EDITOR’S UPDATE: According to event coordinators, Cooley has officially offered to host the next Startup Weekend. Also, Zazu is the NEW name of the company working on a modern, phone-based alarm clock application. They’re no longer going by iZaazu. Their new site is getzazu.com. This post was updated on 2/19/2010.
Startup Weekend is supposed to be a bi-annual event in Boston, but where it will be held this summer?
On Wednesday, participants from December’s Startup Weekend event, co-sponsored by BostInnovation and held at Microsoft N.E.R.D, re-convened to talk about the companies they formed during the weekend-long event aimed at bringing entrepreneurs of all types together to jump start innovation.
Unbelievably, at least three of the companies formed at the 54-hour event in December are still in existence and moving forward. Members of the startup companies iZaazu, Meetlie and Doodlebugging all talked about the status’ of their companies to a crowd of about 20 participants and interested members of the tech community. The reunion, which was hosted by another Startup Weekend co-sponsor, Cooley Godward Kronish law firm, marked the halfway point between the last Startup Weekend and the next one, currently slotted to take place sometime in June or July of this year.
However, the fast-approaching summer edition of Boston Startup Weekend is currently homeless. With nowhere to host the dozens of entrepreneurs, developers and innovators who are sure to turn out, Startup Weekend is in danger of stalling out.
Startup Weekend “provides networking, resources and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch.” The event helps attendees “get connected with local developers, innovators and entrepreneurs,” so they can get over the initial hump of starting a new company.
Here are updates from the three companies who spoke about what’s been happening for the last three months:
Doodlebugging – This company took home the 1st place awards package in December, which included free legal council from Cooley, some financing from Tony Berkman of blocatalog.com and mentoring from Shawn Broderick of TechStars. They’ve incorporated with help from Cooley, and the company has been restructured to include a few members of other teams from Startup Weekend. Doodlebugging hopes to help buyers and sellers bypass the outdated inconvenience and anonymity of Craigslist and create a marketplace for selling goods using Twitter’s open API. Essentially, their technology helps buyers and sellers find each other quickly and easily on Twitter. Give it a whirl now on their website!
iZaazu – This company hopes to change the way you wake up in the morning by providing an automated audio update about things you care about like, sports scores, Email alerts, temperatures, etc. The software application will run on iPhone and Droid mobile platforms. They’re still developing a beta version for Droid, but they hope to finish that in the coming weeks and start inviting users to “wake up informed, not alarmed.” (They’re still fighting through some branding issues, so their site still spells the company name Zazu.)
Meetlie – This company, which I wrote about in depth at the December event, has also seen some restructuring of its staff and is currently seeking out new developers to push forward. They are organizing the “open office hours” movement and continuing to create technology to help people meet up. Their site is live, but doesn’t seem to be functioning in its current state.
After the companies discussed where they’ve come since the last Startup Weekend, questions arose about where the next one will be held. With Microsoft N.E.R.D.’s event space reportedly booked through June, Startup Weekend is currently without a location.
Al Browne, a partner at Cooley volunteered to look into potentially hosting the summer edition of Startup Weekend at the Cooley offices at 500 Boylston in Boston, Mass., but that doesn’t seem set in stone. If you know of a good place to host Startup Weekend this summer, please leave a comment below. Or, you can get in contact with the event coordinators at the Boston Startup Weekend website’s contact page.
For more information on Startup Weekend, which hosts these events around the world, check out their website: startupweekend.org. Or, to learn about Boston Startup Weekend specifically, there’s a site for that too: boston.startupweekend.org. What’s more, BostInnovation provided extensive coverage of the last event, which you can view here.
Tags: Edu
