Cambridge startups gather momentum
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| Prime number: The running order for the 17 final pitches at Cambridge Startup Weekend |
It was the team from Belongingsfinder who continued to hammer away on their keyboards, heads bowed deep in thought and discussion.
Perhaps as they sought to add important final elements to their site in time for people affected by the devestating tsunami and earthquake in Japan to recover treasured family objects, the advice from seasoned entrepreneur, Jamie Urquhart, about maintaining momentum was ringing in their ears a little too literally.
But then perhaps not. This as much as anything epitomised a weekend that on a number of measures – ideas, working apps, functional web sites, enthusiasm, finished and purchasable products – was a great success.
The technology business bootcamp was there to make things happen in an adrenaline driven 54-hour spell, to drive innovation and team work and Belongingsfinder was still fully charged.
They were just one of several teams that finished with market ready products (auraScape have an app on the Android market, Sonnet are waiting for Apple Store approval), empowered by the immediacy of software, the ubiquity of mobile phones and our familiarity with social networks under the nurturing umbrella of Cambridge Startup Weekend.
One, Growington, even claimed to have landed early funding, but it wasn't enough to claim a spot in the final six, nor was the mighty impressive attachmentapp, much to the surprise of several attendees and observers.
The scope of the ideas was impressive. Under broader headings, lifestyle, social enterprise and social networks would have been applicable to almost half the teams.
Slightly more focused analysis saw food was the strongest theme, accounting for pretty much a quarter of the final 17 pitches though it did not go on to win any prizes. In that respect, despite less representation than on the Friday round of 45 pitches and perhaps typically of Cambridge, healthcare won out with Rosedene and CPR Volunteers.
All the teams are now talking about what the next step entails, words that will please Urquhart.
The 17 Cambridge Startup Weekend finalists:
Lessonista – Overall winners
Zoe Rose first aired her idea for English teachers to share lesson plans on Linkedin in the run up to Cambridge Startup Weekend. An advantage? Probably not, most the ideas on the forum didn't make it through and two of the other prize winners only formed theirs during the actual weekend (Belongingsfinder on Friday and CPR Volunteers Saturday). They have plenty of work to do in the run up to launch but have a strong team and the mentoring skills of Dawson King behind them.
Education
Belongingsfinder.com – Winner of Social Enterprise award
Belongingsfinder was an idea that only sparked to life on Friday morning when Stefano Orowitsch decided the victims of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake and other large-scale disasters would want to recover items of high sentimental value, time enough to launch a functioning web site in English and Japanese.
Website: http://www.belongingsfinder.org/
Twitter: @belongingfinder
Rosedene Video Care – Winner of Healthcare award
Providing online video care, Rosedene aims to give patients immediate access to quality carers, trained nurses, at their convenience, in their own language, whether home or overseas.
CPR Volunteers – Winner Wireless award
The ability to provide early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is key to increasing the chances of survival for someone suffering from a heart attack or similar. CPR Volunteers’ app is a smartphone megaphone, alerting anyone in the near vicinity who knows CPR to come and try to save a life.
Website: http://cprvolunteers.com/
Twitter: @cprvolunteers
Sonnet – Wild Card award
Led by the popular Tomasz Kolinko whose reception was only marginally less raucous than the reaction to Jack Lang’s self introduction: “I’m Jack Lang and I can't remember how many companies I've started”, Sonnet won the unofficial ‘most likely to get funding and then flop’ prize, renamed the wild card prize for an app that help you be romantic, suggesting you send love letters and helping you pen them. They have already submitted an app to the iPhone store which they intend to sell at 59p. Offshoots include birthday and wedding based services as well as how to apologise.
Twitter: @sonnetapp
Travel with Options
Arguably a site with no peers, Travel With Options is a portal that provides users with information on all the available forms of transport available when planning to get from A to B including flights, ferries, coach, cargo ship and train.
Website: http://travelwithoptions.com/
Twitter: @travelwoption
Growington
Growington claims to already have some funding promised for the idea, which is to tap into increasing concern and awareness about food security and the British love of allotments and help people trade their surplus garden produce. Cambridge already has one company doing the same www.lourish.com but Growington aims to introduce a series of unique initiatives to incentivise growers.
Website: http://www.growington.com/
Twitter: @growington
EatDrinkPlan
An online planning tool for organising dinner parties from checking the availability of the guests to who should bring what dish and which wine is the best match. No website yet, but as a spinout of Cambridge University's wine society http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cuws/, the team have social network and viniculture expertise and were one of the few to identify several definite revenue streams.
unhab.it
Based on the 'sin' tax concept, but administered by your friends, Unhab.it uses a mix of financial incentives and disincentives to help people quit smoking, so you commit to giving up and if you lapse you pay a fine with all the money coming back to you at the end if you manage to kick the habit for good. The social network aspect is key as the team leader admitted hiding from people when using a similar system.
Website: http://www.unhabitapp.com/
WikiLearner
WikiLearner is designed to help you digest information from Wikipedia by manufacturing questions and study aids for each page.
Website: http://wikilearner.net/
auraScape
Working in the geosocial sector and wIth an app already available on the Android market https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aurascape&feature=search_result, Aurascape rather eerily provides a map of human emotion in your surrounding area based on Twitter. It is looking for funding to enhance its ‘Quixotique’ platform and produce other platforms and mobile games.
Website: http://www.aurascape.com/
Twitter: @aurascape
Socialkit
Reluctancy to register, an issue for many web sites and a problem SocialKit (previously SocializR) wants to address b y providing a common API that brings in Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Linkedin and Google.
eCarpool
This team decided to lean on the student market to do its bit for the environment, traffic jams and car share.
iQueue
Apps are often about saving time when unprepared and this team plan to save you the bother of having to queue in a restaurant because you haven't booked by informing you how long a wait there is for a table at different restaurants in the nearby area.
ConstructiveDiscussion
It is difficult to pick out useful intelligent comments from the bottom of internet articles, immersed as they are in endless trails of rabid dogmatic ranting. ConstructiveDiscussion aims to structure topical discussion into balanced and traceable forms, highlighting the strongest and and best arguments from all sides.
Paperless Paperwork
An office tool essentially, but once again in a food related industry, at least to begin with. Paperless Paperwork calculates that 30,000 chefs across the UK spend 45 minutes a day labeling food, well no more! This automated system will help produce appropriate labels and free up important time for chefs.
Attachmentsapp
Attachmentsapp’s failure to make the last six was possibly the most surprising decision of the night, as expressed on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/search/Attachmentsapp. Presenting last, the pitch was hugely compelling with a video that showed a full working version of the app that allows you to send attachments by email in as little as three seconds. Though there was discussion about whether someone is already doing this, still many people’s one to watch.
Website: http://www.attachmentsapp.com
Twitter: @attachmentsapp
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