Trinidad Startup Weekend ends- Who’s in The Winner’s Circle ?

We skipped reporting on Day 2 of Trinidad Startup Weekend because well, everybody’s head was down in a laptop or tablet getting things done!

So fast forward to the winner’s Circle. Everyone wants to know who won! But first let’s look at the 16 ideas that made the finals of the first Trinidad Startup Weekend which was held on May 22-24th, 2013 on the University of the West Indies St Augustine campus.

The 16 teams and their ideas.

1. Lehwefundit.-A crowdfunding platform for the Caribbean.Time to fund our creative Caribbean startups.

2. Taski a Mobile app Solution to solve the traffic problem by hiring a car via phone.

3.  LimeQuest – The gamification of travel for Trinidad and the Caribbean,

4. nDuna -a transaction exchange portal for investing n gifting to SMEs.

5. West Indies Augmented Reality -To revolutionize the regional advertising industry using Augmented Reality to change the way consumers connect and engage with brands.

6. Entrepeers–An online community for Entrepreneurs

7.  SmartUnit -wants to fix the problem of wasted energy consumption with smart unit.

8. Choose Good – helps Non-Governmental Organisations and Non-Profit Organisations (NGOs) find resources, recruit volunteers and collaborate with other NGOs.

9.  Bambu -a marketplace for car parts in Trinidad.

10. CaribeCouture- a marketing platform and marketplace for Caribbean fashion designers.

11.  Gia- a personalized interest-based travel site for T&T and the Caribbean.

12. DigiPros – Where the Apple Store meets Bhagwansinghs. Changing the way designers and manufacturers integrate electronics into their products.

13. Publicmine- Helps corporations, media outlets and end users to illustrate their world through the power of Big Data and Information Design.

14. TnT Expedition -A tourism based-app that helps tourists and locals alike find activities and places of interest in Trinidad and Tobago.

15. Doubles Tycoon-A mobile gaming app that tests  your speed at which you can order a doubles from a Trinidadian vendor.

16. Hyperion Nanotechnology Services – selling a liquid for the shipping industry that helps them save money and time from cleaning under the boats with a green and safe solution.

The Judges
Brian Mac Farlane -Design Master and Conceptual Artist
Denise-Margaret Thompson, PhD -Professor, Centre for Production Systems, UTT
Kevin Khelawan – Co-Founder/COO, Teleios Systems
Kerwyn Valley – CEO KCL Capital Market Brokers Limited
Darcel de Vlugt – Fashion Designer/Editor

The Judging Criteria

One of our primary goals is to ensure that we not only draw a dynamic range of participants  (Developers, Designers, and Business)

The new criteria is split into four parts:

1. Business Model
   Can this idea make money? Is there positive customer growth or revenue? Is there a customer acquisition / rollout strategy? Has a revenue model been defined and is it realistic? Is the idea/team ready for capital and execution? Would you invest in this company at this point?
2. Customer Validation
   Did the team identify customers (demographic, location etc)? Did the team get out and talk to customers? What is the value proposition to customers? What channels of communication are used? Product/Market fit?
3. Technical – Execution
   Is there a functional product (e.g.in the case of an app, did they build one)? Were architecture diagrams and API signatures included? Which services did they integrate with? How much of the product is running on a real server with non-sample data?
4. Design – Execution
   Does it have a professional look and feel? Does it deliver a compelling and captivating user experience? Is it memorable? What key insights were gathered over the weekend to go in this creative direction?

Each team at @swtrinidad were given 5 mins to pitch and 3 mins to answer judges questions.

Then the Winners

 1st Place:  Gia-A personalized interest–graph based travel site for T&T and the Caribbean.

2nd Place:  Doubles Tycoon – A mobile gaming app that tests  your speed at which you can order a doubles from a Trinidadian vendor.

3rd Place: Publicmine- Helps corporations, media outlets and end users to illustrate their world through the power of Big Data and Information Design.

Trinidad Startup Weekend was attended by 175 people, had 117 participants with initially 57 pitches that then become 16 final ideas and teams. In the end the Top 3 were named and all were declared the proverbial winners  for having gone through that gruelling and exciting 54hr process of taking an idea to a startup. What are you waiting on to STARTUP?!

Photos of Day 1 & Day 3 on our Facebook Page.