Startup Weekend Brisbane 2019. Fifty-Four hours to launch a startup. Ready, Set and Go!
River City Labs hosted one of Australia’s largest Startup event over the weekend. More than 130 attendees gathered at River City Labs to take part in three days over the weekend ( February 15 - 17 ) of business creation. River City Labs welcomed over 90 participants and 48 ideas pitched culminating in 10 teams formed.
This year, Startup Weekend Brisbane 2019 welcomed Daniel Johnsen to facilitate the 54 hour long event. Daniel is a globally connected entrepreneur and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and has hosted over 40+ Startup Weekend events around the world.
“Without question I would put the Brisbane entrepreneurs up against innovators around the world. The emerging entrepreneurs that spent the weekend learning, validating and building new businesses are the ones to watch and support as they launch their current startup or whatever is next” said Johnsen.
Peta Ellis CEO at River City Labs said “One of the reasons we host events like this, is to encourage people to act on their ideas, we bring together developers, designers, creatives and like-minded people to take part in something fun yet also purposeful”
“It’s positive to see the cycle of talent in our ecosystem, with some members from the winning team Open Mike, who were once members of RCL-Accelerator #BNE3” from team MathMate”.
Teams worked on their ideas on Saturday, gathering data, validating their assumptions by talking to potential customers and creating business models ready for presentation on the Sunday evening to a panel of four judges:
Colin Kinner - Founder Startup Onramp
Professor Rowena Barrett - Executive Director QUT Entrepreneurship Initiative
Jasmine Robertson - Founder Roza’s Gourmet
Yasmin Grigaliunas - Founder World’s Biggest Garage Sale
Startup Weekend Brisbane 2019 judge, Yasmin Grigaliunas said;
“Being a judge at Startup Weekend was an experience like no other. From the high highs and energy of the passionate teams pitching, to the challenge of having to choose a top 3 from a strong field, I found the whole night a blast! One of the highlights for me was having a team chase me down proactively on the night for feedback. This was a team that didn't finish in the Top 3, however, they didn't let that deter them from the hustle and desire to continually improve and seek further feedback to evolve their product. For me, this is what Startup Weekend is all about”.
Open Mike an idea about utilising your smartphone on the spot as a microphone at events ( solving the problem of passing a microphone around the room ) took out 1st place at this year’s Startup Weekend Brisbane 2019.
Final placings for Startup Weekend Brisbane 2019:
1st Place - Open Mike
Open Mike gives the audience a voice at large events. We turn smartphones into microphones.
2nd Place - Cloval
Cloval.co is a socially conscious online marketplace. We are the Amazon for the socially conscious consumer.
3rd Place - Workeroo
A solution addressing the underutilisation of skilled migrants in Australia.
About River City Labs
River City Labs fosters the growth of startup companies wanting to solve big problems. We provide resources to empower, support and connect entrepreneurs. Central to everything we do is a focus on collaboration and connection.
Since 2012 over 700 entrepreneurs have called RCL home. Through our events program we have welcomed more than 29,000 guests into our community by hosting over 1000 events aimed at supporting founders on their entrepreneurship journey.
River City Labs powers a range of programs, events and engagement opportunities, enabling our corporate partners to innovate differently and embed their teams within the start-up community.