Startup Weekend Stuttgart took place on Nov 22-24 at the Hochshule der Medien near Stuttgart, Germany and was an amazing success. SAP was the main sponsor for this event which attracted 130 budding entrepreneurs for 48 hours on intense training, brainstorming and fun which culminated in final pitches from 22 teams on Sunday evening. See our previous blog posts on the format of the event and introducing our mentors.
The winner of the overall competition (see judging criteria) was team VirtualQ with a mobile app for virtualizing queues outside night clubs. I particularly liked their final 3-minute pitch which included video footage of the user research phase they conducted on Saturday night in Stuttgart, interviewing club-goers standing in line outside in the rain. That’s true dedication to user-centered product design.
The winner of the B2B prize was Kvitto. Kvitto wants to virtualize the box where the most organized among us store the warranty documents and invoices for their home appliances, and the black hole that serves the same purpose for the rest of us. Kvitto allows a user to upload photos of his documents, and then the platform takes over, playing the role of an intermediary between the user, the retailer who sold the appliance and the manufacturer. Many scenarios are made easier on this platform, such as maintenance or product recalls. The B2B prize was presented to Kvitto on behalf of SAP by Bernd-Uwe Pagel, Senior Vice-President for Platform Ecosystem & eChannels at SAP.
The event was an overall amazing experience for all. Not only for the 130 participants but also for the Mentors who went from team to team giving feedback and advice. They were all very impressed with the event format, the enthusiasm, the dedication and the grassroots nature of the event. Many heartfelt thanks again to our mentors from SAP and the SAP-supported InnoWerft startup incubator in Walldorf. And many thanks to the organizing team who did a stellar job, running the largest Startup Weekend in Stuttgart so far and by now one of the largest in Germany, on a par with Berlin from what I have heard.
This is not the end of the story though since the winning team of the B2B track will meet the Mentors again at SAP headquarters in Walldorf to advance their idea further over a two-day workshop in the near future. Stay tuned!
More links: Official site for the event and event summary from the organizers in German and in English.
