10 Ideas From Startup Weekend Tokyo

• Tweet

• Tweet

The final pitches were made at Startup Weekend Tokyo yesterday. We caught all 13 presentations but only managed to understand and note down 10 of them. If you’re one of those that we missed, feel free to contact us to be featured. Special thanks to @YuhdaiSawa for translating most of the pitches for us.

1. iTerms (Winner for most Edgy Award)

Problem: Terms and conditions (T&Cs) are usually lengthy. Most users simply skip to the end and click “next.” It causes users to miss out the most important clauses.

Startup’s Solution: Create an algorithm to pull out the significant clause for users to understand the T&Cs better.

2. KitCat

Problem: In Japan , companies only see the credibility and experience (everything on the resume) of a potential employee. The system neglects people with potential but without experience.

Startup’s Solution: KitCat follows a Train, Test and get Hired approach. For example, a users could learn CSS3 and HTML5 and achieve badges (level 1, 2 and 3), to certify his credibility. KitCat will also recommend them to companies for hire.

3. QLive (Winner for Startup Weekend Tokyo)

Problem: If you attend a speech at an event, there is often a tendency for people to ask irrelevant questions. At times, speakers may not know what questions are being asked.

Startup’s Solution: “Quality Q&A, No Hassle.” People can vote for the questions they like, and this process promotes the most popular question. Questions could come from social streams, like Twitter and Facebook as well. It’s a sort of Digg for Q&A. The team’s URL is qlive.co and its demo video is here.

The team won Microsoft Kinects as well. We spoke to them briefly after the event, and you can watch that video here.

4. 10 Minutes

Problem: It is often too difficult or too time consuming to learn about a specific topic of interest.

Startup’s Solution: 10 Minutes is a web community that allows users to request instructional videos on topics from other (knowledgeable) users. For example, someone curious about web design can request a design expert to make a video on cross browser compatibility. The community then votes on video topics to increase the chances of the video being made.

5. Mysic.fm

Problem: You have many music files, but it’s cumbersome to copy them to multiple devices.

Startup’s Solution: Use Dropbox and a browser-based music player so that you can listen anytime/anywhere, without having to bring the music with you. There is no manual copy to other devices.

6. Coordy (Winner for Best Presentation)

Problem: 79% of people who buy clothes online end up unhappy with them (according to Coordy). This is because it is hard to visualize how you would look like with while shopping for clothes online.

Startup’s Solution: An iPad application that allows user to drag and drop clothes to test certain articles of clothing and how they fit with others. The application is customized to your body fit and size.

7. Colish (Winner for Most realistic Product and Best Presentation)

Problem: We usually can’t find a suitable partner with the same values to share a house (yes, like living together). End up, we often have to live with people whom we might have problems communicating with.

Startup’s Solution: Using Colish, people are able to find partners with the same perspective, professions and people whom they think they can get along to share a house.

8. JAWANT

Problem: Most Japanese e-commerce site don’t except overseas shipping. There is also a problem for non-japanese speakers who can’t understand how to make a purchase on a Japanese e-commerce site.

Startup’s Solution: Create a platform to allow Japanese merchants to list their products online and in English. Non-Japanese speaker could search for made-in-Japan products through JAWANT. For example a search on Japanese anime, “One Piece” will reflect several “One Piece” related products. If nothing was found, users can request for the product. JAWANT aims to be a market that connects Japan and foreign countries.

9. MeeTune’s Share Future (Winner for Most Investable Idea)

Problem: We don’t know specifically when our friends are free to hang out or have a meeting.

Startup’s Solution: MeeTune works like a “schedule book mobile social network.” It provides time grids to visualize when your friends are free. All you need to do is call up for a meeting, straight from your iPhone .

10. PointUpp

Problem: In Japan, people usually have to carry numerous point cards around. It’s a hassle.

Startup’s Solution: PointUpp places all these point cards into an mobile app. The team would need to partner with retail stores to sync their point system with theirs.

Jonny Li, the organizer of Startup Weekend Tokyo

Report an error