Ribbn

"Every startup should do at least once a 48-hour hackathon with the full team!" But why? In Estonia, the land of unicorns, hackathons for existing startups are a thing. In most other countries, hackathons involve forming a temporary team to brainstorm a product idea and create a working prototype or mockup within 48 hours. The founders of unicorn startup Pipedrive popularized the concept of conducting internal hackathons over 48 hours within a startup. Born out of necessity, as all the founders were full-time employees, these weekend hackathons were their only opportunity to collaborate on product development. This process, carried out over half a year, led to their first MVP. Hackathon practitioners Ragnar Sass, and later Andrus Purde, and Linnar Viik have since promoted and popularized internal hackathons. Why is this beneficial? The same team is already working on the product. What added value does a weekend together bring? Here are four key benefits: 1️⃣ Distraction-free time - No calls, emails, or meetings 2️⃣ Focus - The entire team concentrates on 1-2 tasks 3️⃣ Time pressure - The team finds improved methods under time constraints 4️⃣ Strategic discussions - Time for discussions that often get overlooked Superangel investment fund, in collaboration with Garage48, elevated this concept. They've conducted seven Base Camp hackathons, where 10-20 startups gather at one location to: 🎯 Set their 48-hour objectives 🗣️ Receive face-time with experienced mentors for insightful feedback 🏆 Compete with other participants to achieve more in 48 hours The internal hackathon concept aligns well with the eight-month program at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). The CDL program is based on two-month sprints to achieve a startup's three most important objectives. Top-level investors, scientists, and founders volunteer to help startups achieve these objectives. This is why CDL-Estonia is thrilled to give our small contribution to Superangel's 8th Base Camp hackathon in Sweden (April 12-13). Three CDL mentors, Kalev Kaarna, Kart Siilats, and Veljo Otsason, will join 20 experts to help startups level up in 48 hours. Looking forward meeting all 11 Base Camp startups: Certainli, Embedl, JULI, Microspace, ML Genics, molnett, Rebaba, Ribbn, Sircular, Tab Technology, Your Beet 📣 ANNOUNCEMENT 📣 Deep tech or tech-heavy startups in STOCKHOLM! Kalev Kaarna, a CDL mentor, is offering an exclusive one-hour consultation on improving sales or fundraising on April 12 or 13. To secure this opportunity, send a direct message to him on LinkedIn. Describe your problem, the kind of feedback and insights you're seeking. ♻️ Comment or share this post to let more people know about this opportunity.

The Finalists of the Pitch40 competition! 🚀 It’s a great selection of promising startups with the potential to change their industry or the world. See them pitch live on Thursday at The Tech Arena 2024. The grand finale is on Friday on the Arena Stage. The Finalists: Zeabuz - Autonomy for urban ferry operators Plantvation AB - Digitized forest seedling production PlasticFri® - Plant-based eco-friendly plastics n-ink - Stable, printable semiconductive ink PANTER - Reusable takeaway system Drupps - Recycling airborne wastewater Tructric - Seamless road-to-rail transportation SAVEGGY - Plant-based food coating Simpel Transport - Environmentally friendly shipping Reselo: Enabling Sustainable Living! - Sustainable biomaterials SLY - Mitigating wildfires for decarbonization Prizbee - Rewarding children's learning digitally Mifundo - Cross-border lending data solution Moi Panda - Global digital citizenship platform Combify AB - Construction project data collection Charly Equity - Fintech addressing economic inequalities Meitner AB - Digitized school platform CRQLAR - Unique hotel experience app Caidio - AI optimizing concrete construction Logcast - Voice streaming platform Fibbl - Automated 3D model production Leya - AI-driven legal services Ribbn - AI-powered commerce for resale Embedl - Efficient Deep Learning in Automotive and IoT Allye - Sustainable energy solutions Qlerify (Techstars '23) - AI-powered process modeling QuantPi - Efficient AI usage solutions VGANG - AI predicting product trends for retailers EedenBull - Payments fintech for banks bifrost security - Tailor-made runtime security Boldr - Building connected hardware and software Sikoia - Streamlining financial services verification Verdify - Personalized online recipe content Spoke - Mental health care through music Alba Health - Baby gut health discovery Atlas Primer - Interactive learning material VIDEM - Affordable disease diagnostics Parallel Health - Next-gen skin telehealth Intelligyn - AI-driven gynecological ultrasound Cardo Health - AI-enabled digital health solution Tech2heal - Remote patient monitoring platform Finnadvance - Organ-On-Chip for human biology mimicry Thank you to all the entrepreneurs who applied. The selection committee had quite a challenge evaluating and selecting the finalists from the hundreds of startups that applied. They focused on following the criteria: 🔝 Scalability ❄ Uniqueness ♻ Sustainability 🎯 Market potential 🌍 Global applicability 👥 Team skills and competency Ok, you counted? Yes, there are more than 40 companies. The selection committee reviewed hundreds of applications, and we just couldn’t say no to some of them. And it is always great to give a few more entrepreneurs a great opportunity. Stay tuned for more Pitch40 info! #techarena24 #pitchcompetiton #startup