Full marks for Lessonista, winner of inaugural Cambridge Startup Weekend
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| Teachers pet: Winning team, Lessonista, L-R, Robin Message, Matthew Strawbridge, Imran Ghory, Zoe Rose, Andriy Borovyk |
The idea was hatched by Zoe Rose early last week on the Startup Weekend Linkedin page and beat 44 other ideas when it counted, on the Sunday night, to take top prize, a bottle of bubbly and a pitch to the London branch of the world’s largest angel investment network, the Keiretsu Forum.
The atmosphere was charged as the 17 teams that had developed their ideas over the weekend stepped up to present to the panel of judges who shortlisted six before selecting Lessonista as the ultimate winner.
Rose said the team would now concentrate on choosing the next step after a weekend that delivered more than she anticipated: “I turned up thinking that I’d learn some stuff and have some fun.”
Winner of a Social Enterprise award that was specially created on the night with the help of judge Peter Cowley was Belongings Finder, who came up with a web site to help people find lost objects following natural disasters.
The idea was the newest of the original 45 pitches, created on the Friday morning as a direct reaction to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the team were busy working on getting the web site as operational as possible long after the awards had been announced.
CPR Volunteers won the Wireless prize with an app that alerts people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation to nearby emergencies so they can administer first aid as early as possible, a key factor in saving lives.
The Healthcare prize was Rosedene’s, an online service that links care patients to fully qualified healthcare professionals at the patient’s convenience, wherever they are in the world.
Sonnet won the ‘wild card’ prize for the app that reminds you to be romantic through social media. The brainchild of the charismatic Tomasz Kolinko, Sonnet received the loudest cheer of the night.
The other finalist was Paperless Paperwork, an app aimed initially at the catering industry which reduces the amount of filing chefs have to undertake on a daily basis.
