The CraftWig team came Sunday with custom T-shirts and left with a first-place finish at Startup Weekend Kansas City. Photo by Michael Stacy.
Behold the power of the T-shirt.
It was fitting in a way that CraftWig, the only team to don matching T-shirts for Startup Weekend Kansas City final demonstrations on Sunday, walked away from the bizperc office space as the winner of SWKC.
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CraftWig, an online community for crafters that offers in-depth tutorials, shopping lists, price comparison and sharing, finished first among the eight teams that participated in the 54-hour event. Call Me Meeting, a service that contacts the participants of conference calls without them having to dial in, took second. For the People, an avenue for citizens to provide local governments with instant notifications about civic concerns, rounded out the top three.
To be clear, attire alone didn’t push CraftWig over the top. But the T-shirts were a good representation of what CraftWig did to win Startup Weekend and what it will help its users do in the future: collaborate on a creative — dare we say crafty? — idea, and make it look awfully good.
Startup Weekend’s judges — Al Doan, Scott Mize, Jonathan George, James Clarke and Casey Copeland — gave CraftWig high marks for its low barrier to entry, its well-defined target market and a model that keeps costs minimal by relying heavily on user-generated content.
“I think we’re still sort of in shock and still sort of digesting it,” said Jennifer Hoyt, who along with Rebecca Katzer devised the idea for Craftwig.
Participating in their first Startup Weekend, Hoyt and Katzer came up with the idea on Thursday. By Sunday night, Hoyt, Katzer and their team had pitched a winning idea.
“We’ve gotten some good advice in just the last couple of minutes,” Hoyt said, “and, you know, need to process that and start planning.”
After CraftWig’s success at startup weekend, don’t be surprised if hand-made T-shirts somehow factor into the team’s future plans.
“It’s glitter paint,” Hoyt joked of the shirts. “That’s what always wins it.”
We have a short video interview with Hoyt and Katzer below. Come back soon on Silicon Prairie News for more interviews, photos and follow-up from Startup Weekend Kansas City, and check out other coverage of SWKC.
- Startup Weekend Kansas City blog: “Top Three Teams Of The Third Startup Weekend KC“
- Think Big Kansas City blog: “Startup Weekend Kansas City Results“
