Startup Weekend Hamilton 4 – Sunday
Startup Weekend Hamilton 4 (@starthamilton) wrapped up yesterday, concluding the biggest and best ever Startup Weekend Hamilton!
The full line-up of teams consisted of…
Gaggle
ILoveMyPussyCat
Mind Erva – @MindErvaCanada
Q-Health – @QHealthStartup
Say Hey
Split Ideas – @Split_Ideas
Urban Treasures
The winning teams were…
1st place – Q-Health
2nd place – Say Hey
3rd place (tie) – Gaggle and Rentoku
Honourable mention – Urban Treasures
Across the first three Startup Weekend Hamilton events we saw a steady increase in the quality of startups coming out of them. At the first event almost 3 years ago now it was evident that our community was inexperienced, and by the 3rd event there was a noticeable difference.
The best thing about this weekend was that the trend continued. The teams were stronger than in the past, made up of mixtures of Hamiltonians with all kinds of different day jobs, McMaster students and Mohawk students, as well as people from out of town (including a Niagara contingent). The teams executed better on validation and prototyping than in the past and it showed during their end of weekend presentations. Hopefully the teams continue to go beyond the weekend together, as many teams have the nucleus to make it worthwhile.
This event featured some new things – an expert panel that startups spoke with on Saturday to get feedback on their ideas, and an after party at Stonewalls. Both of which were a big hit. The expert panel in particular is something that should be duplicated at all Startup Weekend events, and may even make sense as an event unto itself. The venue, food and speakers were all wonderful.
The new set of organizers – Larissa Drobot (La_Rissa_D), Chad Fullerton (@chad_fullerton), Alex Pineda (@alexpineda77), Nicholas Ivanecky and Nathan Jervis (@mirhagk) – all deserve a big pat on the pack from the local community for the work they put into this event! As a former organizer that stayed on to “advise” for this event, they really cared a lot about making this event something special, and it showed in how they focused on and worked hard at getting every little detail right.
Check out coverage of the event in The Hamilton Spectator here.
