Startup Weekend gives boost to entrepreneurs
Startup Weekend gives boost to entrepreneurs
Budding entrepreneurs got together in the capital recently to pitch their business ideas, develop teams, and participate in a business plan competition and other activities all within the space of 54 hours.
Startup Weekend Vientiane Season 2 as the name suggests was the second outing for this annual event with the main purpose to promote the local start-up community and create new ventures within a short period of time.
This year's event proved to be very successful with the TOHLAO Coworking Space team being the main organiser and also providing the venue, located in Mixay village.
Startup Weekend is a non-profit organisation that had its beginnings in Colorado, United States, but now its organisers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world.
A total of 57 participants too k part in this year's event, which led to 24 people pitching their ideas and finally there were seven teams that built their start-ups within the 54 hour-period, which were judged by local entrepreneurial leaders.
Within the timeframe, participants enjoyed the challenge to validate their business ideas, build the start-up by doing market research and talking to customers and suppliers so as to make their product or services as practical as possible.
This year's winning team was Project Evo1.0 which developed a smartphone application that builds a database of all the restaurants in Vientiane and provides delivery services.
The runner up team was WOW! Pro, who also built a smartphone application that can collect promotions from merchants for phone users.
The third placed team was Lao V Fruit which produced fresh fruit juice for consumers.
At the international level, more than 2,000 Startup Weekend events have been organised every year, made up of more than 100,000 participants in 100 countries. After Startup Weekend events, more than 8,000 new ventures have emerged.
“No talk, all action” is the slogan of the Startup Weekend. Participants really need to build the start-up within the time that they are given during the weekend.
Startup Weekend is not a seminar or a lecture. People who attend the Startup Weekend hope to become entrepreneurs or at least get some lessons to validate their business ideas, which could be for profit or social development.
