Startup Weekend

Posted by lorraine

We had such a good time, and so many cool businesses and business relationships started as a result of our spring StartUp Weekend, that we are ready to give it another shot.

We are still working through the details, but we are committed to the 2nd weekend in November.  We have a location, and support from the 21st Century Fund to get us started.  We could use more sponsors, more workers, and lots of attendees.  So if you are interested please fill out the information below.

And if you are available, please join us for the planning session on September 16th, at 8 am. We will be at the Paradise on Meridian and 96th . See you there!

Posted by lorraine

Brad Wisler and Kristian Andersen shared some great insight to everyone at StartUp Weekend here in Indy.  If you missed them live, you can get a feel for what they shared by watching their presentations

Click here to see Brad’s comments http://prezi.com/arseonbrugnk/looking-for-trouble/

Click here to see Kristian’s Comments http://www.slideshare.net/kristianandersen/designing-a-startup

Posted by lorraine

The weekend is behind us!  The pitches are done, and three companies have emerged.  Check out details on the newest members of the Indy business community

Posted by Ninja Button

Ninja Button Promo #2 from Ninja Button on Vimeo.

Ninja Button Promo #3 from Ninja Button on Vimeo.

Posted by Ninja Button

Ninja Button Promo from Ninja Button on Vimeo.

Posted by ZankIt!

ZankIt made a lot of progress today on both the programming and marketing side and we are confident we are building a great product. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow to continue our domination of all things classifieds.

Check us out on Twitter @zankittome or visit our temporary home page and sign up for our launch newsletter to get all the news we care to share with you.

ZankIt: Because you can’t afford not to.

(p.s. our programmers rule)

Posted by Ninja Button

They say that a Startup Weekend is supposed to mimic the first year of a company’s life in 54 hours.  If a problem takes an hour to solve, it’s the equivalent of spending a week debating that issue.  Picture scrapping a concept for a new business after refining it for almost four months.  As one can guess, it’s a difficult and potentially very expensive thing to do.  Yet the HomebrewHub team persevered and formulated a new concept for an internet startup called Ninja Button.  The idea focuses on a unique tool that allows web developers to compare the effectiveness of call-to-action buttons used on their clients’ sites.  In essence, Ninja Button is a “smart” resource for buttons backed by data pertaining the internet users receptiveness to each button.

Posted by ZankIt!

ZankIt is currently “hello worlding” on our local development server. We’ve created a code base and we’re ready to roll forward! We also have an initial logo ready, and we’re slicing up our preliminary site design.

BAM!

Posted by lorraine

Every business owner needs a plan, but most entrepreneurs don’t have the time, skill or resources to write one on their own.  These mulitasking individuals do much of their best thinking on the go.  GoBizSpeak  allows you to build and maintain your business plan the same way you think. You can interact on the web, attach images, audio, etc.

It’s noon on Saturday.  Here is where we are:

• Branding: We have a logo, application  grapic, colors and font.
• Marketing copy and tagline coming together
• We are currently considering 3 levels of pricing.
• We are building both marketing and applicaton web sites and an android applicaion. Initial application has been deployedto the site.  Color schemes will be applied next.
• Struggling with voice to text interface.

Lots of work ahead this afternoon.  Stay tuned!  And follow us on twitter. gobizspeak

Posted by Ninja Button

The original idea behind HomebrewHub, originally Hop Co-op, was to create an online portal for “homebrewers” to connect with one another, trade their processes, and perhaps even sell their creations.  After over four hours of discussion, the HomebrewHub idea evolved into a social networking site that allowed people who are passionate about beer crafting to create profiles to promote themselves.  This was a result of numerous team members coming together with unique ideas about how the site should look.  Unfortunately, this shift away from the original idea diminished much of the initial passion that drove the idea to the discussion table.

Although the HomebrewHub idea certainly wasn’t aimed to change the world, it had quickly lost much of its luster.  French Philosopher Denis Diderot said, “Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.”  The team discovered that a business concept without passion really can’t be developed into a great start-up.

It’s back to the drawing board for the HomebrewHub team.  They must now either reformulate the idea for the site or come up with an entirely new idea for a start-up.  Needless to say, the team must find common ground by consolidate their ideas and maintaining the passion that fuels them.

