Last weekend was the first Baltimore StartupWeekend Edu, a 54-hour entrepreneurship competition. StartupWeekends take place every weekend in 90 countries and 300 cities around the world. StartupWeekend Edu is an offshoot of the original Startup Weekend program with a specific focus on innovative technology related to education. Both brands share a similar structure and goal: pitch ideas, form teams, and launch a startup in just 54 hours before presenting the final pitch to a panel of judges.
On Friday night, nearly 75 educators, developers, designers, and business experts gathered in the offices of Advertising.com in Locust Point to embark on the 54 hour journey. About half of the participants lined up to pitch an idea to the room. All of the ideas were posted around the room on chart paper and each participant was given three Post-Its with which to vote on the pitches. The eight pitches that had gathered the most Post-It votes were selected as the startups to develop and launch during the weekend.
After the top eight pitches were announced, participants engaged in a sort of startup speed-dating activity, during which they formed teams with (ideally) a mix of educators, developers, designers, and business experts. Team sizes ranged from 2-12 people with a variety of different skill sets. Upon formation, teams got to work by delving deeper into the problem and mapping out their solution. Everyone worked furiously until they were kicked out of the space at 11:30pm: “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Teams reconvened bright and early over coffee and croissants the next morning, refreshed and ready to get to work. Most teams worked for 12-15 hours on Saturday, then caught a few hours of rest before the final hours of work time on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, coaches – current and former entrepreneurs – circulated throughout the space to help teams work through tough questions. How will you validate your product? Is this a solution that customers want? Are you sure? Did you ask them? Will they pay for this solution? How much? How do you know?
Khalid Rudo Smith, one of the international organizers of StartupWeekened Edu and the co-founder of LessonCast, lives in Baltimore and originally pitched LessonCast at a StartupWeekend Edu in 2010. On Sunday evening, Smith revealed that he brought StartupWeekend Edu home to Baltimore with a mix of trepidation and excitement – wondering if the event would live up to the hype, but intimately familiar with the potential for innovation in his home community. Throughout the weekend, Smith served as master of ceremony, coached teams, and advised the other coaches.
On Sunday night, the judges arrived to judge the final pitches, which included a dashboard tool for monitoring college admission and scholarship deadlines, a maker registry to connect educators with local makers, a tool to unblock educational sites blocked by the school district’s web filter, an app for learning students’ names, and a platform for searching for and organizing educational videos.
The third place team was BmoreHeard, a web platform for Baltimore City students to voice their opinions to local officials and politicians, pitched and led by Baltimore City student Keimmie Booth. In addition to a cash prize, judge Chris Tonjes, CIO of Baltimore City, offered the services of Baltimore City’s IT department to build a fully functional version of the site.
The second place team was CourseFly, a dashboard for college course registration that also displayed relevant information like the courses required for graduation, number of credits needed to graduate, and current GPA.
The first place team was Challenge Box, a literal box packaged with an interactive, multi-platform, choose-your-own-adventure story and materials for hands-on physical challenges.
The event was hosted and sponsored by Advertising.com in Locust Point and was also locally sponsored by MindGrub and Digital Harbor Foundation.
