This weekend I was invited over to the wonderful country of Romania yet again (1 2 3), This time to facilitate Startup Weekend Iasi (pronounced something like “ee-ash”) in the far far east of the country.

And what an incredibly spectacularly stellar weekend it was!

First of all – The INSANE Venue:

Then this guy kicked it off on the Friday evening, day 1 of 3.

And made everybody play Half-Baked.

Then we pitched our ideas.

Then we voted for our favorite ideas that would go on to form teams.

And then we formed teams.

And we started to work, work, WORK.

On the second day, day 2 of 3, the awesome Adi Pica gave us all some pitch training.

And this guy was talking about something or another.

Then the coaches arrived and we got some feedback on what we were working on.

You got to start them young! This is one of the awesomest things I see regularly at Romanian tech and startup events – People bring their young kids. An example to follow anywhere and everywhere.

On the Sunday, day 3 of 3, it was time to present to a full house and a jury what we had created and learnt on the weekend.

Full house!

But first we had a little celebration of startup rockstar Mayel de Borniol of Bableverse‘s birthday.

And then it was time to present.

And the jury asked hard questions.

And the winner is… Well, not so fast – First there were diplomas and gifts for all sponsors, mentors and participants. A very nice touch.

And the winner is… Excitement rising…

… See Me – A location-based solution to keep track of your kids!

 

The EPICLY AWESOME organizing team – Thank you for putting on a STELLAR Startup Weekend:

And thank you to the participants who made me this funny caricature:

One of the things that makes Startup Weekend Iasi legendary is how well organized the whole event is. Another is how incredibly well they take care of their facilitator, sponsors and mentors with a full extracurricular program.

Sightseeing in the lovely old town of Iasi:

Wine tasting with a sommelier that looks like Ed Norton:

Celebrating Mayel’s birthday with Josef, Mary and Phil was legend added to the SW lore.