This weekend, while most Gold Coasters were out and about in the sunshine, 62 innovators were bunkered down at the Queensland TAFE Creative Campus in Coomera with a team of business mentors and experts, taking their concepts for new businesses from idea to reality.
On Friday night, 93 participants and onlookers filled the auditorium, where facilitator Baden U’ren guided them through the format for an evening that would see 25 new business ideas presented, and 10 of those ideas selected to work on over the weekend.
On Saturday and Sunday, 12 mentors helped the teams of participants to develop their business ideas into new startup businesses and at 5pm on Sunday, 7 finalist teams pitched to a panel of 5 judges which evaluated them on their business model, customer validation, execution, and design.
The judging panel included Llew Jury from Sprint Ventures, Lauren Capelin from Startmate, Rick McIlhinney from Gold Coast Angels, Debby Lo-Dean from Gold Coast Innovation Hub and Danny Maher from 42 Ventures – all experienced investors and entrepreneurs that know how to spot a global opportunity, even when it is only 54hrs old!
The finalist teams were:
Hello Good World – Helping consumers make a difference and create a better world with every purchase via a certification and online marketplace.
Booksports – Casual sport reimagined. An online marketplace of sport providers such as sport venues, personal trainers and sport activities that can be joined and utilised by recreational players.
Agri ERP – A platform to help farmers determine the harvest time for crops based on weather and soil data and manage the recruitment of pickers.
Edit On The Spot – Technology that allows video capture to be edited while you are filming, saving time and money.
Doge Care – A platform that connects people who want the love of a dog with dog owners.
Geobase – Reducing the cost of soil testing by automating the gathering and analysis of soil test data.
Monke – A VR game for kids to laugh and learn about the appropriate way to behave at the dinner table with the perfect host, a monkey.
And the top business for the weekend was……..EDIT ON THE SPOT!!
The team of 5 innovators from Edit on the Spot will now receive 10 hours of tailored advisory support under the Australian Small Business Advisory Service (ASBAS) program delivered by event sponsor, Business Station and passes to the Gold Coast Innovation Hub incubator space where they can continue to surround themselves with mentors and entrepreneurs that can assist them on their commercialisation journey.
Gold Coast Innovation Hub was proud to sponsor and organise Techstars Startup Weekend for its 8th year on the Gold Coast.
On behalf of all of the participants we would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the mentors and sponsors that contributed to the success of this wonderful event and to Queensland TAFE and Study Gold Coast for providing the venue and support to deliver the weekend under the #DIGITREK21 event showcase.
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