From simple ideas to winning businesses

Manila, Philippines -  An online game application that makes daily chores appealing to children and a mobile system that eliminates the hassle of waiting in line emerged as the victors in the recent Startup Weekend 2012 competition in Manila and Cebu.

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour competition where developers, designers, marketers, technopreneurs, and venture capitalists come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startup businesses.

Kiddle bested 28 other teams which made it to the final round in the Startup Weekend Manila 2012 . “Everyone on our team has slogged through the daily chores list as kids and is now experiencing what it is to be on the other side of that list as parents, so we want to offer a more engaging experience doing household chores by introducing game elements,” according to Kiddle proponents Welborne Laguinday, August Manayan, Juan Karlo Licudine, Nicole Policarpio, Nicole Macarasig and Mony Romana.

Wait Know More, on the other hand, not only won first prize in the Cebu leg but also received the Faster World Award from Kickstart Ventures, Inc., the fully-owned incubator firm of leading telecommunications company Globe Telecom.

“I guess our passion to get rid of those long lines and make people more productive helped secure the win for us, along with our great teamwork”, said team leader Janessa Padin. Members are Kaom Te, George Padin, Cedric Santos Jr., Lance Quejada, Dandeljane Maraat, Cyrus Rufino, Kristian Jacob Abad Lora, Wesley Chiongbian, and Jason Coppage.

For Manila, other winners are: Ridefind.ph (making carpooling safe, comfortable, stress-free and economical), 2nd place; Traqme (permission-based android mobile application that gives location information), 3rd place; Sphere (online graphic novel site patterned after the choose-your-own-adventure storybooks), 4th place; Best Ecommerce Award, SpinMe Buddy (random decision-maker using an online spinning wheel); Mentor’s Dojo (connecting mentors with entrepreneurs interested in starting a business), People’s Choice Award; and 1Share1Life (securing donations from people minus the scam), Build a Better World Award.

For Cebu, the rest of the winners areLuto.co (Android application to help food lovers save pantry resources), 2nd place; Codetoki (employment apps for students), 3rd place; and Commute.ph (alleviating traffic problems through web and mobile geolocator), People’s Choice Award.

Startup Weekend Manila 2012 is a US format brought to the Philippines by pioneering incubator Kickstart Ventures, Inc., web engineering firms Proudcloud and Dynamic Objx, and innovative educator MINT College, with the support of Globe. The organizers believed that Startup Weekend creates both a forum as well as the stimulus to generate breakthrough ideas from tech communities in key cities of the country, starting with the Manila pilot in October 2011, and extending to different cities.