“The Entrepreneurial Spirit” a film from our Startup Weekend
“The Entrepreneurial Spirit” was a short film that was shot during our 2011 Baltimore Startup Weekend. Four promising teams were followed during the course of the weekend. The goal was to explore the type of drive and mind it takes to start a company and the steps it takes to get going.
This documentary was sponsored by Millennial Media and produced by Justin Gutwein of ShineOn Storytelling.
Demos at the BioPark + Winners Announced!
What a weekend! We had over 140 people show up on Friday night and pitch 75 unique ideas. We then had all the attendees vote and narrow that down to 17 ideas for companies that we suggested the attendees move forward with. Shortly after, we had people joining up on teams, some balancing their time to two teams, and some people flying solo. By Sunday, we heard 23 incredible company pitches and demos and awarded over $5000 in cash and prizes to 4 lucky teams.
The winners for the first Baltimore Startup weekend were:
Parking Panda – First Place
Localize – Second Place
TalkChalk - Third Place, tie
Dapprly – Third Place, tie
Here’s a full spreadsheet detailing all of the companies that presented on Sunday as well as who was on the teams and what they did. Please feel free to edit this document and make sure all the info is correct » https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0Ak3u-bBw4VQtdEd1VzF3QmtuUTVTZGpOcDlqMDY5SlE&single=true&gid=0&output=html
Sunday Demo Night at the BioPark
We’re extremely excited to invite everyone over to UMD BioPark for the Sunday workday as well as the evening “Demo Night”. This is where we’ll have our panel of distinguished judges and a full audience listening to what everyone built at Startup Weekend. If you are interested in just coming to the demo night, you can purchase a ticket for that as well, however we’d really like to encourage you to participate for the full weekend!
What To Expect
What to bring
- Laptop
- Business cards
- Something to take notes on
- Lots of energy
Pitches
Pitches on Friday night be in a “pitch-fire” format, which means you will have just 60 seconds to get the audience interested in your idea. You will have no slides or props – just a microphone and a smile. You won’t have time to go over features, so just focus on the core of the idea and make your enthusiasm contagious. Here is the format for pitches that we recommend:
- Who are you and what is your background? (5-10 Seconds)
- What is the problem that you product is solving? Or, begin with a story (10-20 Seconds)
- Explain the product and how it solves the problem (10-20 seconds)
- Who do you need on your team (a developer, marketing, designer?) (5-10 seconds)
- Finally, make up a name for your startup so the facilitator can give it a title
Voting & Forming Teams
After pitches, you will have more time to mingle. If you pitched an idea, this is your time to start recruiting others that are interested in your idea. If you did not pitch, or if you are having trouble finding others to join your team, use this time to seek out those that pitched other ideas that you found interesting.
Next, the crowd votes on their favorite pitches. This is a simply a way to encourage quick team forming. This is by no means an exclusive process and if you pitch an idea and it is not voted as one of the top ideas, you are more than welcome to work on it if you find some other people who want to work on the idea with you. From there we will form teams and these are the startup ideas that will be worked on over the weekend.
