Members of the Localize Over Lunch team talked on the opening night of Startup Weekend Iowa City on Friday. The team wound up taking second. Photo from Fredrick Galoso on Flickr.

A couple of black and gold college towns rolled out the red carpet for entrepreneurial aspirations over the weekend, as both Columbia and Iowa City played host to Startup Weekend, the 54-hour event during which participants work to build ideas into the foundations of viable businesses.

In Columbia, where more than 70 participants turned out for the city's inaugural Startup Weekend, Snapier walked away the winner. Snapier, a tool that helps businesses sync data between their various web apps, edged out runner-up Fourcasted, an app that forecasts the size of the crowd at venues, and third-place finisher Parallell, a location-based social gaming app that works with the Foursquare API.

GutChecker, a location-based mobile application that helps people on specific diets — from low carb, to food allergies— find restaurant food that fits into their diet plan, took top prize in Iowa City. Localize Over Lunch, which translates apps into the local language in a short time, and Rec Bob, a tool for organizing recreational and intramural sports activities, finished second and third, respectively. (Left: the GutChecker team. Photo from iowacity.startupweekend.org)

Winners at both took home prize packages that included cash and services and subscriptions to help get their startups off the ground. For more about the events, check the links below for coverage from other outlets.

From Columbia:

• Caledon Virtual news: "Snapier wins startup CoMo"
• Columbia Daily Tribune: "Columbia's first Startup Weekend gets down to business"
• Columbia Missourian: "Entrepreneurs present business ideas at Columbia's first Startup Weekend"

 And from Iowa City:

• Startup Weekend Iowa City blog: "And the winner is …"
• Frederick Galoso on Flickr: "Startup Weekend Iowa City 2011" (Photo gallery)