OneSpark Comes Alive In Downtown Jacksonville

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Downtown Jacksonville has come alive with thousands of entrepreneurs, do-ers and creators in the first of it’s kind Crowdfunding Festival called OneSpark.

The five day festival runs from now through Sunday. Creators in music, art, science and technology are all showing off their wares while also competing for attendee dollars and attendee votes.

The festival has taken the crowdfunding concepts introduced by sites like kickstarter and Indiegogo and brought them offline and in person to hundreds of venues throughout the downtown area of Jacksonville.

Nibletz is on the ground in Jacksonvillr and we look forward to introducing you to the creators from across the country and around the world, exhibiting here at OneSpark.

But make no mistake about it, this is far more than an exhibition. All of the creators (startups) are looking for people to crowdfunding their ideas in person.

As for the voting, OneSpark has over $1,000,000 committed for a fund that will distribute money to the creators with the most votes. One of the biggest supporters of OneSpark, and the biggest contributor to the fund is Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid “Shad” Khan.

Throughout the event creators will be pitching their ideas to the audience at pitch stages set up all over downtown.

Today all ready we’ve seen a very innovative startup called Quick Solar. This company is working on a drag and drop platform for homeowners and other interested folks to drop solar panels on google maps images of their home.

Quick Solar will take these users through the cost saving benefits of moving to solar energy and eventually the company will link with providers that can install your solar system.

Creators from every corner of the globe and business are here. We also saw crowdfunding at the local level with Red Sable Art Supply.

This company is hoping to create an art supply store and collaborative work space for artists in St.Augustine Florida.

Currently, artists in the area are driving 1-3 hours away to find an adequate art supply store where they can learn about their supplies, techniques and actually squeeze bottles, feel paint brushes and talk to real humans.

Stick with us for OneSpark coverage here.

Jacksonville Startup Weekend Entrepreneur Has Domain Name Ripped Off

Pinstitute,Startup Weekend,Jacksonville,Tampa,Banyan,startup newsJacksonville just recently held a Startup Weekend event. The event, like most Startup Weekends, brought hordes of entrepreneurs, hackers, developers and designers together under one roof to build companies over a 54 hour period.

Jennifer Chapman, was one of those entrepreneurs.

She had an idea called “Pinstitute” an online education platform taking the concepts behind sites like Skillshare and applying them to Pinterest. Basically, a platform to buy and sell online classes to make the cool stuff you see on Pinterest.

“I’m relieved, I’m excited, I’m a little anxious that I’m about to take on this amazing new venture,” Chapman said after her first-place win reports the Jacksonville Business Journal. “This is amazing, it’s been an awesome experience.”

Co-founder of Banyan, and new Chattanooga resident, Toni Gemayel, was one of the judges for the Jacksonville event, giving some great advice to Chapman, “Don’t let anyone leave here with your idea”.

Unfortunately that’s what somebody did. Chapman couldn’t afford the $3800 for the premium Pinstitute domain name, and by the end of Startup Weekend, someone at the event had shelled out the money for it, someone not on her team.

“That was disappointing to hear that somebody would do that,” said Todd Smith, one of the event’s five judges. “At the end of the day, it’s the person with the vision and the execution who is the real entrepreneur.”

In the end it looks like Chapman will move forward with the idea, perhaps under a different domain. File this one under total douchebag.