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Google for Entrepreneurs, Aplos Innovations and Dot Zero organized Startup Weekend Karachi at Institute of Business Administration, Karachi from 20th November to 22nd November 2015.
Startup Weekend Lahore and Karachi both happened at the same time but different cities in Pakistan. And, TechJuice has been giving you updates of how these events commenced.
For the uninitiated, Startup Weekend is a global grass root movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 1800 past events in 120 countries around the world.
The event was managed by Team Aplos Innovations that were there to guide, mentor and support participants with their relevant expertise.
“Aplos Innovations believes in the strength of technology & entrepreneurship, and how they can act as strong catalysts to our socio-economical growth. It was a sight of pure pleasure to see so many young entrepreneurs working in collaboration towards innovative ideas under the guidance of mentors to create a business that can be “the next big thing”, said Mr. Owais Afaq, CEO, Aplos Innovations
Over the course of three days, the participants pitched their ideas, formed teams, created the prototype and presented their final business plan. The event had guest speaker sessions by Sumair Abro –Consultant at Funverks and Adam Dawood – CEO at Kaymu and apart from that, on-going mentoring sessions were arranged for participants with leading technopreneurs and industry gurus. The final day was full of energy where 11 teams presented their prototypes and were evaluated by judges. The winning teams and runners up were as follows:
1st Prize: Financialspro.com (Online financial and risk management solution for SME’s)
2nd Prize: IoT – Internet of Things (Home Automation)
3rd Prize: BuddayMash (Birthday Wishing App)
“Startup Weekend is a big opportunity for all the budding entrepreneurs who are looking for a platform to pitch and present their ideas. Startup Weekend Karachi is part of a global celebration happening in over 250 cities the next 2 weekends and we really want our winning team to be among the shortlisted ideas which will compete in the Global Battle. It would indeed be a proud moment for all of us”, said Mr. Hashim Yasin, facilitator of Startup Weekend.
