Spotlight on Startups: Hybrid chew toy/robot wins Global Startup Battle for U of T students
Published: February 19, 2014
They took top spot in a startup contest involving more than 20,000 entrepreneurs across 40 countries.
Now, one of the U of T students who triumphed in Global Startup Battle explains how Pawly − an interactive robot built for the rough-and-tumble chomping of a rowdy dog − won the day.
A durable digital toy that lets owners interact remotely with their pets via smartphone, Pawly was first developed by third-year Civil Engineering student Gordon Dri, alumnus and Master of Engineering student Yunan Zhao, and their team of engineers, designers and strategists during an intense 54-hour contest called Startup Weekend: Maker Edition in Toronto. (Read more about Pawly)
Startup Weekend events are held across the world in cities ranging from Cape Town and Islamabad to Melbourne and beyond. Finalists from each weekend move on to a championship round called the Global Startup Battle − dominated most recently by teams with members from U of T.
The Spotlight on Startups series profiles the many entrepreneurial efforts growing from the hundreds of companies spun out from research and connections sparking every day at the University of Toronto:
U of T hosts more than 50 enterprise-fostering courses, programs, labs, clubs, contests and speaker series across its faculties, departments and campuses — and then there are all the innovations developing in informal settings. U of T ranks No. 1 in North America for number of startups launched. And its roster of spin-off companies driving innovation in Toronto and around the world continues to grow.
Pawly-- one such informally created project-- had placed second at its Startup Weekend behind Griflens, a team developing a set of interactive story beads for children. Griflens, whose roster included Helen Kula, librarian at University of Toronto Mississauga’s Institute of Management and Innovation, went on to take third place overall in the Global Startup Battle while Pawly won the championship. (Read more about Griflens)
“The Pawly team is perhaps the best example of what can be accomplished at a Startup Weekend when you combine great skill, motivation and impressive teamwork,” said Chris Eben, founding organizer of Startup Weekend Toronto.
“Their success in this significant annual competition demonstrates that Toronto’s startup community is an international powerhouse. The rest of the world should take note – Toronto is where you want to build your startup!”
Dri spoke with U of T News about the Pawly team’s experience in the global competition.
I realized that all great entrepreneurs in the past surrounded themselves with like-minded individuals and fed off their innovation and creativity. Therefore, I wanted to join a community of budding innovators and thus registered for Startup Weekend. I collaborated with a 10-person team for 54 hours to launch our startup, Pawly. We placed second in the competition for our concept and execution and qualified for the Global Startup Battle. We competed in this national competition amongst other teams across the globe and came out on top.
The weekend focused not only on building a product but also market validation, customer development and practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies. We managed to receive over 100 responses to our Google Survey and received our first sources of revenue in just 54 hours.
As a team we have committed ourselves to an official startup with the goal of developing Pawly and bringing it to market. The success of this competition provided us visibility which is crucial in the beginning stages of any startup. We have the luxury of approaching media, investors and potential partners with the news that our concept won the largest startup competition in the world powered by Google for Entrepreneurs.
We are currently preparing for LAUNCH Conference in San Francisco, California held from February 24th to 26th where we will demo our prototype and hopefully attract the interests of investors and partners.
We have not contacted the PetBot team but hope to in the future to learn about their success and failures during their prototype iterations and crowdfunding campaign. Like PetBot, we are excited with the opportunity of robotics being used in industries that were never before.
Brianna Goldberg is a writer with University Relations at the University of Toronto.
