5 months, 150 startup ideas and nearly 7,000 votes after we launched the #GetStarted2014 startup competition, the time has finally come to announce the winner.
Back in April, we asked you to submit your startup ideas to the #GetStarted2014 website, and what a great response we’ve had! We’ve seen brilliant ideas from people with distant dreams of entrepreneurship to established early days startups already in development, from all over North America and Europe.
Over the last few weeks, the panel of judges have been busy choosing their winner from the 10 finalists you voted for through the #GetStarted2014 website. Our panel of esteemed judges included tech angel Christopher Muenchhoff, entrepreneur Cindy Gallop (makelovenotporn), author Srinivas Rao (Unmistakable Creative), entrepreneur Jessica Erickson (Geekettes), VC Nicolas Wittenborn (Point Nine Capital), and entrepreneur Judith Clegg (Takeout).
It was certainly a tough choice and one that, for the most part, the judges didn’t agree on!
But there can only be one winner, so without further ado, we introduce you to Social Belly…
Congratulations Social Belly!
London based Social Belly is described by founder Dimple Lalwani as “Airbnb for dinner parties”… a “social marketplace that allows users to monetise their culinary passion, make new friends and enjoy great food at a great value.”
With the Social Belly platform, users can choose to attend or host dinner parties in and around London, as an exciting (and affordable!) alternative to the usual restaurant scene. Check out Social Belly’s winning video pitch to hear Dimple explain her idea in detail…
As the winner of #GetStarted2014, Social Belly will receive:
- £25,000 worth of support from Simpleweb
- A customised marketing plan from Onboardly worth $15,000
- A place on the Rackspace Startup Programme worth £15,900
- £2,000 worth of legal advice from TLT
Social Belly was the only idea to be chosen as a winner by two judges – Nicolas Wittenborn and Jessica Ericsson. Nicolas liked the site design and product pitch and described the idea as “kitchensurfing meets meetup :)”. Jessica was a fan of the “clear concise pitch, fun element to the presentation and a product I would use!”
Runners up
Rackspace have very kindly offered to extend their prize of membership to the Rackspace Startup Programme to the #GetStarted2014 runners up!
The runners up, who will be eligible for up to £1,325/month off their Rackspace web hosting costs are…
Joint second place
useit
A web platform for sharing unused resources: goods, skills, spaces and spare time, based in Italy.
See useit’s original entry on getstarted2014.co.uk and watch their video pitch on YouTube.
Dojo
A US-based simple rental search tool that allows users to browse listings with a single gesture.
See Dojo’s original entry on getstarted2014.co.uk and watch their video pitch on YouTube.
Third place
Pricelizer
An automatic price alert tool that will tell you when the price drops, based in Sweden.
See Pricelizer’s original entry on getstarted2014.co.uk or watch the video pitch on YouTube.
What’s next?
We’ll be getting in touch with all entrants to pass on all the judge’s feedback and share some resources that will help them to further grow and develop their ideas.
The competition may be over (for this year!), but the #GetStarted2014 website is still open for anyone looking to showcase their startup idea.
“We love working with startups” said Mark Panay, CEO of Simpleweb, “We wanted to share our passion with the world and establish our position in the startup community. We’re now extremely excited to help turn the winner’s startup dream into a reality.”
If you have any questions about #GetStarted2014, don’t be shy, get in touch today!