Posted by jspeer

Zank It! is moving forward:

Hop Co-Op deciding to kill this and find another idea:

GoBizSpeak is making progress:

Posted by ZankIt!

When you have something that you’d like to sell – whether it’s a car, a condo rental, or an old guitar, you have a few basic places to try first:

1. Your Friends

2. Craigslist

3. Ebay

4. Newspaper Classifieds

Your friends are probably the best option because you’re helping them out and there’s relatively little effort required.  Craigslist is a close second because it’s free and the community is very active.  Ebay and newspaper classifieds are becoming less and less effective so it’s nice to avoid those channels if you can.

But what happens when you don’t know any close friends who are looking for what you’re selling?  What happens when the flood of other listings on Craigslist pushes your item out of view in less than a day?

Zankit is a socially charged online marketplace that allows you to leverage the power of thousands of agents who can push your item to their networks on Facebook and Twitter.  But what’s in it for the agents?  Why would they want to push your items into their social feed?  The agent earns a commission if someone from their network buys the product, .  So agents have the ability to actively search the Zankit marketplace to find things their friends might want so that they have a chance at earning some money.

Take a look at our initial outline from our brainstorming session.  More to come soon!

Posted by jspeer

The first round of pitches at Indy Startup Weekend (#swindy) took place Saturday evening. Here is a link to a YouTube channel to all of the #swindy pitches.

Three of the pitches have emerged and are in the process of exploring business possibilities.

For now, these are known as Project X, Business Plan on the Go, Hop Co-Op.

Posted by lorraine

The teams are hard at work.  The attached forms will be helpful as you share your information during the updates.

For Status Updates - Use this outline to share your information with other teams

Guy Kawasaki Investor Pitch- This is the guideline for your pitch for Sunday Night

Posted by lorraine

We are almost ready for the weekend. 

•  We have would-be entrepreneurs bringing their ideas and their energy to StartUp Weekend Indianapolis.  
• We have a great location at the Purdue Research Center: Exploration Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46241
• We have terrific speakers sprinkled thoughout the weekend to give us ideas and motivation
• We have amazing sponsors who are helping keep the costs of innovation down
• We have room for more..  

.So if your weekend plans fell through, come join us for some or all of the weekend.  Who knows, you could be doing something totally different on Monday morning as a result.

Posted by lorraine

We now have a tentative schedule for Startup Weekend! Click here to check it out.

Posted by lorraine

The 2010 Mira Awards opened with a lighthearted video looking at what life would be like without Indiana tech firms.  And the picture is bleak.  From Exact Target and Compendium Blogware to Lightbound Internet., these companies employ hundreds of people, and affect the lives and business success of thousands of others.

While the video raises the question, what if our big tech companies didn’t exist, there is another question in the background.  What technology or idea out there yest to be discovered?  What is Indiana’s next big technology break through?

Posted by jspeer

But there are still slots left to sign up. Be sure to do so as soon as possible to ensure your participation in the Indy Startup Weekend.

Posted by lorraine

You might want to take a look at this if you plan on coming to start up weekend.

http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html — The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups.

Posted by jspeer

A few weeks ago, I had some conversations with a few people planning to attend Indy Startup Weekend. This will be my first, and I’m not a software product guy. We started a conversation on Google Wave to brainstorm some ideas for non-software product and service companies that could be developed during a Startup Weekend. Here are some of the ideas:

• Concussion-proof football helmet. Or maybe a helmet that actually detects the force of hit and predicts level of concussion via a color code or numerical code.
• A better way to load and unload car infant car seats.
• Refrigerator w/ barcode scanner (to determine inventory and auto-generate shopping list).
• Fire hydrants – way to detect if they are functioning properly. A story on local news this past winter about snow and cold causing fire hydrant failures. Apparently current way to check is manually and by going to each individually.
• DVR but for radio.
• Battery powered small kitchen appliances (with inductive re-charging).
• Low-voltage wiring embedded into roads powered by roadside solar cells with temperature / precipitation induced on / off switch.
• Small event planning company that specializes in putting on small events, like classes/workshops/company dinners for less than 30 people.
• Healthy, Car-Friendly Fast Food. Drive through fast food place that only makes food designed to be eaten with one hand, that is not messy and and healthy.