What happens when you get the best and brightest young up and comers together with business leaders and innovators, like John Stix from Fibernetics? It turns out, some pretty cool stuff!
At the end of January, 100 plus of Canada’s top young entrepreneurs, mentors and advisers crammed themselves into a downtown corporate office at Startup Weekend Toronto and brainstormed, innovated and created with the goal of coming up with tech oriented products and services. A competition, it had the following parameters:
- Business Model – Customer Validation and acquisition strategy, Revenue model, Partnerships defined, Rollout strategy
- Technical – Is there a functional prototype (e.g.in the case of an app, did they build one)?
- Design – UX, Graphic design, Does it deliver a compelling and captivating user experience? What key insights were gathered over the weekend to go in the chosen creative direction?
- Social Value Proposition– What is the depth of the anticipated social impact for customers? What is the potential for the product/service to achieve a positive social impact at significant scale? Are there clear metrics and goals for measuring social impact over time? To what degree have social impact assumptions have validated?
John Stix mentoring
Boiled down, what they were after was, in just 54 hours, creating something that would change the world for the better.
They did,
And the winners were:
3rd Place
GivePlay | An online platform in the making for athletes and recreational players to easily find sport venues that fit their needs.
2nd Place
Spritely A Concierge service to preserve independence for senior citizens and improve their mental health.
1st Place
BuddyBench An online platform that move universities and colleges from mental health awareness to mental wellness. While other counselling services may offer 24/7 and anonymous access, BuddyBench removes the barriers of inconvenient and intimidating counselling.
We’ll be following their progress as they bring these innovative ideas to market. Thanks to all who participated, and John can’t wait for the next group of brilliant young minds set on changing the world for the better.
