Sounds too good to be true? Well, the world’s most innovative companies are backing the idea. Google has named Startup Weekend as one of its first partners of the new program Google for entrepreneurs, Microsoft has been a main sponsor on different occasions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $250,000 to a Startup Weekend series of events.
Startup Weekend was founded by Silicon Valley legend Andrew Hyde in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado. His goal was to bring entrepreneurs and supporters together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch companies, all in 54-hour crash-course weekend.
More than 45,000 people have already attended a startup weekend event, where the main goal is not only to test if a business idea is viable but also to meet people with complementary skills and learn new skills. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have design or technical backgrounds and the other 50% have business backgrounds. According to organizers, more than 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still up and running after 3 months and about 80% of participants affirm they plan on continuing working with their startup or team after the weekend.
Key elements of any Startup Weekend are speeches and classes by guests who serve as mentors. Dr. Pano Kroko, described by Techcrunch as a “legendary entrepreneur, Angel, VC and PE investor in innovation towards solving big problems” left the i7 summit that took place in a 19th century Château in Chantilly - where the CEO France of Airbnb and Eyeka were present - and went straight to Paris to give the keynote opening speech on "Innovation for Big Solutions" to the group of 43 participants from all over the world.
Dr. Kroko, author of Brain software, environmental leader and cognitive scientist inspired students:
Rather than focusing on building the next Instagram or any other useless app, focus on what really matters. The next billionaires will solve our world’s most urgent needs.How can you accept to live in a world where 2.5 billion people or 37% percent of the world’s population live in extreme poverty!? Solve the world’s real problems, create tools to fundamentally transform people’s lives, and you will be financially compensated. Dream! Be ambitious and focus on what really matters. Reach for the stars and do well by doing good! Today’s metaphysics is tomorrow’s Physics.
To achieve the stars, Dr. Kroko affirmed it is mandatory to first get out of your comfort zone. He shared what Steve Jobs told him many years ago, “The most important year of my life was spent in India. To discover America, I had first to go Asia.”
Dr Kroko counseled on how our brain works, offering his healthy bit of Brain Software for entrepreneurs and innovators by telling students the three commandments that must be followed to build a scalable business in any domain:
1st -“Know thy product” – Focus on the needs your product fullfills and don’t try to be everything to everyone.
2nd -“Know thy market” - Understand what people need, what they want and why. Be sure you know what your competitors are up to and how they are perceived by the market.
3rd – “Know thyself” - Be aware of your main strengths and weaknesses and come up with a strategy that will allow you to spend the largest amount of your time doing what you do the best.
Participants were inspired by Dr. Kroko’s counsels on how our brain works and his healthy bit of Brain Software. Edouard Foussier, Co-organizer of DrinkEntrepreneurs, a network of entrepreneurs’ informal meetups gathering every first Thursdays worldwide: “We came here because we just want to create our own companies. But listening the passionate speech of Pano Kroko made me remember that I won’t settle until I change the world.”
The winner of the startup weekend or what I like to call “54-hours entrepreneur marathon” was Ambrosia, a controversial startup that wants to sell insects as food and aims to kick off by targeting children. They claim that insect-based food is not only tasty but also rich in protein. Sounds like a debatable plan? Well, it seems that Ambrosia is following a recognized trend. In fact, in 2010 the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation stated that insects are vital to meeting the nutritional needs of the world's growing population. Created by a group of four French students - 2 designers, 1 marketing and 1 business student- Ambrosia hopes insect food will help to fight starvation and also reduce greenhouse emissions.
On the same token, professor and entomologist Marcel Dicke, the head of the world’s first university center focusing on insects as a food source, told Wired magazine: "The most important thing is getting people prepared, getting used to the idea. Because from 2020 onwards, there won't be much of a choice for us."
If you are interested in insects as food, contact Alexandre Kournwsky, co-founder of Ambrosia or Wageningen University, which has a four year program designed to produce scientific and business research on the subject.
Other startups created:
La Petite Charlotte: A group of Italian and French students, led by Benjamin Antier, who lived in Shanghai for a year, plans to import affordable electric motorcycles from China to Paris.
Veggies on Tables, focuses on: reduction of food waste, promotion of local business and support of humanitarian projects. Their goal: fight food waste at the first level of production and offer healthy food at an affordable price.
Are these startups here to stay or was it just a weekend adventure? Will they cause an impact? Time will tell us. However, I like when brilliant young people follow Dr. Kroko’s advices and “spend their time focusing on solving the world’s most urgent needs rather than trying to get rich quickly by inventing another useless app or just another soulless product.”
Paris startup scene is booming. Recently, there was also a Startup Weekend at HEC, organized by Margaux Pelen, founder of Home’n’go, and a team of students in the campus of one of the most prestigious French business schools. 80 participants gathered on Friday night and pitched their 12 startup projects on Sunday afternoon, only 54 hours after they had met for the first time. They were supported by coaches like Mehdi Medjaoui, founder of Webshell.io, who helped participants with its platform for web and mobile app development. “We were impressed by the big ambitions of participants. One even wanted to develop 3d printing for chocolate! There were lots of business and technical challenges to make a MVP (minimum viable product) in such a limited amount of time but some succeeded!” Philipp Nagelein, member of the Kairos Society, entrepreneur, and business student, told me that his favorite idea in the HEC Startup weekend was FEEL – a mobile application that allows you to tag locations with emotions and to share them with your friends. It will be interesting to watch this concept come to life because it has a great potential to enhance our everyday use of technology with a truly emotional component.
