Kyle
26 year old Vanessa VanPetten emerged from the chaotic Portland Startup Weekend as the winner with shopmypins (photo: V. VanPetten)
Portland’s sixth startup weekend will go down in history as one of the craziest startup weekend’s ever. If you were checking up on Nibletz over the weekend you would have read this story about a man who was asked to leave Portland’s startup weekend. After he left he started tweeting that he was going to come back with explosives and guns. The organizers of the event increased security and had the event on a near lockdown for the rest of the weekend.
26 year old Vanessa VanPetten emerged from the action packed weekend as the winner with her new startup idea “Shop My Pins”. It wasn’t easy for VanPetten though, even with the disruption on Saturday she was still pitted against 16 other teams.
Game it up, a startup geared at teaching kids coding for video games won the award for “Outstanding Customer Validation”. “Outstanding Business Opportunity/Business Model” went to Matchable, which is a cell phone dating app. “Outstanding Execution” went to 15 year old Jackson Gariety for HashTraffic, a cross platform hashtag maker.
The Williamette Week reports that 15 year old Gariety and his HashTraffic were big hits and that Game It Up had already talked to Nintendo, Electronic Arts and IBM who had already started showing interest.
More after the break
We spoke to VanPetten about here startup and her startup weekend:
So briefly tell us what is shopmypins?
Shopmypins makes it easier for pinterest users to buy the pins they love by searching the image and finding them online retailers to buy it with an affiliate link.
Who are the co-founders and what are their backgrounds?
Right now, not sure officially yet…email me in two days.
How did you come up with the idea?
I love pinterest and was looking for a pair of pink heels. But every time I clicked on a pair it went to a dead link. I then took a screenshot of them and uploaded them to google images to find them on Amazon. I wished there was a way to automate that process. Boom–idea!
So this is a “call to action” or engagement for pinterest? I mean looking at pictures is nice but you’re about follow through right?
Yes! We are helping users be able to actually do something after seeing a product.
We are using affiliate links. Down the line paid sponsorships.
A few weeks (I hope)
You know I barely noticed him, but when they announced the threat one of our designers chose to leave. Ah, that scared me more!
Nope, he didn’t even join a team. But he did “pitch” so I guess he competed in that way.
I do not think so. We had some great teams.
This is my first tech startup. I started RadicalParenting in 2007 and ScienceofPeople in 2010. They are still running.
Good people, make a great product. It is all about the team.
When Pinterest is more mobile, we will definitely do a mobile app.
Yes! That is what we hope to roll out in a few weeks.
This will make your life easier! Don’t get frustrated on Pinterest with unlinked images. ShopMyPins makes buying your pins seamless.
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