Startup Weekend Miami: 54-hours to launch

Startup Weekend Miami, May 20-22, helped entrepreneurs in South Florida launch 12 new startups - and we hope to see them continue to grow beyond the scope of the weekend insanity! After 54-hours of work, from idea to business concept, 12 teams presented to the judges panel on Sunday evening. With just 5 minutes to get the idea across, the winning entrepreneurs were the creators of Startup Funding Network. SFN is a members-only crowd-funding platform that connects "people with ideas" to "people with money who wants to fund their ideas". Entrepreneurs can pitch there ideas and investors can decide which ideas and investors can decide which ideas to fund. A proprietary system handles the transaction and creates a social network whereby the entrepreneur is held accountable to the investor via reporting and the investor is held accountable to the entrepreneur via money, experience and knowledge. Investors will look for the ideas that most interest them and make "milestone" investments to these entrepreneurs by bidding on all or part of the requested amount.

Runner-up honors were given to storisto.com, an online marketplace for news stories, and TheDailyStork.com, pregnancy education for the male population.

 

Thanks to all our speakers, judges, and sponsors: Grasshopper Group, MiamiShared, MicroConf 2011, and Socialated for donating prizes; Clarabelle's Cupcakes, Dog Eat Dog truck, Firedog Energy Drink, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, Offerdahl's Cafe, PopChips, Power Pizza, and Sushi Maki for feeding the entrepreneurs; and Android SoFla, Refresh SoFl, SFTA, South Florida PHP, Startup Digest Miami, and WITI South Florida for supporting!

 

See photos from the weekend and check out our new space in the Facebook album.