learn different languages<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The event kicks off with participants pitching their ideas before forming teams to build on these ideas. By Sunday, the teams should be able to demonstrate their prototypes to a judging panel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A winning team is then selected on factors including level of innovation, community benefit and business model strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis grassroots event brings together talented people with different skill sets and puts them in a pressure cooker environment,\u201d NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternationally, over 36% of Startup Weekend start-ups have still been going strong after three months and about 80% of participants plan on continuing to work with their team or start-up after the weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Black described the event as \u201copen ended\u201d, saying it\u2019s ultimately what you make it. Ironically, he attended Startup Weekend with no intention of staying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI showed up on Friday intending to watch and listen. I was just going to go home \u2013 I hadn\u2019t even thought about pitching my idea. My intention was just to get some sort of validation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Black pitched his idea in the initial 60-second timeframe but didn\u2019t expect it to be chosen as one of the ideas that would form the basis for a start-up. When asked to assemble teams, about 10 people gravitated towards Black.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe assembled our team, indentified ourselves and our strengths, and made a to-do list. I then let my team work on things as they needed to and we would reassemble every hour to check in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Black believes his team won because \u201cwe\u2019re solving a problem \u2013 the idea demonstrates a good ethos and pathos\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He says the service will initially be rolled out across schools in Sydney but he plans to take it \u201cas far as I possibly can\u201d and is hopeful his team will stay on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no better way to interview someone than to watch them work tirelessly on something for 48 hours \u2013 that\u2019s someone I would love to have on board full-time, so I would cherish the fact that they would want to stay with me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For other start-ups considering attending a Startup Weekend, Black says it\u2019s definitely worth it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be very scary putting your idea into someone else\u2019s hands and saying, can you help me with this? But an idea is worth nothing until it has validation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An online resource for teachers has been named the winner of the first Startup Weekend Sydney, beating more than 80<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,11,1,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}