Welcome to Alex’s Agenda, the new weekly column from the front-lines of the future by The Memo’s Editor in Chief, Alex Wood.
Up and down the country people are swapping the corporate world for something new. It’s never been easier to start your own business, so this weekend I traveled North to Sheffield, to channel my inner Simon Cowell and judge at StartupWeekend.
StartupWeekend, is a global startup competition where teams work on new business ideas, build as much as possible and pitch after just a weekend together.
Students, graduates and budding entrepreneurs met for the first time Friday night at the Electric Works, a stylish new space minutes away from Sheffield’s train station.
As I opened the door at the Electric Works I immediately clocked the Helter Skelter slide.
I’m told this particular one is Britain’s largest indoor office slide. When you’re a tech writer you quickly become desensitised to the obligatory table football, ping pong and unconventional ways of going from one floor to the next.
Once I’d reached the pitching room, the real fun began. I’ve been asked to judge at pitching competitions in the past and the quality can vary widely from award-winning gob-smacking goodness to car-crash awfulness. In London we live in a time of startup oversupply – over 15,000 are born every year in the trendy East End alone, the uncomfortable truth is most won’t see the light of day.
Sheffield was a world apart. Pitch after pitch I had to keep reminding myself – before Friday these people hadn’t even met. 54 hours ago, these great ideas didn’t exist.
One group caught my attention and won critical acclaim from the audience. Bro is the new app for sharing how you feel anonymously. Countless other startups have come up with similar ideas, but this team added one crucial difference: Brocabulary.
Bro is for people who find it hard to express themselves online. Instead of communicating by text, Bro’s can find Bromance through broticons (emoji) and bro-themed brocabulary. The business model? Bromotional events. Bonkers, yet brilliant.
Bro! Enabling bros (or anyone) to share problems anonymously online using bro-cabulary & emoticons
#SWSheffield pic.twitter.com/c8aOD7UDwv
— Laura IH Bennett (@LauraIHBennett) November 22, 2015
I could never do what these teams did in just 54 hours. They identified gaps in the market, created brands, tested their ideas out with potential customers (one even made a sale) and built prototypes.
When I was in their shoes doing my undergraduate degree, I can’t imagine I would have pulled myself away from the student union for a whole weekend to work on a new business idea.
Young people today aren’t afraid to take risks and follow their dreams. The winning team created Olofo, an online platform for buying food from local producers. Their pitch was so polished the judges could imagine them waking up the next day to a fully fledged business.
It takes less money and tech know-how than ever before to launch your own business. And with great support from organisations like Tech North (who sponsored the event in Sheffield), all you need is a good idea.
If you ever dreamed, do it. You won’t regret it.
The post Tired of startups, tired of life appeared first on The Memo.