Last weekend was Harrisonburg Startup Weekend, a very intense incubator for startup ideas, with lots of fun overall. About 40 participants gathered – and I noticed I was one of three women. In the first warmup exercise, I won the Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament!
Friday night, about a dozen people gave 60-second pitches on their ideas for startup businesses. Then everybody voted (we each had three yellow stickies to put on the idea posters) and we chose 4-5 groups to form teams.
I joined Tony Lopez’s team to create Healthy Habits, a matching service to create a buddy system for mutual support in creating healthy habits or breaking unhealthy ones.
So we worked all weekend, creating a presentation at the end for the judges. The winner was easybid, an online auction system.
I learned a lot about the process of creating a startup business. We’re considering a lightweight start to our Healthy Habits system, maybe a Facebook page.
I can completely imagine you winning Paper, Rock, Scissors.
haha John! It was a moment of triumph.
p.s. oh and I just met with the other finalist yesterday, Mary Lou Bourne, Director of Technology Transfer at JMU, and I walked into her office doing Rock, Paper, Scissors!