The Startup Weekend in Chisinau was the event which gathered enthusiastic and talented persons together. They had a lot of fun, the chance to discover new people and wonder how ex-prompt created teams can collaborate and invest in developing a project. Here’s a short retrospective:

Friday

Our special guest from Seattle, Kav Latiolais gave the start of the weekend with an inspirational speech. He’s contaminated everyone with energy, passion and desire to build something amazing.

Later, applicants, mentors and sponsors gathered together at ASEM to launch the event. After registration, dinner and sponsor speeches followed pitches. 30 interesting ideas were pitched and 10 of them were selected based on voting by the participants. Teams formed immediately after the voting and started to work. Around 00.00 we were asked by the administration to leave, and we had to get out of the building. Though not everyone went home and even those who did go home, were too excited to sleep, as it usually happens.

Saturday

At 9.00, on the 4^th floor there was a strong smell of fresh coffee. We will not say everyone came in time, but we assure you the excitement was there.

Soon, mentors were discussing projects with the teams, teams were recruiting members from each other to help with their missing skills, some ideas were dropped, some new ones came along and were picked for implementation. Organizers were continuously monitoring, to ensure there is progress going on, redirecting and supporting whoever needed it. Food was great and we were glad to find out teams can nicely combine fun and work.

Around 23.00, there was music at the 4^th floor. Everyone who was still in the building witnessed an amazing performance: Alexei Ciobanu learned the dance movements for YMCA – Village People.

Sunday

On Sunday it seemed that everyone has clearly understood what they are going to deliver in terms and technical details and the preparations for final presentations started.

The press was there all day, hunting organizers for details. The enthusiasm grew as we got closer to the 17.00. We could see guests coming in, journalists and cameramen.

There was a flow of presentations, emotions excitement questions and answers. And then some enjoyed the dinner and the some were puzzled with voting and eliciting the winners. The jury did a great job and here are the nominations and winning teams:

I place. Football Star – a social networking platform for football players and agents.
II place. FeedMeHoney – a tool for choosing recipes from available products.
III place. Online Stylist – a tool for selecting outfits based on personal data and preferences.

Special nominations:
1. Best presentation – Irina Chirica, Klaris
2. Youngest participant – Andrei Tolocica, FeedMeHoney
3. Best technical execution – Agile Game team, led by Artemii Vasilenco

All the winners received prizes from sponsors: smartphones and tickets to Above and Beyond from Orange, 3 teams were invited in Simpals Garage incubator and all the participating teams were given media support from Simpals.

Awards at Startup Weekend Moldova

There was an after party, but the details will not be shared. We do hope everyone enjoyed the event and the winning teams will have a great time listening to Above and Beyond, as Orange took care all of them get tickets.

We thank our sponsors, everyone who helped make this happen and wish good luck to the winning team at the Global Startup Battle.