Small Business Column: Start-up Weekend

Kehlan Kirwan looks at Limerick’s 54-hour start-up experience and says it’s a must for anyone looking to go into business.

Just 54 hours to come up with an idea, pitch it, show how it would work, and pitch it again.

That was the task ahead for a group of 30 people gathered at the Nexus Innovation Centre at the University of Limerick.

I didn’t quite know what to expect. Starting a business in 54 hours sounds like madness.

It was madness. The pure unbridled madness that comes from the minds of people who have ideas and the conviction to act upon them.

Start-up Weekend was developed in the US as a way for entrepreneurs and possible entrepreneurs to move quickly on business ideas and see if they could be validated into genuine start-up businesses.

It has grown into a global phenomenon and this year alone has seen the Start-up Weekend take place in over 700 cities, involving more than 125,000 people.

Friday evening saw everybody arrive, and after pizza and coffee they were prepared to face the challenges of what was to come.

If you had an idea for a start-up you came up in front of the group and you pitched it.

The energy in the room was palpable, and the fact that Limerick had Ireland’s highest number of people pitching throughout the weekend speaks volumes of that energy.

So with those ideas pitched to the audience, only six would get the opportunity to follow them through.

Getting votes for your start-up was no mean feat either.

Nothing as boring as counting hands up in the room was going to be good enough. To get votes you had five minutes to mingle among the crowd and convince people to give you their vote.

You had to hustle yourself and your start-up.

The object of the exercise wasn’t merely votes of course, it as to show how much you really believed in your idea. How much do you want this?

With votes cast, six ideas were transformed from the minds of their owners to start-up businesses. But now you needed a team to help you.

Time to hustle again. People who didn’t pitch were also there to help.

Developers, programmers, marketers and mentors also donated their time over the weekend to help the start-ups turn into workable businesses.

But it wasn’t all about work over the weekend. Many of the participants socialised together too, and a bond developed, with many connections made .

Saturday morning and at breakfast it was clear that the intensity was undimmed.From 8.30am the plans were unravelled to make the start-ups a workable business.

That meant developing a basic app inside 24 hours or creating health food recipes and getting them packaged in the same amount of time.

If you didn’t deal well under pressure, then this weekend was not for you.

The point of the weekend was to act upon ideas, not wonder about them.

Throughout the day the comings and goings of people were getting ever more frantic.

Yours truly was roped into creating a 60-second video pitch for one of the teams.

Recorded, edited and done inside 45 minutes. It’s amazing what can be done when you know a clock is counting down.

By the end of Saturday the tables were stacked with coffee cups and a new decorative wallpaper had sprung up around the room.

Schedules, ideas, work practices, coding advice and even motivational quotes had become the new ‘must-have’ interior design look for the Nexus Centre.

It wasn’t just people who donated their time and energy.

Bank of Ireland, Scribbles Food, and Supermacs had come forward to support the event.

Considering that this was the first event of its kind in the city of Limerick, it lent an air of solidity to it.

It was a gamble, but without them the event may not have happened. Businesses helping businesses, no matter how seemingly small or big, can make all the difference.

Sunday came around and the energy grew even bigger.

Today was the day for pitching to determine the winners.

Although it seems unfair and clichéd to say that everybody was a winner, it seems quite apt.

Many people start a business over years.

Six groups laid the foundation for a business in less than four days.

A few months ago I wrote a column for this newspaper about whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Here was my answer in real life.

Entrepreneurs have a spark that you can’t find in a book.

So with nerves well and truly on edge, the groups were given presentation tips.

By 4.30pm they were 30 minutes away from pitching to three judges who would determine the final outcome.

Considering that many of them were pitching for the first time, it was remarkable how collected they were.

So the judges moved away into another room and began deliberating. After a lengthy discussion and intense debate, the judges came back.

The overall winner of the weekend would be Head Food — convenience health food for travellers on the go.

They went to the lengths of getting their product made and labelled to give to the judges. The extra mile is always worth going.

So the weekend was over, but it certainly won’t be the last one in Limerick. Already there is talk of another Startup Weekend for Limerick in early 2015, with possible participants and mentors already putting their names down. That is what sums the weekend. No talk, all action.