Gold Coast Innovation Hub hosts Techstars Startup Weekend

With over 40 innovators participating, Techstars Startup Weekend was a huge success! 

This year Gold Coast Innovation Hub were able to support Techstars Startup Weekend as a venue sponsor, hosting over 40 innovators from Gold Coast, Northern NSW and even a couple of Sydney-siders who brought their ideas to life in front of their peers and judges. 

Gold Coast has been a home for Techstars Startup Weekends for several years already with great success stories coming out of them. One of the prominent ones is Little Phil  founded by Joshua Murchie, a platform that uses blockchain technology to radically transform charity giving.

On Friday night the Gold Coast Innovation Hub’s event centre was filled with bright entrepreneurs eager in just 54 hours to create a real company. Over the course of the weekend they got an opportunity to experience the highs, lows, fun and pressure that make up life at a startup. Knowing that they will be immersed in the ideal environment for startup magic to happen, over 20 participants pitched their idea on stage for the chance of being selected as final 5 ideas that would be developed over Saturday and Sunday. 

The 5 ideas selected were Mr Ed, an audible tool that makes betting easier through hands-free betting; Puretopia, an easy way to source a water filter for your shower to help reduce toxins; Kumbayaa, a skills bartering platform; Spiral Fit, a virtual personal trainer for those that are recovering from injury that can help motivate you to get back to your healthy active self; I Can Learn, an education website that teaches kids how to code through high engagement and gamification. 

With the best tools, approaches and mentors advice at their disposal, the teams worked non-stop across Saturday and Sunday, working on product development, validation and creating a pitch deck. The convenient location of the Gold Coast Innovation Hub with its proximity to Robina Town Center and busy Robina CBD made customer validation extremely efficient and easy. 

Teams working on their ideas have had a visit from a special guest, the newly appointed Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Leanne Kemp sharing her 20+ years experience in the tech sector with multiple successful exits to both International and Public Listed companies. 

On the final day of the Startup Weekend teams pitched their ideas in front of 3 judges – Dan Norris, a serial entrepreneur, award-winning content marketer, international speaker and the author of 4 number 1 Amazon best selling business books and a co-founder of Black Hops Brewing; Steve Dalton, an Engineer, Entrepreneur & Technology Mentor, founder of Gold Coast Techspace and startup Refactor; and Samantha Kennedy, Telecommunications industry leader with over 26 years of management consulting and industry experience.

So who took home prizes provided by Startup Weekend sponsors AWS and Media 8 of an Amazon Alexa smart home device and 1 year access to the podcast studio located at the Gold Coast Innovation Hub? 

The winner was ‘I can Learn’ with it’s awesome 13 year old founder!

Congratulations to all participants and thank you to incredible judges, mentors and sponsors. The Gold Coast innovation Hub team is looking forward to hosting more innovative workshops and events on its premises, bringing brightest innovations from all over the country and all over the globe. 

Looking for a space to host your next business event? Check out Gold Coast Innovation Hub. With training and meeting rooms, an event centre with capacity for over 150 people, its own cafe and catering facilities we are able to meet all your needs for your next function.

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