Spokane’s 10th Startup Weekend was held at Avista’s headquarters November 10-12 for this 54 hour ideation event. With 80 registered participants, and another 30-40 coaches, judges and organizers, this was by far the best Startup Weekend Spokane yet!
The event started with 33 initial pitches that were narrowed down to the top 9 ideas by vote of the participants. The teams were comprised of a wide variety of participants, including high school students, college students and working professionals. In spite of their differences, they formed highly productive teams and created viable business models, complete with working prototypes and Webpages!
Here’s a list of the teams and their respective ideas:
- Lil’ Omelette (first place) – Online courses for children ages 5-12 to learn to cook
- Sound Barcode (second place) – ability to receive product and/or promotional information on your smartphone by scanning barcode
- Work Bid (third place) – Marketplace for connecting homeowners with contractors for home improvement projects
- Bite Box – Deliver readymade meals
- Musinect – Social network for finding other musicians
- Connect Ion – Kits and videos for STEM education
- Brown Book – Changing education through affordable textbooks via an online streaming platform
- Epi-N – Epi-pen user community app that notifies first responders, family and other epi-pen carriers in geographical proximity to assist
- Sparespace – peer-to-peer market for storage, targeting college students
The event concluded on Sunday evening with a keynote address by Mayor David Condon, followed by each team making a five minute pitch before a panel of judges
The top three teams received $3,000 of in-kind legal assistance from Lee & Hayes as well as a complimentary coworking membership to Startup Spokane. Many of the teams are continuing to pursue the launch of their businesses, and Startup Spokane is providing ongoing guidance and direction to each of them.
For a full recap of the weekend, please visit https://www.facebook.com/StartupWeekendSpokane/
Congratulations to all who participated in this very successful event!
PHOTO CREDIT: Atom Images and Inland Northwest Technologists (INT)