Over 54 hours last weekend, 120 students competed in the Inter-University Startup Weekend with Clusy, an online platform that connects companies to freelancers that are either fitness instructors, beauticians or hair styling providers, claiming the top prize.
The weekend was the brainchild of three students from various entrepreneurial societies in Trinity, University College Dublin (UCD) and Dublin City University (DCU). On Friday evening, students listened to speeches by representatives from Startup Weekend and TechStars, two companies which regularly organise similar events. Gene Murphy, co-founder of Startup Ireland and a prominent figure in the Irish startup scene, spoke about the importance of startup culture and told students that this was their opportunity to make mistakes, not to take things seriously. The event, he said, was a safe space where no idea was wrong.
After the speeches had finished, 60 students presented their business ideas to the audience, with many having thought-through business plans that were created with the help of professional business plan writers (you can visit this url for more information on one’s services, for example) but this wasn’t a requirement. Participants were asked to vote on their favourite ideas with only 14 being selected. Each of the chosen 14 were joined by other participants who made unsuccessful pitches or simply did not pitch at all. These teams assigned one another roles, delegated tasks and began to create a plan for the next 48 hours.
Students worked from 9am until 10pm on Saturday to get their pitches together. Workshops and talks were held throughout the day before the final pitches were held on Sunday.
Rory Carter, Head of Youth Banking at Bank Of Ireland, Rafi Maniar, founder at Vipsy, Angela Duffy, Investor and Strategic Adviser at National Digital Research Centre and Gennadiy Nissenbaum, one of the organisers of the event and Export & Performance Sector Lead at Google were the judges for the weekend. First place consisted of a €1,000 prize and a place at TES Incubator. For second place €500 and a potential spot at TES Incubator was awarded and finally €300 for the third runner up.
First prize winners, Clusy, impressed with their belief that firms need to be clued in to their employees wellbeing needs and to the providers of appropriate services. They facilitate freelancers with advice on tax, how much to charge as well as a screening that makes them a quality checked service provider.
Cryptofund, the team that placed second, is an app that allows individuals and groups to invest in cryptocurrency with ease and maintain their investments in one place. Nex placed third with their idea of virtual business cards that operate through an app where users can scan a QR code to access accounts within the platform. The cards will contain LinkedIn information, phone numbers, email addresses and just about any other social platform users wish to share with their future contacts.
There was an additional €200 prize for the team with the best pitch and this prize went to Cellopack, an environmentally friendly packaging startup that creates their products from the cellulose in zucchini. They would offer real, organic packaging for produce wrappers and food containers.
