Startup Weekend EDU, first ever in Canada was held past week. It was a memorable experience for many as it gave a chance to startups to showcase their skills on a recognized platform. The weekend concluded late this past Sunday, 11th August, after a 54 hour long weekend for all those who participated in the event. Newly formed startups took the centre-stage and those who turned out on tup included Learning Loop, Dieldr and SmartyPants.
Arom Solomon, one of the judges of the event, was really impressed with what the participants had to offer and was astounded by the talent shown “From the time people pitched on Friday afternoon, they were working seriously hard,” said Solomon, a senior advisor at MaRS Education Innovation. “The second thing that really impressed me was that throughout the weekend it became readily apparent that there were actual education startups forming.”
Startup Weekends have proved to be popular all over the world, particularly in North America. The non-profit organization is a global grassroots movement of entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the “largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world.”
Several such events have been held over the past especially in Montreal and Toronto that almost follow the same format. Take part in a ‘pitch fire’ on Friday, then they makes teams and after that it’s a roller coaster ride of a consecutive 54 hours. The event concludes late Saturday night and Sunday is reserved for judging and scoring and awards distribution to formally conclude the event.
Startup Weekends EDUs have been largely successful in the past and had decent outgoings in New York, Silicon Valley and Seattle. Hundreds of prospective entrepreneurs, developers and designers and other enthusiasts from different fields took part in the event.
LearningLoop, an innovative online platform for parents and educators for the benefit of children, took the first spot along with an impressive sum of $20,000 as prize money including other services that they won. These included legal services, IP consultation, advisory assistance from MaRS and more.
LearningLoop’s Alison Gibbins said that part of the motivation for creating the startups is that communication between teachers and parents needs to improve. “Everyone on the team all had their hearts in the right places to improve education and I now feel like I’ve known them for years. This is going to change the lives of the members on our team and the lives of children,” said Gibbins. “A part of our prize is to head to Google’s accelerator program in Silicon Valley.”
SmartyPants and Fieldr took second and third spots respectively. The former being an online virtual experience for children that combine games and education into a fun adventure, and the latter being a tourist and a field trip guiding company that caters to individual needs.
Source: TechVibes
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