Aspiring entrepreneurs pitch life-improving business ideas at Startup Weekend NB
An app to reduce emergency room chaos, furniture made from discarded wooden pallets and a compost collection service are a few of the business ideas produced during Startup Weekend New Brunswick.
The event, organized by Startup Fredericton and the City of Fredericton, was an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to come together and pitch their ideas over the weekend.
Over the course of three days at the Ville Cooperative in Fredericton, 50 or so participants formed teams, brainstormed ideas and developed business plans with the help of local business people and entrepreneurs.
Teams then went through mock pitch sessions making the case for their business before a panel of judges.
The theme of this event was social innovation "so anything that has to do with social impact in the city" was encouraged, said Norm Couturier, the chair of Startup Fredericton.
The City of Fredericton even provided a list of issues that they could use some help tackling, Couturier said.
Ishtar Al-tahar and her team pitched QuickAid, an app that would allow emergency room patients to avoid long wait times and reduce stress for hospital staff.
The app would allow patients to see which hospitals are full and provide a texting or calling service that would tell them where they are in line and notify them when a doctor is available to see them.
"So you'll be in line waiting, but the app will be able to say where you are in line, give you a notification for when you can go to the ER rather than waiting in the ER for hours in pain, you can be comfortably lying down somewhere," she explained.
They're hoping to transform their plan into reality once the weekend is over, she said.
Oriana Cordido's team pitched Palleto, a furniture company that would make items out of recycled wooden pallets.
"We found out that pallets are being sent into landfills and just turning into waste," she said.
"So we wanted to use that raw material to create furniture."
With only 54 hours to do everything, the team was pushed to make decisions and turn around a business plan quickly, she said.
"You don't take too much time thinking of things, you just make the decision that you think is going to work," she said.
"It keeps you going even when you're exhausted and want to go to bed. It keeps you in a good mood."
Hartley Prosser and his team pitched Loop Compost, a company aimed at making it easier to compost in Fredericton by picking up compost directly from homes and businesses.
"There's an issue in Fredericton right now where it's not easy for residents and businesses to be part of a composting program, so we're focusing on the logistics and processing and co-ordination piece to make composting an easy, attainable thing for everyone," Prosser said.
The weekend event has given participants access to resources and mentorship all in one place that they wouldn't have had access to otherwise, he said.
"There's so much wisdom and mentorship available that the guidance piece is already taken care of," Prosser said.
For example, the team got to talk to Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien about their idea over the weekend and how it could work in the city, he said.
"It [the event] is really a compact ecosystem, with many different resources that really are critical when you're trying validate and do market research, and really see if your idea has any traction," he said.
