New Haven Hosts Its First Start-Up Weekend

New Haven just became the latest Connecticut city to host a start-up weekend. The start-up weekend movement is now four years old. As WNPR’s Sarah Miner reports, this frenetic competition aims to foster new businesses and promote entrepreneurship.

Here at Bentara Restaurant in New Haven, the dining room looks more like a community board room. Gathered are some 80 or so developers, designers and entrepreneurs waiting to hear the big announcement.

"Let me announce, the winner – and this is great - is ShugaTrak"

This is the culmination of an intense three day event called Startup New Haven. The mission of the event:  Discovery, Innovation, Teamwork and Entrepreneurship – all to foster the development of a new web or mobile application that can turn into a viable business.  Derek Koch is one of the lead organizers.

"The goal is to support these teams. They are putitng it on the line and they, in essence, from the community need support – they're the answer, I believe they are the answer to the jobs problem."

So, what exactly happens in 54 hours? On Friday night, participants gather, teams are formed, ideas are presented, and votes determine which ideas move forward. Saturday brings everyone together for some intense brainstorming – and by the end of the day on Sunday – teams have 3 and ½ minutes to present their final business idea to a panel of 5 judges. This year's winner has developed an app called ShugaTrak. Team members Michael Pantalon and John Fitzpatrick:

"It's an easy app for teens and parents to help teens monitor their blood glucose better so that their diabetes gets managed well."

"We put together a great team with diverse backgrounds, we had a medical doctor, two psychologists, three software developers, hardware engineer – everybody contributed. The idea that we finally settled on and finally presented had nothing to do, almost nothing to do with what I pitched Friday night. It just evolved and evolved, and eventually we settled on something that we all thought was very useful and very achievable."

As one of the judges and owner of a startup himself, Kam Lasater of SeeClickFix.com gave one piece of advice.

"Do it. Do it anyway. You didn't win, do it anyways. You did win, do it anyways. You gotta keep taking steps and moving forward. And in the end, if nothing comes of it you will have learned a lot and you will be better prepared to make that next venture a better success."

And as for the future, Derek Koch is optimistic:

"We're not going to leave it til the next startup weekend... We need to keep this going every week, every day, every month – so everyone in Connecticut, in the Northeast, is welcome to be a part of it – we want to bring people in. When we kicked off tonight, one of the things I mentioned to the audience is they have an important role – that role is take what they heard tonight - promising ideas - and help move it forward."

For WNPR News, I'm Sarah Miner.