A great Start Up Camp success! Thank you all!!!
We had a blast….and 10 new business ideas were moulded…Some
highlights :
Friday
- Don Peterson’s (GottaGetaway) speech was
inspiring – I will ask him for his slides and upload them
later. I think Don’s presentation was being quoted from,
or fondly remembered, myriad times throughout the weekend. Some
strong messages, particularly emphasising that Internet
StartUps are far cheaper to have a crack at than traditional
ventures (e.g. franchise stores) See some DP quotes below. - Paul McCooeey (Splash Internet)
was highly impressive in terms of the adventurous journey he
embarked upon into building tech in a regional area . He took
risks, but has built something unique and now provides a highly
valued attractively-priced Internet Service. Paul is from a
technical background, so it’s great to see entrepreneurship
from that stream - Sophie Campbell (Horsewyse magazine) was a
charming MC for the evening, and got things underway in a
timely fashion, which was welcome. - Teams formed, they brainstormed, and 3 fascinating
businesses were created in readiness for Sunday’s presentation
to the Investor Panel. - And in a completely new SSUCM innovation, an opportunity
was given to people whose idea did not get selected to prepare
a Lightening Pitch for Sunday morning (more on
these later).
- Liam O’Duibhir (SoccerFit) spoke about challenges of
pitching to Angel Investors and the value of core beliefs in
decision making. He also stressed the importance of getting a
co-founder, and possibly 4 business cornerstones in all
(Finance, Operations, Sales, Innovation) - The Retail Debate was chaired by Jo Thorpe (ABC South
East) who oozed professionalism and kept everything fresh and
moving along at a perfect pace. There was strong agreement
about the issues, and some genuine attempts to offer
solutions – but it is clearly a difficult nut to crack.
An additional blog post on this material is being
prepared (a link will be provided in due course). - Marc Englaro (Sydney Angels) gave some very helpful
advice about pitching to angel groups, and strongly advocated
that even if you are not successful, investors are very
impressed with people who come back for a second attempt and
demonstrate that they have learned something. - And then the Social Event at the Top Pub in Pambula –
great fun, and in time-honoured fashion, “what goes on
StartUp Camp, stays on StartUp Camp”.
- Kicked off with 7 great lightening pitches (on-the-fly
and unrehearsed) : -
-
EarlyDays –
making School fundraising better -
AnimalPool
– a pool-playing pub game that can be enjoyed by many
people at one time - WPGuns.com – a dollar-a-minute ‘instant’ support
facility for WordPress - TutorHub – connecting students with tutors at
Uni - Grey Grommets – a new line in fashionable
tee-shirts for older surfers - BioBank – ‘Making the priceless valuable’ – a way
to price environmental treasures - LiveNow – a service that circulates live video
events on the Internet
-
EarlyDays –
- And then main event, the formal presentations to the
Investor Panel of three great business ideas :-
UGem – a
location aware smart phone app that will permission-push
suggestions (the hidden gems) to you to better enjoy your
visit to the idyllic Sapphire Coast
RE-Line – a
cross-channel retail operation centre that allows retailers
to easily run both a small-space bricks and mortar shop and
an online store at the same time, bundled with outsourced
freight-handling and secure warehousing
Coastal
Roaming – an existing business seeking to scale
up. Coastal Roaming capitalises on the regions stunning
coast-line to offer a range of premium adventure
experiences with a mid-range adrenaline rush. The response
to the pitches was excellent. The investor panel were
intrigued, but most importantly, some valuable educational
feedback was provided to the aspiring entrepreneurs. It was
a superb event thank you to everyone…And lastly, some
quotable quotes from the weekend…come back next year
everyone…it’s gonna be even bigger and better.
“Click Click Cash” (Don Peterson)
“Council can’t help you, Government can’t help
you” (Don Peterson) “It’s not the fittest who
survive, or the most intelligent, but those who adapt to change
best“ (Nigel Ayling recapping Charles Darwin)
“The great thing about the entrepreneur groups is that
everyone has crazy ideas, so you can make a total fool of
yourself, and people will still talk to you” (Liam
O’Duibhir)?
Congratulations! It was a great weekend. Looking forward to a bigger and better one next year
Thanks for the recap Liam. It was a great and inspiring weekend. Only wish I could have stayed around longer. Thanks again for everything!
Great to have you there Jacqui and congrats your new website http://www.colourlogic.com.au is fantastic. Well done! Liam
Well done, Liam & team – as a woman with a striving online business I really enjoyed this workshop & wish I could have participated all weekend. Friday’s sessions were certainly inspiring & well worth attending. It has been great to be part of the “uGEM” group & to see Ivan’s idea taking shape and Jolon coming up with the name, it’s excellent to work with other dynamic people.
Good luck & keep on going!
Simone, just great to see you there. We’re huge fans of your Women in Business Network…so impressed with how you got that going. Maybe there is something IntoIT and your group can do together – exciting times. Liam
How fantastic to see how the business region has grown in it’s thinking. I am so disappointed I could not attend. Congratulations to Liam and the team on what appears to have been a great event.
Long may you grow!
Regards
Lynnette Kearney
Manager
Illawarra ITeC-South Coast.
Huge thanks to Liam and Ivan for their tireless effort to create this event and encourage entrepreneurship in the region. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and working with so many inspirational and creative people. The weekend was indeed inaugural, hailed as the first Startup Camp outside of a metropolitan area—the caliber and enthusiasm with which people were contributing makes me excited for any future events and activities. Thanks to everyone, I really loved it.
cheers
Darryl
Hi all
I was just wondering if Ivan still has the pictures taken from this event and if
so may he email them to me at jfbegatafe.gmail.com please. Ivan I would very much
appreciate getting these.
I thankyou now in advance if this could be arranged.
THANKYOU 🙂