Startup Weekend Concludes in Colorado

Startup Weekend is openly looked at as one of the inspiring forces guiding us as we organize News Tools 2008. At this startup weekend in Boulder guests included Loic Le Meur, Guy Kawasaki, Eric Litman, Jeff Pulver, Stowe Boyd and more.

I was able to keep up with the happenings in Boulder because Tara from Lijit and MediaCasters did an excellent job of broadcasting the event via Qik, Ustream, Twitter and any other tools available to them.

The goal of News Tools isn't to create new business' over the course of a weekend per-say.  But we do want to learn about and from the culture of technology and innovation that allowed a group of geeks to come together over the course of a few days and build the following:

 

Handshak.es

iPhone app that does a location based updates for you to find friends or events. Uses the Google Maps feature as well as its own. Think of dodgeball, twitter, a GPS and an iPhone in a blender… will it blend?

MoldRush

Manufacturing companies need to catch up and use a web tracking system for their Molds. Originally pitched as the ‘most unsexy idea ever.’

Web2Splash

Originally pitched as a joke, Web2Splash creates a splash page and email collection for new startups needing a quick online presence. The two founders are looking to create a customizable backend so you can upload your logo, pick your layout and collect email addresses of people who are interested in what you are up to.

EcoBox

High level concept for a EcoBox, a containerized emergency generator.

IMDB for Podcasting

A simple, targeted idea, create a way for personalities to list which podcasts they have been on, and who the crew was as well. Look for it to expand to social media as well. Guy Kawasaki said this one has legs, we will see where the one person founder Andy Stanberry does with it.

Hitsurance

Think of it as insurance for your website, HItsurance is there when your website goes down due to high traffic. It replaces your site with an email form and an explanation that the site is down due to high traffic, and hitsurance can email you when the site goes back up. They produced some great blog posts as well.

Startup Drinks

Take Startup Weekend, take out the creating a company part, and make the event two hours long, add a dash of your favorite libation and you have Startup Drinks. A drinking club with a startup problem, Startup Drinks aims to get extremely busy startup folks together to have a pint and talk about what they have done, what they need help with and what they help each other out with.