This document summarizes the progress and atmosphere of teams participating in the Startup Weekend Cedar Falls event on the afternoon before the final pitches. It describes four of the teams - inSight, BlipLearn, Simple Connection, and Alarrrm - and notes their team sizes, ideas, developments over the weekend, and attitudes as they prepared for the final pitches. The teams worked collaboratively at the event space, taking breaks for ping pong and snacks, while transforming and refining their ideas with input from mentors and each other.

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STARTUP WEEKEND CEDAR FALLS: WHO WILL
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CEDAR FALLS – Mellow.
That’s the best word to describe the mood early Sunday afternoon as Startup Weekend Cedar Falls
teams work together in the time between the frenzy of Saturday’s heavy work day and the
rollercoaster ride of tonight’s final pitches.
The main competition of the early afternoon? A ferocious ping pong tournament that drew team
members out of their temporary office space at UNI’s Center for Energy & Environmental Education
(CEEE).
The team office spaces were littered with hot pink and green sticky notes, empty Red Bull cans and
Styrofoam carry-out containers. The scent of very strong raw onion permeated the air but no one
seemed to mind too much. Free food is free food and they were happy for it.
Here’s background on a few of the teams:
inSight
On the second floor the inSight team of seven—one developer, two designers and four non-technical
members—happily worked on the idea which required all day buy-in. Through team building and
working with each other, the group transformed the idea originally pitched by Andrew Baird, a
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2. University of Iowa entrepreneurship student, into “something pretty cool” that had been originally
pitched on Friday.
“Having seven minds instead of just one is beneficial and crucial,” said Stephanie Mathena, UNI
graphic design senior.
It’s a really excited group with different skill sets, said Russel Karim, UNI computer
science/entrepreneurship major.
They also credited Saturday’s mentors for the transformation.
“They asked us questions to make us think differently,” said Trent Schulte, UNI/finance MIS. Were
they ready to pitch to the judges in a few hours? Team members smiled and laughed at the
suggestion.
“Give it ‘til 5 and we’ll be ready,” Schulte said.
BlipLearn
The guys on the all-male BlipLearn team didn’t seem to be worried about the time crunch. It’s a high-
tech team of seven, including four developers.
They’d taken Jamey Davis’s original idea and focused it, but other than that kept it the same. That
made Davis “super happy.” He’s been a developer at Far Reach “for 64 days,” he said.
They met for the first time on Friday night after more than half of the team had made pitches and
came together to make one idea work.
“We’re the team with the most visionaries,” Davis said.
Sure, they’d had a few disagreements but they always approached resolution in a friendly
atmosphere.
“Yes-men don’t get a group anywhere,” Davis said.
Simple Connection
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3. Several yards down the hallway the 100% non-tech Simple Connection team members were heads
down pulling together their how-to idea. Still in the theoretical stage of the idea, they weren’t
bothered by the absence of developers on their team.
Alarrrm
In a dark corner under the back stairs under the watchful eyes of a somewhat menacing hand-drawn
logo the the Alarrrm team of five plugged away.
The idea stayed relatively the same over the weekend.
“We made it more robust, so we added a key character story behind the idea,” said Jason Thompson,
UX/UI designer at Visual Logic.
The group’s sole developer said he’d pitched the idea. His goal as a developer is to make tech
products easy to use and attractive.
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DOROTHY DE SOUZA GUEDES
Dorothy de Souza Guedes is a Cedar Valley freelance journalist and paralegal.
Twitter: @dorothydsg (https://twitter.com/dorothydsg)
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