54 hours in Athens
18th Feb 2012 by Leda Karabela
54 hours – just a weekend really.
Yet, the startup marathon last weekend in Athens was so much more. About 150 brilliant Generation C young men and women (Connected/Communicating/Content-centric/Computerized/Community-oriented, always Clicking) did their magic, pitching their business ideas.
“We are determined to set the trail, not just follow the path,” said Eleni Natsi, one of the participants. And she continued: “I always believed that innovation does not necessarily require satin and silk dress-up. We wander around wearing bullet-proof waistcoats to dodge the bullets of fear and surrender. Creativity, enthusiasm, energy. That’s all we need for this.”
And while Athens was going through another rough patch of tear gas and street hooliganism, one of the teams’ office space was burned down. The Niobium Labs team wrote the day after: “We realized it can take a few hours for new ideas to be born as long as people work together and take advantage of their creativity. However, it also takes just a few hours to destroy everything and create chaos. These are the two sides of Greece. And we choose to look at the bright side.”
Having experiences does not make us who we are. Reflecting on our experiences does. So, I want to take the time to pay tribute to everyone who stood up, refused to surrender and fought in the great fight of creating their startup. Keep on learning; keep on fighting and don’t let anyone take away your dreams.
4th Startup Weekend Athens- A big thanks to our designers
With all the event run around we have forgotten to thank our designers for the memorable souvenirs they created for the event.
For our funky graffiti Logo- Isavella Benekou
For our T-Shirts and pins- Maria Nasioti
4th Startup Weekend Athens- 10 tips after the event
One more Starup Weekend has come to an end hopefully signaling new beginnings. We posted this at the end of last year’s event but as it is still valid here it is again! We are looking forward to the progress of your ideas.
1. Committees mean nothing. We are not smarter than you guys in the teams. We may be more experienced in some areas but getting more experience sometimes gets us more opinionated on what can or cannot work in the business, which can be of course totally wrong. Getting in the “favorite 3 teams of Athens SUW” doesn’t necessarily mean that you can have a more successful startup than the other teams. So, stick to your idea and team if you believe in it and try to find as much help as possible to make it work – we are all here to help you.
2. Fall in love with your idea. Hate it. And fall in love again.
When you have an idea, it is common that you fall in love with it. You try to defend it and you close your ears to the feedback as you see it as criticism and show-stopper. Be open to other people’s feedback – get rid of the “always no-sayers” and of the “always yes-sayers” and find the persons who can provide you with a clear view of your strengths and weaknesses. Ask them what they believe you should change to improve your weaknesses.
3. Have an alpha version live in 14 days.
Push hard in the first couple of weeks to create a web site that works, get some users (usually friends) on your platform and start improving. Yes, this will be just 10% of your total vision. Yes, this will not leave your users satisfied. But it will keep the spirit up and the team together and increase the possibilities to continue with the project.
4. Get help.
Make a list of the things you need to have a solid beta version. Connections, business plan, a skilled web designer, somebody to program an extra mobile application, a place to work, free tools, costs of online advertisement, users to test it – you name it. And use the power of the network and the people you met to help you with each one of these.
5. Learn to pitch.
Explaining your idea and why it can be successful in 60 seconds is a really tough job. But if you want to proceed with your project, you will be start pitching all the time: to your friends, to people you need help from, or even to VCs. Spend some time to search for information and do rehearsals. Do a lot of pitches to people who have different backgrounds, a lot or no technical skills. Get their feedback and improve.
6. Think Global
Don’t limit your idea to the Greek market. Use Greece as a test-bed if this is necessary for your product but always have a plan on how you can create a technology platform and a business model that can expand to other markets. Otherwise, go straight for the global playground.
7. Learn the Acronyms
When trying to discuss the business model or business plan of the idea, you always gain credibility when you can “speak the language”. Learn what’s behind terms such as “ROI”, “Break-even Point”, “Valuation”, “Exit strategy” and many others that are frequently used in these discussions. Don’t be afraid – they have fancy names but very simple meanings and ideas behind them.
8. Find the best representative for your team
Having the idea and being the most technical person, doesn’t mean that you should be the one who represents the team in the future. Decide collectively on who has the ability to become the best representative of the whole team. Who has the best people skills, presentation competencies, leadership attributes and a fair understanding of technical and business issues. Get this person out to ask for help, meet people, do presentations in events etc.
9. Create a clear action plan for the next 30 days.
Put some deadlines on the work that has to be done. Who does what by when. Who follows up with the tasks of all the team members. Get commitment from the members. Set up weekly or more frequent team meetings to get people together.
10. Have fun as a team
Startups are not only about making money. It’s a lot about working with highly energized people, doing innovative things and having fun. Celebrate your small successes as you hit your action plan. Get together as a team and do something fun. This will increase the team’s morale, improve the level of commitment and your chances to stick longer to your project.
