From close to one hundred people, 16 startup companies formed late Friday evening at Triangle Startup Weekend: Maker. The event, designed to bring together the Triangle’s “maker” community, attracted a diverse population, ranging from13 through 60 years old with backgrounds as expected as software design and as unexpected as a line cook.
A mix of innovative ideas came about, but only one would take home top honors: RoamSafe.
The device will serve as a “wireless child leash,” said Brendan Andrade, who pitched the idea in what started as a bit of a joke. (You can learn more about RoamSafe via its Twitter feed.)
The company seeks to design a wearable wireless tracker so that parents can track their children. The company won top honors from the guest panel of judges and the crowd favorite award.
Second place went to CANimpact, which designed a portable water bottle in the shape of a jerrycan. This group plans to raise awareness about global water issues and donate a portion of sales to global water initiatives.
Throughout the weekend at the new HQ Raleigh shared office headquarters in Raleigh’s Warehouse District, individuals and teams collectively tackled difficult manufacturing and engineering problems to develop real-world solutions and businesses around problems that a wide array of consumers face in their day to day lives.
Participants join more than 10,000 Startup Weekend alumni nationwide, and some of the sixteen teams plan to continue developing their projects out of HQ Raleigh or from other locations in the Triangle.
Signing off after a long weekend – look forward to the next Triangle Startup Weekend in May at the second annual Datapalooza. The theme? Open Health Data.
“Maker” Snapshots
Here are snapshots of the 16 presenters as put together by each team for the weekend:
- The Jerrycan Group
Five guys who are passionate about helping stop “jerrycanning,” the process of traveling far for water and having to return with it. This is commonplace in Africa.
- RightWrap
A product that allows users to wrap presents in cloth instead of traditional wrapping paper.
- Team Koupon
We are working on designing targeted promotions/offers strategy via a web app which tracks users preferences like places to visit, activities to do, and personal choice all entered by users them-selfs. This product/service will connect businesses to potential users with some great promotion offers/deal they have to offer at the right time when users intends to use the service.
- Team Neuro
See-U. is an app that tracks the user through a set of standard poses. How many doctors accurately assess our changes over time? What if you could view a virtual body that depicts you as you are? Many disorders like Parkinson’s show subtle signs before they are clinical. This is a tool to help people with eating disorders, inactivity, postural changes, depression, and other problems finally connect with their reality to take positive steps.
Our technology will also guide people through exercises and fitness games to help them look and feel better and monitor changes in a fun way. We have already established market interest from several areas in this product.
As part of our social contract, we intend to donate a portion of our proceeds for neurological research.
- College Chat
A social networking application to connect college students within their universities.
- PedsSight
We make low cost, non-threatening wearable devices to monitor and record data about children with neurological, muscular or other disorders. The devices are worn at home and in the community to collect data without expensive and disruptive in-patient stays. We use gamification to encourage kids to cooperatively wear the devices for extended periods.
- Babybirdsfeeding
Birdfeeder Paparazzi
We’re building a birdfeeder that tweets photos of the birds paying you a visit
- Blink
Simple biometrics wristband (heartrate, perspriation) that alerts Google Glass to save buffered video. In essence, if something significant happens, our monitor can detect that, and provide a seamless way to save that moment.
“With Blink, you won’t miss it”
- ReKeychain
Replacing standard key chains with a streamlined key holder to easily fit in a pants pocket.
- Tangicode
We want to teach fundamental programming concepts to children as young as four years old by encouraging physical interaction and experimentation to achieve specific goals. Children will use physical blocks that represent fundamental programming concepts in order to guide a video game character through various obstacles.
- Gather
Handcrafted gifted experiences delivered to your home. Relationships start with you.
- Kettlebell Grips
A replacement for weightlifting gloves that you wont forget to bring to the gym
- Beer Buoy
Stablized koozies.
- Roam
Roam gives parents peace of mind when taking their kids out in public. The Roam wireless tracking device will alert parents when their children become separated from them.
- Buildz-a-Bot
Robot kit
- Drone Claw
A quadcopter with a claw attachment for extra functionality to serve various purposes like: search and rescue missions, clean up services, fire rescue supplementation services, recreational drone recovery from trees, offshore oil rig services, nuclear waste material recovery.
