Startup Weekend is a global event held in over 150 cities all over the world, and the Karachi version kicked off on Friday at The Nest I/O with more than 100 participants, according to a press release by the technology incubator.

The theme for this year was “Start for the City” and over 60 ideas were pitched on the first night, followed by a short networking and lobbying session where participants try to gather support for their ideas. The day ended with top ideas being picked through voting, on which teams started work the next day, the press release said.

The winner of Startup Weekend Karachi 2019 was My DOPU, an app that provides a safe and affordable pick and drop van service for school children with a live tracking option for parents. The first runner-up was Water ATM, which addressed the water scarcity problem in Karachi, while the second runner-up was Gamelist, a one-stop shop for gamers.

The second day featured a panel discussion titled “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Gets Going”, moderated by Sahar Habib Ghazi, with panelists Maha Jawed, founder of Easy and Fatsos; Kumail Abbas, CEO & co-founder, Find My Adventure; Raania Durrani, co-founder & artistic director Salt Arts; and Marium Kamal, and Safwan Sabzwari, co-founders Six Eyes Collective.

Throughout the course of the weekend, the 17 teams developed a basic business model, financial plan and marketing campaign around their initial business ideas. These ideas were then pitched to a panel of judges on the last day, from which top three teams were picked.

Jehan Ara, President P@SHA and founder of The Nest I/O, spoke about how the Startup Weekend format is very useful for startup beginners. “All these amazing individuals will leave with basic knowledge of entrepreneurship and first hand experience of how to build a startup from scratch - and that’s something that no trophy can replace,” she said.

The judges, which included Jehan Ara, Misbah Naqvi of i2i Ventures, and Shahid Mustafa of Telenor Microfinance Bank, also gave two special mentions, in addition to the winners. These included Positive Parenting - a platform to help new parents with basic parenting, and ArtisO - a platform which allows artists to sell/auction their creations.

“In just two days we learned how to populate a business canvas, how to analyze customers and segment them, how to effectively pitch, and to actually turn your idea into a startup," commented Samira Wajid, one of the attendees of Startup Weekend Karachi 2019.

"The energy here was contagious, but the best part was meeting all these like-minded people who are just as passionate.”

Some of the coaches present throughout the weekend included Sana Farooq, Founder & CEO ELN (The E-Learning Network); Sameer Ahmed Khan, Founder Social Champ; Sabeen Murad, Founder Maya’s Closet; Saba Khalid, Founder Aurat Raaj; Mashood Rastgar, CTO Sastaticket.pk; Nazish Hassain, Founder Secret Stash, and Sibtain Jiwani, Founder & CEO Smartchoice.pk.