Participants pitch business ideas at city hall

Potential entrepreneurs had 54 hours to create a startup business this weekend.

At Startup Weekend Bloomington, participants put the final touches on their pitch presentations Sunday evening at Bloomington City Hall.

Startup Weekend is a global movement of entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures, according to its website startupweekend.org.

This is the fifth Startup Weekend in Bloomington, said Meghan Turner, organizer of Startup Weekend Bloomington.

The event is a 54-hour weekend of business model creation, coding, designing and market validation.

The weekend started with 31 pitches Friday, which was cut down to nine after a vote on which ideas would go through. Once the ideas were picked, participants formed groups around which idea interested them.

Groups spent the weekend developing their ideas, business models, how they will make money and customer validation, Turner said.

The weekend ended with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders.
Startup business Kick Ass Data Structures is a website that will help teach data structures to students, Albert Chung, Startup Weekend participant, said.

“At the moment, this is a study tool built for us and our classmates,” Chung said.
Coding 4 Kids is a program that will teach kids how to code, creator Kevin Tsoi said.

The group handed judges a demonstration of the program on iPads.

The program will address computer science illiteracy in the United States, he said. Coding 4 Kids is a unified platform on web and mobile for ages 8 to 13 that teaches concepts to empower children to be creators.

An app called Wait Worthy intends to make the wait for restaurants more
convenient.

The app is designed to allow customers to see the wait time of restaurants around them.

“Here in Bloomington and everywhere you go, if you want to go to a restaurant or any establishment there is going to be a wait time,” Sarah Hatteberg, a Startup Weekend participant, said. “Waiting is frustrating for everyone, and it’s a universal problem.”

Turner said networking is one of the most valuable aspects of the event.

Each team had five minutes to give their presentation in front of the judges.

Judges for the event were Travis Brown, director of strategic initiatives for IU, and Chris Martoglio, cofounder and CEO of Blue Burro.

Raymon Smith, engineer and organizer for Startup Weekend Bloomington, participated in a previous startup weekend.

“It gave me a much better understanding of what entrepreneurship is and what it takes to start a business,” Smith said.

Christian Leighton, a Startup Weekend Bloomington participant, said he got involved in the startup event because he is going to study business, and it taught him more about the market in Bloomington.

Leighton’s group aimed to start a brewery for those age 27 and up that focuses on quality beer and a good experience.

Startup Weekend gets people to the point where they can talk about start-ups, learn how to do it and possibly create the connections for something to come out of it, Turner said.

“The goal is to encourage startup connections in Bloomington,” Turner said.
 
Follow reporter Mary Hauber on Twitter @mary_hauber.