Accelerating the accelerator: Startup Marathon 2018
Happy new year! We at Boost had a busy autumn, because in November, we organized the first-ever Startup Marathon.
Like our better-known Startup Journey program, the Marathon is a startup accelerator event where individuals get to team up and work together with mentors on their chosen business idea. The big difference is that whereas the Journey takes all summer, the Marathon gets wrapped up in just 42 hours.
Before the actual Marathon weekend, we took a bit of a head start at a pre-event where the marathoners-to-be had the chance to get to know us and each other and start talking about their ideas. We were really happy with how it turned out: after some introductions, we gave the stage to our participants for an Open Mic, and sure enough, we got to hear a number of exciting early ideas over the course of the evening.
The main event was held November 23 through 25 at SparkUp, and we were positively amazed with how much mentoring, workshops and coworking we managed to fit into just one weekend, with amazing speakers: Jere Ketonen, Jukka Vesala, Juuso Salmu, Veli-Pekka Virtanen, Riitta Hyppänen, Mari Jokiranta, Jani Rusi, Christina Forsgård, Sami Sorvali, Henna-Riika Ruotsalainen and Toni Perämäki and sponsors from Taiste, Vincit, Adecco Finland, Handelsbanken Suomi, Nordea Suomi and SHIFT Business Festival. We even had the time to squeeze in some all-important networking, and for Saturday night, we transformed the SparkUp upstairs into a secret bar, with our own DJ and bartender and some special beverages from Nokian Panimo.
The winner of the first Startup Marathon, Data Story, was announced on Sunday night, and their idea of finding new ways of supporting management consultancy with data driven resources was awarded with free consulting hours with Nordea and tickets to the next SHIFT, as well as their own table at our office, Boost Academy. If you missed it back in November, you can look back on the Marathon on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #StartupMarathon2018.
The winning team - Data Story (from left to right Aino Mäntysaari, Oanh Hoang Vo, Jani Rusi (from Nordea), Semko Aiyubi, Sally Lo and Simranjit Singh)
But why is the Marathon still relevant now, two months later?
Because it will happen again. One of the most amazing things about it was that we created the event in a fairly short time, with a small team, with just an idea: we wanted to host a startup accelerator event in the spirit of Boost that would only last the weekend but still give all the participants something of value. And we managed to do that – we transformed SparkUp into a cozy, relaxed idea incubator for one weekend, got all the teams going in no time and heard some killer business ideas from them. In a way, what we did before the event was much like what the teams did during that weekend. And we know we can, and should, do it again.
The Marathon will stay in the Boost family of events as the little sibling of the Startup Journey. It will give us the opportunity to help an increasing number of people and fledgling ideas, and we can do it twice a year, in addition to our main program. That’s three Boost accelerator events every year, folks! As we grow, we hope you’ll stay tuned and help us in growing the next generation of startups in Turku.
Huge thanks to all the volunteers, partners and participants, and see you again soon!
Original Author: Boostturku