Kyle
Jacksonville 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.