Summerland Secondary’s Entrepreneurs club members recently attended a Startup Weekend event in Kelowna, where one of the students came home with first prize.
Josh Frear, Calum Bird, Grant Mansiere, Hannah Patterson and Graham Dykstra all attended the event, which is open to entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. Instructors and mentors Charles Lay, Raja Gupta and Daniel Dinsmore accompanied the students.
The weekend is an intense 54-hour long grind where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups.
The event was attended by 65 entrepreneurs, of which there were 10 successful pitches. Ten teams were formed and charged with the challenge of developing a comprehensive business plan.
The teams worked through the weekend to complete their tasks and by Sunday evening at 6 p.m. each of the 10 teams pitched to a panel of dragons in front of several hundred people. Each of the Summerland students made valuable contributions to their teams, but after the judges put their heads together, it was Josh Frear being awarded the first prize, coming out on top over competitors whose average age was in their late 20s and almost all employed or self-employed in the tech industry.
To get his business started Frear receives three months free of office space, all access to events and mentorship workshops and $2500 for legal fees at Lawson Lundell.