From November 9th through the 19th, several teams from all over the world competed in more than 130 Startup Weekends. A winner from each was crowned and uploaded their videos, and now hope to get your votes. In the Philippines, there was the Startup Weekend in Davao and Cebu, and out of the many teams that joined, “My Startup Academy” emerged as the top winner.
My Startup Academy bested 13 other pitches during a presentation last Sunday at the University of San Jose-Recoletos Basak Campus at the Startup Weekend in Cebu. Although judges said the idea had a weaker business model compared with some of those pitched, SWC 2 judge and ClickingLabs president and co-founder Jean-Patrick Bisson said that if the idea is executed and evaluated well, it could become an excellent product.
Michie Ang, leading the team that developed the web service, said “My Startup Academy” is a place where startups can get guidance from the community and experienced mentors. The web service will provide tools that start-ups need to build, thrive and succeed in the industry. This will also allow startups to learn from people and companies “who have been there, done it and made it.”
“The momentum suddenly drops after the 54-hour activity and this is something that we should address,” said Ang during her five-minute presentation before a panel of judges. She said the web service is helpful in a way that it will help expand knowledge of startups in terms of entrepreneurship and technology. It will also help bridge startups to mentors and angel investors. “The goal of the team is to build more successful startups that can boost our economy and build more opportunities for everybody,” she said.
My Startup Academy” won a six-month free physical incubation at the University of the Philippines, on top of other prizes. Ang, who is from Manila, brought in a team she met from various Startup Weekend activities. Brian Bibat, Franz Sarmiento and Rubilyn Santa Cruz make up the technical team while Maie Bauza and Rochelle de Leon handle the marketing side.
Zachary Cohn, bootcamp director/ hacker relations of Startup Weekend Headquarters in Seattle was impressed at how Startup Weekend activities are making an impact in the Philippines. Cohn who facilitated Startup Weekend in Davao last Nov. 9-11 and Startup Weekend Cebu 2 last Nov. 16-18 said ideas pitched by participants are “at par” with the pitches in other countries. “Ideas are quite similar but the important thing is how to get things done and make people keep learning through the experience,” he said. Cohn believes Startup Weekend is a great way to accelerate the growth of the entrepreneurial communities. He said if it can achieve a critical mass by getting people involved the rest of the infrastructure will happen.
“Accelerators and incubators will pop up. More angels and venture capitalists will start investing. Infrastructure itself such as faster internet connection, will improve as there is an increase in demand. Once it’s obvious that there is opportunity, universities may even start changing their curriculum to help better prepare students for starting their own companies instead of working for someone else,” said Cohn.
The prizes are crazy awesome, so be sure to support the team you think deserves it. The winning team at the Global Startup Battle will have the chance to earn $15,000 worth of startup support services, VIP plane tickets to Rio de Janiero for the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Congress on March 18-21 and to the San Francisco for the VIP tour of Googleplex.
Let us vote for the Philippines entry to the Global Startup Battle: “My Startup Academy” – a web service that aims to guide startups in developing their ideas.
Global Startup Battle is in its second year and this year has doubled in size from 67 events to 130. Last year’s Global Startup Battle champion, AfterShip, launched a service for e-commerce merchants and buyers that provides live notifications for customers and gives merchants the opportunity to personalize their shipments with up-to-date messages that bolster customer service capabilities. The winner of this year’s Global Startup Battle will be announced the first week of December.
AfterShip launched an e-commerce platform for merchants and buyers that provided live notifications for shipments. Earlier this summer, it already raised a seed round from Australia’s Business Switch with an undisclosed sum.
AfterShip helps online stores to auto track packages and notify their customers of the latest delivery status with a simple one-time setup. Without knowing the tracking number, customers always know where the package is. Learn more at http://www.aftership.com . You may follow them on Twitter: @aftership and on Facebook: http://facebook.com/aftership
https://apps.facebook.com/offerpop/Contest.psp?c=233376&u=50788&a=202991206406825&p=5510679098&v=Entry&id=v6460&rest=1
You may check out the My Startup Academy website: http://www.mystartupacademy.org . You may follow them on Twitter: @mystartupacadem or their Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/MyStartupAcademy
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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