Zach Beattie (left) and Nick Droege present their idea for Safe Trek Friday at Startup Weekend Columbia.
After a full weekend of 54 hours of work, 19 teams shared new business ideas at Startup Weekend Columbia’s final presentation round Sunday at Museao, with the top three announced on the event’s Twitter feed later that night. An email marketing tool, Nudge, took first place, winning $2,000, six free months in Columbia’s downtown incubator space REDI, SEO consulting with Lift Division and an article published by Influence & Co.
In his final presentation, Jamie Stephens said he came up with the idea for Nudge after he found himself wanting to be reminded of main points and quotes from speaking, conference and church events he attended. Nudge allows a user, such as a speaker or church, to easily create emails that give subscribers a “nudge” about main points from an event.
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He said the prototype was designed to offer a more user-friendly, content-based interface than current tools on the market, such as MailChimp.
“It’s about focusing on the content, not focusing on the creation,” Stephens said. “You’ve already created a lot of this stuff and shared it on your social networks. We want to make it easy for you to reshare it through email. We believe that this is the easiest possible email marketing tool that you can have.”
The Gauntlet Initiative, a 3-D prosthetics company presented by Alex Madinger, took home the $1,250 second-place prize. Charity Dares, a site where friends can encourage charity work through dares, was presented by Ben Abbott and took home $750 for third place. Both teams were awarded three months free in REDI and SEO consulting by Lift Division. The top two teams will present with local angel investment group Centennial Investors, and the top two student teams will be part of the CLIMB Pitch Competition.
Although there were only three prize winners, 19 business ideas came out of the weekend. Jed Ramsey pitched Take Me to Work, which would match potential employers with potential employees for a day-long co-working experience to help both parties find either employees or an employer. Ramsey recently moved from Colorado to Columbia and has been impressed with what he’s found.
“Since being here I’ve seen this incredible community that fosters entrepreneurship,” Ramsey told Silicon Prairie News.
The event had 130 participants, 25 mentors, 10 organizers and five judges. A total of 32 sponsors ranging from local businesses to the Mountain View, Calif.-based Zapier, which won the competition two years ago, helped make the event possible. Watch the final presentations on the event’s Ustream page.
Organizer Heidi Fuhrman said she was pleased with this year’s turnout.
“I feel like we can really sense how the community is creating its own energy,” Fuhrman said. “Startup Weekend has found a rhythm here in Columbia.”
Final Presentation Ideas
•Garage Sale Countdown
•COMO Sports
•Time Kit JS
•Take Me to Work
•You’ll Look Famous
•AdTrumpet
•Gauntlet Initiative
•Team Kazoo
•Shining Light Media
•Lift Logger
•Life Stories
•Charity Dares
•Smart Visit
•Deal Bolt
•Nudge
Credits: Photo by Sarah Darby.
