Save the Date! 24-26 Feb 2012
Hey guys! The date and location have been confirmed for Startup Weekend Boston:
February 24-26, 2012 @ Microsoft NERD.
We’ll be opening up registration tomorrow (Monday), so stay tuned!
SW Boston Wrap-up: Congratulations to Art Cereal!
After all the preparation and 54 hours of work, we concluded a sold-out Boston Startup Weekend, the largest focused on the creative industries. The energy in the room was amazing, with participants ranging in age from 16 to 56 (yes, you read that right). The energy and passion in the room were palpable, and the organizing team could not be more happy or grateful for how things turned out.
Moving forward, we’re prepared to do this at BU again – maybe even once a semester! We’ll also be in touch about a bar outing for all attendees in the coming weeks.
Thanks to our judges, Ian Mashiter from BU and Hub Angels, Graham Brooks from .406 Ventures, and Walter Somol from Microsoft.
Thank you to the over 25 mentors who volunteered their time and expertise to make the event the best it could possibly be.
Thank you again to our amazing sponsors: Microsoft, Apple, Twilio, EchoNest, Cabana, Influencers@, .406 Venture, e-Powerhouse, Greenhorn Connect, and the national Startup Weekend partners.
On the whole, we had 15 new businesses come out of this event (check out Blogcastr for more pictures and commentary, as well as a fabulous writeup in BostInnovation):
Art Cereal, an online marketplace for student artists to sell their work.
8 Hour Intern, a service providing low-cost, high-quality, “flash” internships.
Dime, which helps college students figure out what’s going on around campus.
PickupConnect, which helps people stay in touch with friends via automatic phone calls.
Leasetopia, which handles billing, property management, and rent payment issues for tenants and landlords.
Sponsor Bar, which adds intelligence and modern technology to the traditional event sponsorship business.
Inspirater, a mobile app for rating speakers at events (built by the same team that built Leasetopia - Team Duo!).
MunchyStop, an app that allows people to search restaurants by specific menu items (maybe we can finally find out where the real best clam chowder in Boston is).
StarterTribe, a tool allowing people to recruit startup teams and other “skunkworks” on the web.
iPhoneHow.To, video-based iPhone tutorials.
ComPlateMe, which helps people plan healthier diets.
WhatChangedMyLife, a place for people to share events that changed their lives and make them happy.
Readicle, the iTunes for magazine articles.
Tabber….In Soviet Union, guitar teaches you!
BiteRight, customized menus on mobile devices based on dietary requirements.
When the judges’ votes were tallied, the following winners were announced:
Best Technical Achievement: Tabber
Spirit of Startup Weekend: Team Duo (Leasetopia and Inspirater)
Best Design: Dime
Most Fun: iPhoneHow.To
Best Commercial Potential: Readicle
Best Twilio Hack: PickupConnect
Overall Winners
3rd Place: BiteRight
2nd Place: Tabber
1st Place: ArtCereal
Congratulations to Team Art Cereal! May you wipe the floor with our #StartupBattle competitors in Philadelphia, San Juan, San Diego, Portland, and Hermosillo!
We will be back in touch with more information – and here’s a picture of the winning team:
Cheers,
The #SWBoston Organizing Team
Location Confirmed and a Reminder
Hey all, can you believe we’re only 4 days out from the start of the next Boston Startup Weekend?
Anyway, we wanted to reach out and confirm a few things:
First, the location is confirmed as the Ziskind Lounge, on the 2nd floor of the Boston University George Sherman Union, at 775 Commonwealth Avenue. We will have signage and volunteers to direct you, and we look forward to seeing you Friday!
In addition, this is a reminder that the Observer Ticket is available to those who can’t make the full weekend but want to see presentations. For only $10 you get a meal and some Startup Weekend magic….what could be better?
Look forward to seeing you on Friday!
- The #SWBoston Team
Friday Night Speaker Lineup
You can find out more about them on the Speakers page, but we’re thrilled to formally announce our three speakers for Friday night:
Peter Shankman, entrepreneur, investor, all-around guru, and proud BU alum, is returning to his alma mater to speak.
Jennifer Fremont-Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smarterer, will talk about Lean Startups.
Rob Spectre, Developer Evangelist and “brogramming” expert at Twilio (and Rhode Island native), will tell us how to come in second at a hackathon. Why not first? You’ll have to come and find out!
We are very excited about this and committed to a fantastic event. Please stay tuned for further announcements!
Official Schedule for Boston Startup Weekend 10/14
Hey everyone,
It might be hard to believe, but we’re only 17 days away from the kickoff of the next Boston Startup Weekend at Boston University!
As such, here’s a rundown of the high-level agenda, and stay tuned tonight as we announce the speakers for Friday night!
Friday, October 14
5:00 PM – Registration Begins
6:00 PM – Registration, Dinner, Preliminary Networking
7:00 PM – Speakers
8:00 PM – Pitches
9:00 PM – Voting and Team Formation
9:30 PM – Work Until Close!
1:00 AM – Venue Closed for the Night
Saturday, October 15
Note: Our Mentors and Geniuses will be on-site in shifts for both Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 AM to help teams with any questions or issues they have in the sprint to the finish line!
8:00 AM – Doors Open, Breakfast Served
12:00 PM – Lunch Served, With Lunch-time Speaker
1:00-3:00 PM – Team Gut Check With Mentors
6:00 PM – Dinner Served
1:00 AM – You Don’t Have to Go Home, But You Can’t Stay Here (Doors Close)
Sunday, October 16
8:00 AM – Doors Open, Breakfast Served
12:00 PM – Lunch
12:00-3:00 PM – Demos and Presentations Finished, Final “Go/No Go” Decision With Teams and Mentors
3:00 PM – All Project Work Ends
3:00-5:00 PM – Pitch Practice
5:00-8:00 PM – Presentations, Demos, Dinner, and Fabulous Prizes!
Remember to tell all your friends that they can join you by buying their own tickets, or, if they can’t make the full event, they can buy tickets for just the Sunday night demos. The more the merrier; let’s see all of you, Boston!
