Ok so before all of this leaves me head, how did it go- how was Startup Weekend Columbus 2?

Overall good. Better food, decent beer, free redbull rocked. Big cast of new people this time around, a few verterans from the first SWC, but overall we had lots of new blood, and thats good. 73 ideas pitched, and i’ll be honest, the idea pitching part of the whole event is really the best part of the whole weekend.

Bankable ideas? Does that even matter? I mean come on its a 54 idea fest turned lets make a company, some ideas were definitely bankable others not so much, but thats not why I like startup weekend, I like it for the process of creating something out of nothing.

That being said, I didn’t actually join any team this year. Last year spotwurk now know as joemetric, lucked out on a wickedly good idea that was just simple. That project along with about 3 others i’ve been working on taxes most of my free time. This time around I felt compelled to keep myself free.

I enjoyed bouncin around, tossing in my 2cents on whatever ideas i came across- bouncebird, microvc, milton and rayplace.

So lets go over the big ideas this weekend.

RayPlace, funny thing here is that I just got off the phone with my brother in phoenix and i was talking to him about SWC2. He said and I quote.. “rayplace huh? we need that idea here.. lotta sun”. LOL nice, good concept, nice timing with the obama man and overall i could see it happening.

iCommute, basically cb radio on your phone to tune you into traffic via jabber/iphone/google maps etc, ya know I gotta give these 2 guys credit, its a decent idea and has serious legs. Lots of peeps probably executing this time of product right now, not many are leveraging what the iphone could bring to the table though. Biggest concern driver distraction issues with using the thing at 75mph, it has to be hands free and nearly dead simple or you’ll be dead, at least while driving, but regadless, its an idea that will happen I think.

YouMilton, a biz billing, contacts, task management system was smart. Smart in that the app is thinking for you, generating its own task initatives based on whats going on in your micro biz. My friend gator dave would be perfect for it, he does small education programs for schools, he needs a service to help him manage his biz, hes got nada right now other than a note bad, a few post it reminders and brain is fulll mentality. Milton is potentially a pretty savvy virtual assistant type tool, more polish and goodness inside.

MyDreme was a bit confusing but an interesting idea around goals, and retelling your experiences, and it had a mentor aspect i like. It occured to me it’d work even better as a facebook application vs being a stand alone competitor for facebook. Take that thing and make a facebook app and it can really work.

Ticzar, a service for selling tickets to events on twitter probably had best pitch, most comprehensive competive review and out right honesty factor. Ticzar team formed, went thru the idea, mocked it up, and concluded, not viable. Not many people had the balls to state at SWC2, that alone i give them props. Definitely the fail faster winner of SWC2.

MicroVC or 1k lender guys, good concept, not sure where it fits in the greater scheme of lending for 1k like ideas just because theres a lot of folks on the scene doing these types of 1k for your biz like deals. Still, big market opportunity out there. Has legs via refinement of the concept.

BounceBird, my personal favorite since its dabbles in analysis of twitter content. Anything that rides on some analysis theme is gonna get love from me. I also like the name of course too. These guys get props for lean execution. They had one bs/marketing/biz guy, no offense chris, and really i mean he worked the basics of the concept and then they had 3 meaty developers actually make it. Thats what i love about events like SWC, you make something, idea manifested, what did not exist before, exists- that is golden. Boucebird is viable, but requires participation which is really its only achiliies heel. Its just like a digg, and well people did participate there, so its stands to reason that they’ll do it on bouncebird as well. And i love the idea of selling the engine of bouncebird to twhirl or tweetdeck who desperately need it. Nice.

Internable is a concept for connecting kids with internships. Another nice idea. Nice timing in that people are losing jobs and kids need to get hardwired on places they want to work at and or are interested in. Has legs, needs national exposure to really go probably.

PhotoFoodJournal worked, gotta give them credit for getting the iphone take pick, goes to my site, and is working bit of the demo. Like trainio for food.

LiveQue another good idea and I can totally see myself using that before I’d go to the zoo. It’d be nice to know how bad the lines were before i crammed myself into the car. Seems like geolocational ads would be an easy win as well. Perfect app to tie into a social network etc.

MyGive another good idea, nonprofit material figuring out what part of your time/energy/money you can give. Also sounds like another good idea for facebook integration.

MyFCompany is take on the Glassdoor concept in that employees waste time, and employeers should probably take notice and leverage some of that disgruntled goodness to make their biz better… but seemed like the concept spinned out and turned into a general wiki or portal to give employees fun tools to make their wasting of time more.. wasteful? I dunno, got lost on what it was about, it was definitely funny but not sure where the biz was. Sok, though.

The keynote given by Wil Schroter on Saturday was awesome, that alone was worth the $40 bucks of the weekend just to get a slice of Wil’s time to here how he starts companies. Best line from the weekend “Gey your ass kicked…” lol Love it

Major props to all the organizers, good folks there that continually give their free time and energy to make these events happen.

Alsoo huge huge thanks to all the sponsors.

Last but not least, what should we do next year?

Sundays turn into drag days, present presentations at 3pm, snack on dinner and talk about what worked and what didnt.

Friday is really the funnest moment of the whole weekend, its tossing up ideas, voting on a few and getting your team going. Saturday is work, we should of had a band/wet tshirt contest by skreened or something fun in there, and sunday get to presentations faster, and then rave on america.

All of these companies could potentially just like spotwurk last year, get the chance to pitch for the 50k tech genesis grant. Last year me and my team at spotwurk rocked it out and got that chance to pitch for the 50k. Every year tech columbus works with dozens of would be startups to get them the opportunity to get in the door and get that opportunity to pitch for the 50k. I had a ton of questions on where the briefcase of cash was at, and sorry gang, doesnt work that way. Even still however, if you feel your idea is golden, get to TechColumbus meet with Kevin Gadd or Chris Anderson and get those fires burning. Fight for your idea and be prepared for REAL EXPERIENCED HONEST push back and input to find out if its techgeneiss material. Then rock it out.

Having said all that, see you all next year. :)