1st Prize: Flixy
• Samsung Galaxy SIII 4G for each team member
• 3 Months of desk space at Fishburners

Runner-up Prize: Refood It
• 3 Months of desk space at Fishburners
• $250 worth General Assembly course credits

Honorable Mention: StartupPuns

Best Mentor: Mike Casey

Stay tuned for updates on the next SW SYDNEY!

1. Flixy

2. StatStar

3. The Comedy Hunter

4. Mates Rates

5. Pixie

6. Adwin

7. Calendar Me In

8. Top Dish

9. Popup Deals

10. Startup Puns

11. Cross Train

12. Love My Life

13. Chick Advisor

14. Refood It

Best of luck everyone!

#SWSYD Team

1. Business Model
The heart of it all. If you haven’t got answers to these questions, you’ve spent too much time on frills & features and need to get back to the basics:
   1. Who is your customer?
   2. What is your core value proposition?
   3. What are your key activities?
   4. What are your revenue streams?
   5. What is your cost structure?
   6. Who/what are your key partners/resources?
   7. What are your distribution channels?
   8. What is your roll-out strategy?

1. Customer Validation
Have you taken the proper steps to ensure that the people who matter (your future customers) support and reinforce your assumptions? Think of Customer Validation as ‘evidence’ to back up the core structure of your ‘theory’ (your Business Model). The more feedback you gather (quantity), the more this feedback comes from your specific target market (quality), and the more you’re able to actually integrate this feedback into the Business Model and product development (execution), the better.

1. Execution
The nitty gritty: what has your team been able to actually build over the weekend? Even the strongest of Business Plans are useless in the hands of those who can’t properly execute on them. Getting as far as possible in the development of your product/prototype not only helps give Judges a tangible vision of what the final product could be, but proves your strength and skills as a team. This is what truly matters: investors don’t invest as in ideas so much as teams.

#SWSYD Team

Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Join our community on Facebook.

Congratulations to the entire team.

#SWSYD Team

1. PopUp

2. RunSafe

3. Guided Tour Guru

4. Knocked App

5. Mobile Audience

6. Go Parcel

7. DiabeticsBuddy

8. LeanFeedback

9. CheatLingo

10. RentalHub

11. Singa

12. FitUsIn

13. Walkabo

14. Foeame

15. Eventuate.com.au

16. HappyHunt

17. Givee chain

18. WhatsCookin

Saturday

Session 1: 12pm-1pm

Session 2: 6pm-8pm

We will inform you when the mentors are ready for you. Work hard and keep the hustle going.

#SWSYD Team

1. EXECUTION
Execution is what you and your team have accomplished over the weekend. Whether pitching to a jury or investors, execution is what proves you and your team are capable of following through on a great idea. Make sure you highlight what you’ve accomplished over the weekend.

2. PRESENTATION
Watching over an hour’s worth of straight pitches can be tiring. As you may have noticed on Friday, those ideas that received the most votes tended to be the ideas that were pitched in the most exciting/interesting way. Be creative, enthusiastic and for better or worse, try to make sure the jury and audience will remember your presentation.

3. VIABILITY
This category is down to the basics. Can and will your Startup make money? Is your business model viable? Have you taken into consideration your competitors and how the changing market might disrupt your plans? An exciting, disruptive idea is one thing, but if that idea can’t sustain itself, it’s not worth much. Make sure to show that you’ve taken into consideration all the factors that might impact your Startup’s success – this will show the jury you mean business.

4. INNOVATION
This is all about the X factor. Opening a lemonade stand on a hot day might be a guaranteed way to make a few bucks, but it sure won’t get you rich. Emphasize how your Startup concept is unique and disruptive, not just another lemonade stand.

5. BREAKTHROUGH
And finally, the cliche criteria: does your Startup have the potential to become the next Facebook or Google? Will you hit one million users in 1 year?

Aside from keeping in mind these basic guidelines, a few other tips to make sure everything goes well:

REHEARSE
Be sure to practice your full presentation at least three times with a timer beforehand. Set timed cues at various speaking points.

TECH CHECK
If you don’t do a tech check beforehand (with the laptop you’ll be using for the presentation), YOU WILL FAIL. Save your sites locally because the internet WILL GO DOWN. But don’t stress 

Good luck,
#SWSYD Crew.

We’ve come a long way since we pitched ourselves as the “99designs of code”. We’re now focusing on making a more efficient outsourcing marketplace – if you’ve ever used Freelancer.com you’ll know the pain point. We’ve got an initial focus on WordPress sites, we’ve launched our private beta, we have paying customers and we’re getting close to a public launch.

All from an idea pitched on Friday night to a room full of strangers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have a single piece of advice for those who want to win Startup Weekend: Come with a concise idea for your startup and what you can build in a weekend to validate it.

You need to have a big vision – a big market and a significant pain point – but you need to be able to articulate this in 30 seconds. You also need to be able to articulate what you think can be achieved in a weekend to validate the concept in front of the judges on Sunday night.

I got the first part right, we were the “99designs for code”, and we built a cool MVP in the weekend but it wasn’t necessarily the right thing to build.

A sharp pitch on Friday night will help you build a great team and quickly get to work on the task at hand. The team in particular is going to be essential to getting over the line.

Good luck.

Ned

@nedwin