Startup Weekend Sustainability

The second Techstars Startup Weekend event took place in Tampere on 20–22nd of September, but this year the theme of the event was “Sustainability”. Over a course of 54 hours developers, designers, business-minded people and sustainability enthusiast were working on startup ideas which enhance our economy, society and environment.

Startup Weekend is an event designed to provide superior experimental education for people who want to learn more about entrepreneurship and the ups and downs of founding a business. Beginning with Friday night, participants get 60 seconds to pitch their ideas to the crowd and try to recruit the best talent in the room. Continuing through brainstorming, business model development, and basic prototype creation, the Startup Weekend culminates in Sunday night demos and presentations, where teams present their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to a panel of expert judges, fellow participants and other guests. All teams hear talks by industry leaders and receive valuable feedback from local entrepreneurs and mentors. The weekend is centered around action, innovation, and education.

During the event 13 ideas were pitched and 7 were chosen, 12 mentors helped the teams to develop their ideas further, 5 judges and 2 speakers were also a part of the event. The ideas were as diverse as the talents in the room, ranging from solving an issue of dental care for disabled people to implementing a deposit system for cotton bags.

The winning teams of Techstars Startup Weekend Sustainability:

1st place: Charge Now. Application to ease the route planning and improve the charging experience for electric cars.

2nd place: Kitchen Heroes. Meal kit for sustainable food products.

3rd place: Dear Farmers. Platform to connect farmers and universities to improve farmers’ education.

The organizer team would like to thank all of the sponsors for helping to make this event happen: City of Tampere and STARDUST project, Business Tampere and Y-Kampus.