RecBob’s Alex Frazier (center), whose startup was born out of Startup Weekend Iowa City 2011 and now has seven full-time employees, mentors participants at this year’s event.
The second Startup Weekend Iowa City is nearing the conclusion of its second day, and three teams are plugging away inside the University of Iowa‘s Pappajohn Business Building in preparation for a Sunday night finale.
About 15 of the event’s 25 participants gave one-minute pitches during Friday night’s opening pitch session, event co-organizer Shannon Younger said in a phone call today. Teams formed around four of those ideas, and three teams remain as of tonight:
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- TellMyStory – An app that provides an easy way to capture and share your biography
- Shindigger – An experiential photo-sharing application
- My Way to USA – An app to help international students and other newcomers to the U.S. acclimate to their new country’s culture
As at other Startup Weekend events across the globe, teams in Iowa City are spending the weekend working to establish the foundation of a viable business. Following Friday night pitches and long hours of work today and Sunday, the three teams will deliver pitches Sunday night.
The panel of judges for Sunday night’s pitches will feature honorary judges from reddit’s Internet 2012 Bus Tour, including Erik Martin of reddit and Ben Huh of Cheezburger, who will be visiting Iowa City as part of reddit’s campaign-style tour through the middle of the country to promote the Open Internet.
Younger said the Startup Weekend participants represent a good mix of students and non-students and that a shortage of developers at the event hasn’t prevented teams from hitting the pavement in support of their projects. “I’ve been very impressed with the way that the teams have gone out to do customer validation,” she said.
Final presentations begin Sunday at 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Check the Startup Weekend Iowa City blog for additional coverage of the event, or follow @StartupWkndIC for more frequent updates. And, of course, stay tuned to Silicon Prairie News for coverage following Sunday night’s finale.
Credits: Photo from iowacity.startupweekend.org.
