similar pitches for fashion related startups that centered around customisation and ethical fashion. There were a few start-up ideas around caregiving, including ideas about making elderly parents more comfortable with technology. However, what surprised me were how many startup ideas centred around financial education and financial freedom. There were, however, no obvious winning ideas among the pitches.
What I mean is that during the November Startup Weekend, it was pretty obvious that the Pegasus Equine Management was a slam dunk unless something went wrong. The idea got the most votes, was the biggest team and it was obvious the lady who pitched already knew going in that there was a market for it. Most importantly, she already had the contacts to break into the market if she could just get a product together. The only idea that approached Pegasus, in terms of known gap in the market and industry connection, this time around was "Florist Connect", but it just didn't have the traction among those who were attending.
Anyway, I handed my card to a few people who I thought I could collaborate with in the future but I am not sure if anything will come of it. It probably would have been better if I could stick around and taken part but between travelling for much of January and a recent bout of illness, I didn't feel I would have the energy to contribute effectively. But I have already signed up for the March Startup Weekend, which has a focus on creativity, including IoT. So I think it might be a good venue to pitch some of my wearable ideas.