Startup Weekend Lahore concludes: flashy presentations & less demos

Startup Weekend Lahore, as the name suggests, is an event that occurs on a weekend where people from different backgrounds of life work together in order to achieve a common goal of building a startup. This year, we saw a total of 61 ideas pitched out of which 16 were shortlisted to continue with the work over the weekend.

Read more: 16 ideas selected at Startup Weekend Lahore 2015

We did a story on problems with hackathons in Pakistan a few months ago. And, we observed a couple of problems being repeated at this hackathon too. During the final pitches the focus remained on flashy presentations, one may wonder how much time was invested in producing these and how much time was spent on actual product development. In addition to that, a lot of teams failed to show any demo and when judges asked, majority of the teams excused and failed to show a single screen whatsoever. Maybe next time, the final pitches shall start from the product demo so that instead of preparing the slide show the teams will make the effort to create the prototype first and then start their work around explaining the whole idea.

Regardless of the background, the common denominator shared by all Startup Weekend participants was enthusiasm for the experience they are about to embark upon.

Here are winners of Startup Weekend Lahore 2015. One of the winners will also get the opportunity to get incubated at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship.

1. Beauty Box is an online portal where ladies will be able to book beauty services online before physically going to the beauty salon. In Pakistan, this is going to be one of a kind portal and we are really looking forward to that.

2. Shahi Sawari will let you book rickshaws from the comfort of your home/offices via your smartphones or text message. This again will save you time. In addition to that will help the rickshaw walas earn more bucks in less time.

3. MentMe is a social media platform for mentors and mentees. Mentors and mentees both will have profiles which will be used to make the connections.

Judges Favourite:
Ghar ka Khana is an online portal where home-made food will be up for buyers. Ghar Ka Khana will be a third-party connecting cooks with the interested buyers.

Crowds Favourite:
Share Out is an online portal for renting out goods to people in our community. The team is planning to develop this community at LUMS first.

Congratulations to the winning teams, for those who didn’t make it this year; better luck next time.

— Photo Credits: Startup Weekend Lahore