Following an informative address from Startup Weekend Facilitator Hashem Zahran, a number of aspiring entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to the audience. Nine ideas have been chosen and teams formed to develop the ideas into viable business plans. Each team includes participants with various qualifications and experiences including web design and development, marketing, business development and public relations. The idea names are Student Tube, Future Mobi Network, EZ Pay, Everyweb, Alpha, Charitime, Paycell, Gozilla and Search Bahrain.
Batelco Staff Centre will remain open round the clock giving the teams’ access to facilities to develop their business models in preparation for presenting them to a panel of judges on Saturday evening.
Startup Weekend Bahrain has attracted excellent support with speakers and mentors from leading companies including Mumtalakat, Microsoft, Ericsson, BDB, O2, Venture Coms, Dynavate Technologies, 4 Spots and Batelco, all volunteering their time to support the teams in developing their business ideas.
The teams are competing for cash prizes, funding and technical support to put their business plans into action. First prize is BD4000 cash, second prize is BD2000 and third prize is BD1000. Additionally the first three teams will be given free enrolment into Bahrain Development Bank’s (BDB’s) Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Furthermore, all teams will have the opportunity to possibly benefit from funding from Tenmou of up BD20,000 and BDB will be evaluating the projects during the weekend to see if they qualify for the Pre-Seed Capital Support Scheme, that is jointly run with Tamkeen and which includes a grant of up to BD5000.
Organisations such as Tenmou, BDB and Tamkeen , who are participating in the event, hope to find new startups to fund and support. These organisations have established programmes to offer advice and support to innovative entrepreneurs to help bring business ideas to life and in doing so enhance the economy of Bahrain. Furthermore, Batelco, through its newly established Innovation Centre, hopes to select a relevant project to offer its financial and technical support to, following the weekend.
Startup Weekend is a 54 hour event that provides the networking, resources, and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch. Startup Weekend’s motto is Build Community. Start Companies. No Talk, All Action, Startup events are open to anyone interested in their local entrepreneurial community and it puts them in a setting where anything is possible. In the past two years over 280 startups have started and over 9000 entrepreneurs have been inspired at event all over the world.