Startup Weekend   is a global event where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their idea, find some teammates and work on creating a company for only 54 hours. The teams’ aim is to create a minimum viable product (MVP) at the end of 54 hours and pitch it to a panel of judges mostly comprised of investors and business people themselves. The first Startup Weekend Peel was organized by the RIC Centre in Mississauga and held at Sheridan College’s Hazel McCallion Campus .

According to the organizers, almost 90 participants signed up for the event and roughly a third of the participants pitched their idea on the first night. Out of all the pitches, only 11 teams got voted to continue to the next level. The whole of Saturday was spent mostly working on the company and listening to the wonderful talks provided by the mentors.

Sunday, October 21st was “the Pitch Day”. The 11 final teams presented what they had worked on over the weekend, provided an insight where they were at, what their next steps would be and what their “ask” was. Only 10 minutes were allotted per team, which included the presentation, MVP demo and the Q & A portion with the judges. Out of the 11 teams, Carddrop bagged the Grand Prize.

Carddrop http://carddrop.me  instantly adds full profile information to any phone’s contacts from any location without the use of an application or “app” With a simple scan or tap, multiple e-mails, phone numbers and even a profile photos are supported.

Carddrop took home the following prices:

$1000 Cash Prize by PointClickCare
$500 Training Certificate by VentureStart
$100 from 1st Customer by Silicon Halton
Free video coverage by SwitchVideo
3 hours of consulting by Candybox Marketing Inc.

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Elaine Dalit is a new contributor to the Silo and is a Realtor based in Mississauga, Ontario. She’s passionate about real estate, heritage, arts and tech startups. She blogs at www.whatsinthehood.com and www.homesbylainey.ca

Supplemental- https://www.thesilo.ca/its-not-up-to-government-to-act-as-an-investment-banker-to-support-some-businesses/ http://riccentre.ca/2012/10/get-your-business-cards-ready/