There are always excuses when it comes to starting your own business…the economy isn’t well, the finances aren’t there, there isn’t enough time. Sydney-based BootUp Camp begs the question: what if all of those barriers were eliminated and for two weeks, you focused on nothing but launching your business? Assisted and facilitated by some of Sydney’s most experienced entrepreneurs and investors, BootUp Camp is a free program that asks members only to take a two week vacation where every day becomes a fast-paced step in launching a business.
Yesterday I ran into one of the BootUp Camp participants at a Syndey entreprenurs meetup as he took a break away from the program to pitch his new baby. BootUp was born out of a similar Sydney event known as StartUp Camp, where participants had a weekend to launch their business, giving birth to companies including uTag and Activity Horizon.
Companies formed out of BootUp include Open On Demand, Menu Fan, Judge It Now and Gluten Zero (interesting market since I noticed a mobile gluten product was also one of the companies formed out of the recent MEGA program.) As of today, the 17th, the fledgling businesses are currently in the official launch day, learning legal advice on running their company. When I ran into Humphrey, of Judge It Now, on Thursday he had just completed pitching his company at the Sydney TiE event and learning to do PR for his the design judging site. I decided to put his pitching skills to the test in front of the IPitch cameras, and you can watch him sell Judge It Now here:
I’m going to try to make sure IPitch is out at BootUp for the media day on the the 22nd when the companies make their big formal launches and present them to local press. Frankly, I’m interested in participating in BootUp camp myself, but I’d rather it be in Melbourne than Sydney. Melbourne has had its own StartUp Camps in the past (most recently in April) and I’d love to see BootUp camp make it’s way south. Anyone else interested in taking two weeks to make a business?
