Startup Weekend brings together tech entrepreneurs in Karachi

KARACHI: Local entrepreneurs came together to showcase their innovative ideas to industry leaders and experts at Startup Weekend in Karachi.

The event was held from 24th to 26th March organised by The Nest I/O, where more than 80 attendees came together to form 27 teams and worked on ideas ranging across a diverse mix of fields.

Startup Weekend is a global event held by local organisers in over 150 cities all over the world. The 54-hour event brings together local entrepreneurs and industry leaders to collaborate on ideas, form teams, and pitch in front of a panel of judges.

During this period, all the teams were coached and mentored by a number of experts, carefully chosen by local organisers to ensure that all the teams made the best product pitches possible.

Final presentations were held on Sunday night at the venue, where each team was given three minutes to pitch and then two minutes were allotted for a Q and A session with the judges. The three winning teams were given trophies, while all attendees got participation certificates.

The second runner up for Startup Weekend Karachi 2017 was Gardener, an online gardening service which provides gardening services through an App, while the runner-up was TrashIt, a composting bin which enables people to dispose off their trash more efficiently.

The winner of the event was Mirror Magician, a mirror that would take a picture using augmented reality and picture automation.

A special mention was also given to Auctee, a real-time auctioning service through secure accounts, and Champion Mango, a service offering premium mangos with great packaging through a variety of distribution channels.

The Nest I/O is a technology incubator and community hub launched by the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) with global partners Google for Entrepreneurs and Samsung, and through a supporting grant from the US State Department. It provides budding entrepreneurs with space, testing devices, mentoring, a specialised curriculum, access to investors and to a vast network of business people. It also provides them with an opportunity to form life-long friendships with individuals like themselves.