• A sleepless 58 hours later, Startup Weekend London produces nine potential companies

    Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

    Steve O’Hear is probably best known as a technology journalist, most recently at TechCrunch. He still occasionally blogs at last100. Until February 2012, he was CEO of expertise platform Beepl where he helped the company navigate its first VC round, along with seeing the product through development, private alpha and a high-profile public launch. Last100 was co-founded with Richard MacManus... → Learn More

    sw-header-london[UK] Startup Weekend is the 58 hour-long conference where attendees made up of “developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists, and more” don’t just talk, they actually build something. The projects, of which nine were completed at the London event last week, are developed over a very long weekend – presumably sleep is optional – and some go on to form actual companies.

    It’s all pretty exciting stuff and makes me hark back to my days at university where we’d occasionally pull an ‘all-night-er’. But this seems much more real as it has the potential to create genuine startups and in turn possibly change lives. It sounds like a lot more fun too. On that note, here’s a quick run down of the projects that this year’s Startup Weekend London produced.

    Intent Box
    intentbox.com
    intent-box
    Shows your friends activities you are interested in so they might join you.

    ThingQ
    thingq.com

    thingq_logo
    A decision-making tool. The service allows you to make choices using the factors that are important to you.

    Meetupalert
    Took the Twilio challenge, gives you a phone call when a new group you might want to attend comes up on Meetup.com.

    LayerOn
    Customization of cars using diff materials (Vinyl, goil foil, leather)

    CarbonRank
    carbonrank.org

    CarbonRank

    Bookmarklet that shows carbon info for various companies / car models / products allowing you to make a more informed “green” decision.

    Unknown
    A mystery project conceived over a bottle of vodka by team Austria.
    (Who opted not to present, launch pending…)

    99nudges
    99nudges.com

    99nudges-logo-large

    Helping break bad habits and form healthier new ones by starting small.

    Garage Sale
    onegaragesale.com

    logo

    Take a picture of your stuff, slice it up and sell it faster.

    Know Hive
    knowhive.com

    An enterprise collaboration tool.

    Sponsored Ads

    • willbo

      I really like 99nudges, and IntentBox. All sorts of social integration possibilities.

    • James

      Well… those all look like a waste of 58 hours…

    • http://www.twitter.com/olivermeakings Oliver

      On the whole the products seem directionless and obviously-rushed. Were the people taking part given a structure to work in or a problem to solve? If not, I’m not really sure of the value of this event – surely if these ideas were compelling enough they could all be conceptualised and built in a bedroom.

    • Michael Boyd

      Thanks willbo (I was one half of the 99nudges team).

      It was a great weekend with lots of ideas around.

    • Nik Smit

      To the last two commenters – it was more about the process than the output.

      A great weekend – met some very good people, and got insight into how other people work. Thanks to Jeremy and the other organisers.

    • http://theviralmarketingblog.com Ricardo

      99 Nudges sounds good.

      Anyway, these projects built in 58 hours don’t seem to different than ones that are posted here everyday and are built in months and gather large VC funds, so contratulations to everyone involved!

    • Moilo

      Doesn’t look like too many “graphic artists” were involved with these ‘projects’.

      Kind of failing to see the point in the event…

    • http://www.twitter.com/olivermeakings Oliver

      Yep, the value is in networking, insight into process and having a bloody great time with other likeminded individuals I would guess. I think the original post could reflect that a bit better.

      Would also agree with whoever said that other companies would take months to deliver something as good. Which is why I am a keen believer in move-to-real type methodologies. That said, still doesn’t make them particularly noteworthy.

    • Justin

      Really? You’re going to say that something built in 58 hours, by strangers, from a pool of whoever showed up, with whatever skills they might have, often by teams of 2-4 people are “not that impressive”?

      Huh. Ok.

      (disclaimer, I worked on a project at the Bay Area Startup Weekend)

    • Steve O'Hear

      I was impressed and also jealous – sounded like an awesome experience to me. But what do I know? :-)

    • Justin

      That was directed at the other commenters not you, sorry :)

      It was a truly awesome experience and anyone looking to find out what starting a company is like should either check one out, or start an event like this in their area.

      It’s a great launchpad and a great place to network. I know we’ve really jumped into high gear because of it.

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    • http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/02/two-tribes-go-to-war-how-did-launch48-and-startupweekend-clash-on-the-same-dates/ Two Tribes Go To War: How did Launch48 and StartupWeekend clash on the same dates?

      [...] Damien Saunders, who is organising London Startup Weekend for June 4-6, similar to their event last year. [...]

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