No Talk, All Action

Held at Mint College, McKinley Hill in Taguig City last 28-30 September 2012, the Startup Weekend Manila was a grueling 54 hours of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. Participants came from different backgrounds - developers, designers, business and marketing gurus, angel investors, venture capitalists, and technopreneurs. The event started Friday night with presentation of ideas in a form of one-minute pitch. The names of the idea were written in kraft paper. Those who would deliver the pitch were intense and nervous, I was one of them.

The Pitch

There is no exact formula but the rule of thumb is, you have to prepare a good pitch for the duration of one minute, no more, no less. A good one-minute pitch could be a liberating experience, expressing to the crowd that "hey, I have a great idea, join me, and let's make this work," or could possibly ruin, if it is not properly delivered, so, preparation is necessary. Remember the three Cs - clear, concise, complete. Emphasize why there is a need for the app, what will the app do, who are the people that you would want to be involved in, is it developers that you need? designers? marketing gurus? Be bold to speak in front of the crowd and ask for help.    

Right after the pitch, the organizers collected the names of the idea written in kraft paper and posted it in glass panels. This was the voting process where Startup Weekend participants placed their post-it notes to the startup idea that they liked. The idea should gather at least 10 votes to be able to qualify to the next round, meaning, form the team to enable the development of the app either in website or mobile platform pushed through. If you were not able to gather the required number of votes but still believed in your idea, you could still pursue it either by yourself or make a lot of convincing effort to have someone join you.

I got 21 votes for my startup idea - Blood Donors Network. Aside from Gerard Navarro, my colleague in the office, six developers from the Dynamic Objx had also joined in a quid pro quo agreement. The developers will help us code the app provided that we help them design their app called TULA or The Ultimate Laundry App. This is the quintessence of the startup weekend, helping each other develop the idea and make it materialized. We got our own nook which is called the Peppermint Room where there were bin bags and tables. We did the planning and workflow until 12 midnight so that we would have a head start the following morning.

The Development

Day 2 in the event. Participants started to arrive while I was having breakfast with the developers. Another hit at the Startup Weekend were the appetizing food and freshly brewed coffee. It is always something to look forward to in order to help fuel the minds and keep the senses awake. We were so fortunate to have the hard-core coders with us. They were very supportive in our app development, from building the workflow to coding. Gerard and I were as busy as them. Working every detail on the interface design of the app based on its logical workflow to the end users. It was really tedious and challenging process.

There were mentors in the event. Some asked questions while some provided constructive advice. Yet some would smack you right on your face by saying that your app will not work. It could be a debilitating experience but here is a good analogy, think of your app as a rock. That rock should undergo a lot of cuts from different angles, polishing, perfecting it, so that it would form into a valuable diamond. These cuts in a form of advises came from different angles, views, and cultures. As you progress in your app development, it would take its shape through these advises, polishing, perfecting it, so that in the end, would form into a valuable app.

The design and development were the focus of our work on the second day of the event. We had no marketing guy, so it is up to me and Gerard to come up with a business model while at the same time, working on the interface design of our app as well as the app of the other team. It is the adrenaline rush that made this event exciting and fun, holding onto that belief that we are developing a great app, which become the source of our motivation. Aside from the mentors, there were also members from the media and bloggers conducting interviews from the leaders of the participating teams. The experience of being interviewed was simply an ego booster. 

The Presentation

Day 3 in the event. Had breakfast with Karen, finance officer as well as member of I Should Have Been Informed team. Networking is another thing at Startup Weekend which definitely, be able to meet people coming from different professions. She was very much interested in our app, asking a lot. I could easily brisk through with her questions because I myself is a blood donor. I am advocating that blood should be a commodity because of the difficulty obtaining it during emergencies situations. I just realized towards the end of the event that some of the Startup Weekend participants had already branded me as the "Blood Guy".

The organizers had informed us that presentation would start at 5:30 PM sharp. It was crunch time and we could feel the pressure among our developers. Gerard and I were very impressed with Alvin's coding skills as he simply pushed the app in the android platform seeing our prototype taking its shape. I worked on the presentation slides and made sure that everything would be clear to the audience as well as to the judges. We were able to develop our marketing plan and had it incorporated into our presentation. This was the most intense part of the event and everybody were busy. As the presenter, it was actually double pressure for me. 

The actual presentation was 4 minutes with 1 minute Q&A from the judges. It was intense yet I had to overcome my fear in front of the 200+ audience at the venue as well as to those who were watching via live stream. It was the moment that I had to deliver the Blood Donors Network presentation clearly so that the concept would be properly communicated among the judges. It was again the most liberating experience that I was able to tell to the world The IDEA. The app did not make it to the eyes of the judges. I had no qualms and even very satisfied that I did it. We would continue developing the app and very optimistic to launch this worthwhile project.

The Mint College is just a stone's throw away
from Venice Piazza, McKinley Hill

Preparing the pitch

Ria Lu and Gerard Navarro

Startup Weekend participants listening to the pitches

Startup Weekend participants listening to the pitches

Delivering my pitch for the Blood Donors Network

Voting time

Startup ideas that were able to obtain more than 10 votes

The Blood Donors Network was able to gather 21 votes

The Dynamic Objx developers helping
on the Blood Donors Network app

Breakfast

Mr. Jonathan Lansangan mentoring the TULA team

Busy working on the apps

With Gerard Navarro against
the Startup Weekend Manila 2012 backdrop

The TULA and Blood Donors Network teams

One more thing...

To the Startup Weekend Manila 2012 organizers, thank you so much guys! It was remarkable and we really had a great time. Looking forward to another Startup Weekend. How I missed the adrenaline rush.