T&T ENTREPRENEURS

How to start up a business in 54 hours

The team at Launch Rockit hosted the local leg of Startup Weekend at the Abercrombie Tea House from Friday, November 25 to Sunday 27, 2016. The event had participants from all age groups even as young as 10 years old. Startup Weekend is held simultaneously in 150 countries around the world and to date have hosted more than 2.9k events, over 23k teams of entrepreneurs formed and a roster of 193k community members. The aim of the event is to start a business and provide resources to young entrepreneurs by providing a forum where they can network, exchange ideas and get coaching from experts in various fields.

The schedule for entrepreneurs:

Day 1: Meet teammates, pitch your idea and team up

– Dinner and networking – Participants get a chance to meet each other and start networking.

– 60 seconds to pitch – You are given 1 minute to pitch your business idea to the group.

– Choose your project – From the top projects participants decide on one which they would work.

– Build a team – Create or join a team to work with over the weekend. At this point the work begins, and with help of the facilitators, participants can stay back and begin working on their project.

Day 2: Work on project, learn from the pro entrepreneurs

Mentors and coaches who are experts in their fields are brought to help the participants iron out any kinks in their projects. They help with questions about legal and technical aspects that may affect entrepreneurs of a startup company. They would then help to streamline the project to where it can be a fully functioning business. Entrepreneurs are also encouraged to gather real world market research via online polls or just old fashion pounding the pavement. This is to ensure that the proposed product or service is viable.

Day 3: Pitch day

Day 3 starts off with teams continuing to work on their projects and make mock presentations to the coaches. By this time the pressure is on as the making of final presentations before a panel of judges are expected this evening.

The weekend ends with a project being selected as the winner, but everyone eventually wins. The point of Startup Weekend is not to win a competition but to encourage future entrepreneurs to follow through with ideas and not just talk about it. The weekend is fast paced and if you are looking to start a business and don’t know where to start and think that it is a long process, this weekend shows you that it doesn’t have to be.

December 2016   www.sweettntmagazine.com

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