Inaugural Startup Weekend Toledo was a great success
When 100 people recently gathered in The UT College of Business and Innovation (COBI) Savage & Associates Complex for Business Learning and Engagement for 54 straight hours, it wasn’t for a dance marathon or a gaming convention.
It was all business. More precisely, a new business idea marathon known as Startup Weekend Toledo, where a community of entrepreneurs, business startup enthusiasts, web and software developers, designers, marketing gurus and anyone interested in building a business came together to share ideas, form teams, and launch a startup.
“The inaugural Startup Weekend Toledo was a great success,” said Dr. Sonny Ariss, Chair, COBI Management Department, who was an organizer, host and one of the judges of the event. “Startup Weekend Toledo enriched the eco-system of entrepreneurship in NW Ohio. The business ideas proposed were all excellent ideas, while the participants were very motivated and committed to see their ideas come to fruition.”
“The Toledo event would not have happened without the support of UT President Lloyd Jacobs, Dean Thomas Gutteridge and the College of Business and Innovation, UT Innovation Enterprises, INCENU, Rocket Ventures and others,” Ariss said. “What makes this even more exciting is that while this was happening at UT, there were 14 other Startup Weekends taking place across the United States. It is wonderful to also be part of a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities.”
Startup Weekend Toledo lived up to its promise of “No Talk, All Action.” Beginning Friday evening, 37 registered participants began pitching 26 ideas to the entire group, which narrowed itself down to seven teams. The teams worked all weekend to develop their ideas into business models, perform customer validation, and build web sites and applications to demonstrate their business’s potential, then presented their work to a panel of judges on Sunday evening.
The seven business teams were:
- Follow Me: Online photographer matchmaking for people on vacation.
- InchProve: A non-profit organization with an aim to revitalize a city, surface by surface, inch by inch.
- RxMinder: A web application that uses a mobile device to keep track of medications for user and their loved ones. Also sends alerts and reports via text, mobile popups, and email as a reminder to take medications.
- Fast Fruit: It’s like an ice cream truck, but for fruit smoothies.
- Fueled: Random exercise alerts thru notifications.
- SimplyGrading: A web-based application that allows adjunct instructors of colleges and universities to maintain the grades for their class.
- Sportal: A web-based portal allowing elite baseball tournaments to connect with the best baseball teams in the United States.
On Sunday evening the judges selected Fueled as the winning business idea. The team won prizes, including an iPad, but no cash awards were presented.
Participants in the Startup Weekend Toledo were invited to enter the third annual IE Challenge Business Plan Competition (for UT faculty, staff and students) or the Northwest Ohio Innovation Challenge, open to individuals and businesses throughout Northwest Ohio.
Toledo Mayor Michael Bell issued a proclamation declaring September 14-16 Startup Weekend Toledo, urging “all citizens to join me in recognizing Startup Weekend Toledo’s organizers, judges, speakers and participants for helping to build a robust entrepreneurial community in the City of Toledo that will continue attracting jobs and new residents from around the globe.”