Startup Weekend Barcelona 2014: How It Went Down

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour beast designed to offer a hands-on, experimental education to technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.  It starts on a Friday night with brainstorming, recruiting and splitting up into teams.  The rest of the weekend is an all out sprint to create a business plan and make a prototype before the judges show up on Sunday at 5pm.  Mentors come and go throughout the weekend to offer their support and advice, but really it is the team that has to step up and build a viable business in 54 hours.  Here’s how it went down in BCN:

Startup Weekend Barcelona wrapped up yesterday as 12 teams and more than 100 entrepreneurs (30% coming from outside of Spain) competed for this year’s honor.  This wasn’t just some mess-around, “science fair”.  Real companies were actually created this weekend.  Last year’s event spawned TUTOtoons, which is growing fast as they create a video game platform for teacher’s and parents.  In 2010, Kantox came to life during Startup Weekend Barcelona and recently raised €6.5M to build the world’s largest P2P foreign exchange platform.

It’s no coincidence that CEO of Kantox, Philippe Gelis was back this year as a mentor.  He knows first-hand that Startup Weekend’s formula of locking motivated people in a room together for 54 hours can have the explosiveness of the Big Bang when it comes to creating companies.

The 1st Place Winner of Startup Weekend Barcelona 2014 was team YUKI, who were successful in making wearables for kids.

 Yuki – led by Sebastian Bausch

1st Place Prize

Testabit awards the winner with the development of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

Pagantis will provide with a payment gateway for 6 months, up to a maximum of 50,000 € billing.

Startup Weekend NEXT will give 2 free tickets for NEXT pre­accelerator program.

Eulogia will publish an interview and a post at Marketing4ecommerce.net.

YoRespondo provides with 6 months of free virtual secretary service.

And TGG Legal offers:

• Financial and economic assessment and follow up during three months while preparing and implementing the business plan of the winning project.
• Legal assessment during the setup of the Corporate Enterprise
• Free accounting and tax management during six months
• Free labor management during six months for five employees maximum

 

 WeFlix – led by Océane Benamara

2nd Place Prize

Startup Weekend NEXT will give 1 free ticket for NEXT pre­accelerator program.

Pagantis will provide with a payment gateway for 6 months, up to a maximum of 30,000 € billing.

YoRespondo provides with 6 months of free virtual secretary service.

And TGG Legal offers:

• Legal assessment during the setup of the Corporate Enterprise
• Free accounting and tax management during three months
• Free labor management during three months for 3 employees maximum

 

Cast & Go led by Eva Niñerola Caimo

3rd Place Prize

Pagantis will provide with a payment gateway for 6 months, up to a maximum of 20,000 € billing.

YoRespondo provides with 6 months of free virtual secretary service.

And TGG Legal offers legal assessment during the setup of the Corporate Enterprise.

Congratulations to YUKI, Weflix (2nd place), Cast & Go (3rd place) and all of the teams involved in Startup Weekend Barcelona 2014.  You guys have our respect for building 12 companies in one weekend.  Now, go get some well-deserved rest and keep us updated if you’re going to make these companies a reality.  Cheers!