And the winners are……
Wow! What a weekend. After an eventful, adventurous perhaps even a little frustrating (what’s life without challenges eh? No-one said it would be easy) 54hr marathon. Three teams emerged victorious after the final pitches were over and judges got together to help decide the winner.
About an hour later, white smoke could be seen rising from the chimney of the Microsoft Innovation Center. No, it wasn’t someone fuming (that was earlier). It was a sign that the panel had finally reached consensus.
1st place – USEUM - A brilliantly executed and presented platform that will disrupt the way we buy art. They describe it best as “A bridge between art lovers and artists. It’s a web platform where art enthusiasts can discover emerging artists based on their artistic preferences. ” This team will be visiting Berlin in March to pitch at HackFwd at the Pitch in Berlin V2 event
2nd place - YummyMommy - No one will ever miss mommy’s cooking ever again with this disruptive mobile application. Matching hungry tummies with homemade food from other mommy’s.
3rd place - KinectLife - a great team that is changing the we we will interact with legacy arcade games - by also adding a mood layer onto the Kinect interface
The Niobium Mobile Innovation Award was awarded to YummyMommy.
All three winning teams receive 3 months hosting at coLab workspace as well as a free listing and free legal and business consultation from crowdfunding platform Startersfund
For All Participating Teams: The Microsoft Innovation Center offers BizSpark providing them access not only to all of Microsoft products for free for 3 years but also access to an incredible line up of valuable resources for start-ups. In addition , as teams progress with their idea they can become incubated at the Innovation Center.
As Lydia and Stavros said at the closing - Nobody leaves Startup Weekend without winning.
Every team put all their effort into their project with fantastic energy.
Deborah - you were amazing! Thank you for holding it all together.
Mentors thank you for guiding us, confusing us and changing (disrupting) us.
Judges – Thank you for not spilling any blood in the panel. Thank you for being fair.
Sponsors - Galoo, Startersfund, TANEO, Golden Deals, Galaxy Catering, Domino’s and Coffeeplanet a BIG Thank you for your support. We couldn’t have done this without you. Oh, and the invoice is on it’s way.
So, as we all bask in the after-energy this weekend left us with. Let’s reflect on what has happened in Maroussi versus what happened downtown. Change is happening and this change will come through entrepreneurship.
Thank you all for your enthusiasm and energy!!
Until the next Startup Weekend Athens…
photo credit:Aurelija Sukeviciute [ more photos from the event ]
Startup Weekend Athens 4- And the ideas….
As the 4th Startup Weekend Athens comes to an end below some hopeful new beginnings:
1. Startupnetwrk
Startupnetwrk intends to bridge the gap between early stage startups and seed fund investors.
2. Allcancode
“ Let’s create the next generation of coding talents”
Allcancode addresses the need of programming/coding illiteracy and the scarcity of talented developers and inspired educators. It is an online game-based learning system that focuses on:
- Concepts with graphical/visual language
- Works from on any device
- Targets everyone from kids to adult with or without programming background
3. Eksipnoteros
“ You Shop, we bid, you get”
Supermarkets bid for your shopping list.
4. Lovechirps
Recorder messages for Valentine day.
5. Kinect Life
“Kinect Life is Kinect for all”
Kinect is mainly for energetic people. Kinect Life brings a mood profiling and engagement application with which you can use Kinect to play legacy arcade games.
6. Metoo
Facebook application that performs psychometric tests and matches content between different users based on their profile compatibility and similar personality traits. The matching of content between users provides inspiration through the discovery of information from other people that are like them.
7. Respondability
A website which enables corporations to co-create causes on-line and target them to choose an audience. It gives them the ability to respond to the actual need at the right time and hugely increase their social impact and positive reputation
8. Yummy Mummy
“Food made with love everywhere”
YummyMummy tries to solve the problem of not being able to have homemade food where and when you want it. The idea is to be able to press a button and search for homemade food made by people who cook in their home not restaurants around your location. Users can find homemade food near their location, with info like type of food,price of food , review scores ,cooks info etc and get the homemade food they prefer. Business model is free to premium.
9. ORDERRO
Ordering and pre-ordering through the use of mobile phone for food and drink venues ( bars, restaurants)
10. Shopalyzer
Creation of your own e-shop in facebook and start selling to your fans in less than 5 minutes!
11. Offerme.gr
A unique answer to the self-planning traveler matching specific vacation requests to businesses so that they can make custom offers directly.
12. SWAPMAPP
An innovative and disruptive way of making swaps. Instead of 1-1 swaps we create circles of multiple swaps between an unlimited number of people. And this is only the beginning.
13. USEUM
Useum is a 2-way bridge between art lovers and artists. It a web platform where art enthusiasts can discover emerging artists based on their artistic preferences. Vice versa new artists can showcase their art.
14. Fashion Fairy
An automatic wardrobe management, key item suggestions through fashion brand synergies, celebrity stylists for recommendation of outfit selection
15. Rentareto
Connect with people around you to rent things you own but aren’t using or borrow things that you need reliably and easily.
