16 new services launched in 48 hours in Estonia

[wheels]

I'll be honest. I find these things retarded. It'd be like sailing across the Bering Strait and announcing that'd you'd crossed the Pacific.

Something thrown together in 48 hours is not a startup; it's a website. It might be able to turn into a startup over time, and I think that would be a far more interesting statistic: how many of these "startups" are doing anything after 3 months?

[ohashi]

I will tell you in 3 months. I was actually one of the organizers for this group of events (startup weekend and associated events were done all over the nordics last weekend and the weekend before) and I honestly don't think it's really about actually getting a startup going so much as the experience and meeting people. I do know from talking with the Startup Weekend guys in the states (Clint) that some of these actually do turn into real startups and get funded and launch but many don't. I don't think that's a problem at all, I know from my personal experience (Lund, Sweden) that is was very heavy with university students who probably weren't considering or thinking about startups at all. The event helps people become aware of the opportunities, network and meet a lot of people who might be interested in doing something. One of the things that makes it easiest (my opinion) is other people interested in starting up and knowing the right people in your region to actually get help (legal, business, investors, feedback, everything else). These types of events give that opportunity to people who might have never even thought about it otherwise. If a startup is born from the event, AWESOME. If not, what else was gained? I think quite a bit.

[daniel-cussen]

Seriously. By these standards I made a startup in three hours (three minutes on a speedrun) by buying qwertqwert.com and redirecting it to a dvorak translator.

Is it useful? It is more useful to me than most little websites, but by no stretch of imagination is it a startup. A very minimum viable product at best.

[gojomo]

The site's own headline has the decency to call these "services" rather than "startups". Oh, that the submission-headline would be as honest!

[jkaljundi]

Thanks for the suggestion, changed the title of the submission. Absolutely agree, that for now most of these are just quick projects, that might grow into real companies. Ideas are cheap, execution is what matters. These were ad hoc projects, people who met first time on Friday, many of them students. The focus was also not on businesses, but products and services, some of them non-commercial - why not. Events like these have also the goal of getting contacts and new friends and give people motivation. In that Garage48 succeeded, so many people said they are now considering doing a startup, something they never before had thought of.

[jrw89]

My favourite: "Seenele - map based Facebook application to find places to get mushrooms."

[jkaljundi]

They said there are huge opportunities for growth. They can expand into berries. Or fishing. The pitch and jury questions section was funny as hell. That counts.

Seriously though, as a small 4-person team they developed an impressive mobile + Facebook mapping / events / social application that can be tried out in many revenue-generating businesses. What they need to do is experiment, iterate, get mentored and find their way. There are so many opportunities where they can grow. Using mushrooms as an example does not mean that's what they actually want to do for the rest of their lives :)

[jkaljundi]

I believe this quote from Paul Graham is relevant here: "Don't be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy. In fact, that's a good sign. That's probably why everyone else has been overlooking the idea. The first microcomputers were dismissed as toys. And the first planes, and the first cars. At this point, when someone comes to us with something that users like but that we could envision forum trolls dismissing as a toy, it makes us especially likely to invest." http://www.paulgraham.com/organic.html

[tewks]

Sign of a startup bubble?

[tomjen3]

No. There are plenty signs but this isn't one of them.

If they were valued at several million, then yes.

[hasanove]

As if there were not enough signs already )

[andr]

What is the success rate of startup weekend startups?

[jkaljundi]

If 2-3 of the 16 projects would turn into real businesses, we would be extremely happy. If at least half of them continue as websites or free software, that would be great as well.

Let's also not forget, that if the people are great and team works well, many of the startups find themselves doing something completely different in 1-2 years time. You just have to get started and experiment.