Evanscorp helps fuel Start-up Camp 2

19 January 2008

Australian ICT has had a boost over the weekend with Start-up Camp 2 Sydney successfully developing 6 new products thanks to the help of enthusiastic entrepreneurs and support from sponsors such as Evanscorp.

Start-up Camp is a weekend get together of people from different disciplines who set themselves the challenge of developing a business concept with the goal of having a market ready product by the end of the weekend. Start-up Camp 2 Sydney started 6pm Friday 16th January, and by 9pm Saturday night, 6 brand new start-up companies with 6 unique product ideas, working prototypes, and web sites had come into existence. By Sunday afternoon each company had pitched to investors and were ready to be auctioned. The start-ups will be auctioned online over the next 3 weeks with proceeds going to the individual team members.

"I wish we had this sort of community activity 10 years ago when I started myself," says Phillip Evans, founder and Managing Director of Evanscorp. "It would have circumvented a lot of mistakes we made early on. We're really excited to be able to help support the next generation of ICT entrepreneurs in this way."

Bart Jellema, CTO of Tjoos.com and instigator of Start-up Camp, said "Even though this is our third Start-up Camp, I still find it amazing that a team of 6 complete strangers can come up with a great idea, build it, pitch it and promote it in only 24 hours. What the teams achieved this weekend shows that with the right attitude and dedication this dream can be realised in a very short time."

Start-up Camp 2 was well represented by Illawarra ICT firms. Evanscorp sponsored dinner on Saturday night whilst Geoff McQueen of HiiveSystems (also a sponsor) and Andrew Thornberry of Yuranga 'camped'.

"Start-up camp is a great idea for anyone interested in start-ups and solving real world problems with technology," says Andrew Thornberry, Managing Director of Yuranga. "I was amazed at how quickly a solution can come together with a small talented and highly focused team working on it."