This weekend in Columbia Missouri hundreds of talented would-be entrepreneurs gathered to compete in Missouri Startup Weekend – a business formation contest.
Missouri Startup Weekend evolved from Columbia Startup Weekend, and a TechStars event before that. The competition sticks to its roots by rallying potential founders with a problem and possible solution to pitch their idea to a room full of hundreds of talented people. From scores of ideas, and a ruthless process of elimination, the list is winnowed down to around a dozen teams – this year, 11 – and the founders then turn to everyone in the room and recruit people with needed skills to launch a startup.
Sarah Hill, Healium CEO
“The organizers have created such a wonderful event,” Missouri Startup Weekend mentor, and Healium CEO Sarah Hill told bizblip. “Startup Weekend makes everybody feel valued and we see their energy as they test the value of an idea.”
Working around the clock, and hitting some benchmark activities to show their work, the teams then pitch on Sunday night in hopes of getting some money and a chance for funding.
“Two billion dollar companies, Zapier and EquipmentShare, came from this competition,” said Brett Calhoun, organizer and General Partner at Redbud VC. “We have mentors, billion dollar operators, investors from all over the place… as well as judges who have raised millions of dollars.”
The winning teams are:
3rd Place: Finch Interactive – $1K cash, gift card basket
2nd Place: Music Den – $3K cash, gift card basket
1st Place: SolvTax – $15K cash, potential $150K investment, plus many services
You can watch the pitch videos from all 11 teams that competed, HERE.
David Beach, lead team member for SolvTax, tells bizblip he’s going to dive into growing this company with the prize money. No word, yet, on the possible $150K investment.
“We need ways to collaborate better… (along) the I-70 corridor from St. Louis, through Columbia, to Kansas City,” said Claire Kinlaw, Executive Director of the largest venture conference in the Midwest, InvestMidwest (which is in Kansas City next week). “Tiny ecosystems need to pull together in some kind of three-dimensional fabric… across the state (to) collaborate with people who are doing interesting things for startups and investors.”
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