Start up Weekend

On Friday night we started out by every single person making a startup pitch for their own idea, then afterwards everyone got 3 sticky notes to vote for their top 3 ideas they liked. My original idea did not get chosen. After that step we got to choose which group you wanted to be a part of, and the group I joined was the portable projector. For the rest of the night, we started brainstorming with our group and forming a plan for the next day.

So, our product was going to be a small projector that could be used as a monitor or a tv. The projector industry has been blowing up recently for many reason, one being modern fashion is getting rid of the big bulky TVs and replacing them with Tv's that look like picture frames or just a wall and a projector.  Our main goal with this was for college students who lack space in dorms to have a monitor or tv without needing to take up a bunch of room. It could also be used by people who travel often and need another screen when trying to work in hotel rooms. 

Our product would come with several different stand or clips, so the client could attach or mount the projector wherever they want or need without it getting in the way. We were planning on using lidar technology to make it so no matter what angle the projector was hitting the wall it would appear straight. 

For Saturday, we mainly went around and conducted customer surveys from everywhere from the dorms of our college to Walmart. We then spent more time on doing product design and narrowing down all of our design criteria and goals. By the end of the day, we had a rough draft for our presentation on Sunday. 

On Sunday, we put together the finishing touches on our slide show and talked with a couple mentors and entrepreneurs to get their feedback on our product and the presentation. Finally, it was time to present, we got a lot of support from the judges, and we ended up taking fourth place in the competition. 

Overall, this was a fantastic experience and I'm really glad I got to participate in it.