YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY

Springfield, MO

Log in Subscribe

SoHoHQ organizers pitch their idea Sunday night at the Fox Theatre.SBJ photo by ERIC OLSON
SoHoHQ organizers pitch their idea Sunday night at the Fox Theatre.

SBJ photo by ERIC OLSON

SoHoHQ wins Springfield's first Startup Weekend competition

Posted online
After roughly 35 initial business pitches during Springfield’s first Startup Weekend, a social website for the self-employed came out the winner last night.

SoHoHQ, led by project manager Preston Balmain, was chosen by judges in the final round of eight pitches at the Fox Theatre on Park Central Square.

Over 40 people participated in the 54-hour competition to build a business from scratch. Teams of designers, developers and marketers formed around the entrepreneurial ideas voted the most popular.

“This is not about winning for us. We are going to continue it,” said Balmain, who works as an infrastructure project manager for Bass Pro Shops.

Balmain said the team’s plan is to build SoHoHQ to sell.

He said the idea started by talking to wives who work from home, and they discovered a bigger issue that home offices can create feelings of isolation, low motivation and even depression.

Balmain said the Startup Weekend process connected him to qualified tech developers and graphic designers, who are now committed to the project. Over the weekend, the team made SoHoHQ-branded T-shirts with the tagline “Discover virtually, meet locally” and launched a website, which had 12 active members this morning.

As first place winner, SoHoHQ receives three months of rent at Originate co-working space in The eFactory and three hours of project management work by RefineM.

“It’s about cultivating a community that is fresh and vibrant,” said Startup Weekend co-organizer Cody Stringer, who works for event co-sponsor Mercy Research & Development.

The second-place winner was Our City Support, an app for local governments to connect with their constituents that has Nixa on board for a pilot, and third place was Peanuted, a shipping system to send surprise packages and make donations to charity.

Judges were Craig Frazier, the former chief operating officer at HealthMedX and a board member for University of Missouri Health Care; Josh Holstein, CEO of Springfield startup CellARide; and Jeff Amerine, a founder of Startup Junkie Consulting in northwest Arkansas.

Other Startup Weekend events took place Jan. 23-25 in Billings, Mont.; Monterey Bay, Calif.; and York Region, Canada. Next weekend, events are in Arizona, India and Yemen.

Startup Weekend, described as a grassroots movement by entrepreneurs and organized by UP Global, started in 2007 in Boulder, Colo., and now operates from Seattle. There were 1,800 Startup Weekend events across 120 countries last year.

According to StartupWeekend.org, 36 percent of startups created are still in business after three months.[[In-content Ad]]

Comments

No comments on this story |
Please log in to add your comment
Editors' Pick
From the Ground Up: Republic Intermediate School

The Republic School District is on track to open its Intermediate School for fifth- and sixth-grade students for the 2025-26 academic year.

Most Read
Update cookies preferences