We took the AllStartup Weekend online: here’s how it went

Last month marked afirst for Demium: we hosted the first ever virtual AllStartup Weekend. It tookplace in Athens over three days (20-22 March) and featured 20 talented andpassionate participants. We stuck to the usual Friday to Sunday timetable,during which our MD Ilias slept in the office. “It was easier that way,” heexplained, “because I needed to support the entrepreneurs in real time andthere are too many distractions at home.” 

Ahead of the weekend,everybody was given a list of 26 ideas, from which they had to make theirchoice to work on by Thursday 19 March. It was done on a first come, firstserved basis, but we’re pleased to report that everyone was happy with theiroptions. 

There were certainlylimitations in not being able to interact with the participants in person, buteveryone could communicate via Slack, WhatsApp and email, and there wereone-on-one phone calls scheduled daily. Ilias and George, the Head of IncubationProgram, helped with everything, from researching and validating ideas to thelean canvas to pitch rehearsals and the pitch deck. 

The main differencebetween the virtual and the face-to-face ASW is that people had to work on anindividual basis rather than in teams. In a sense, Ilias and George acted assurrogate teams and mentors for participants, which proved surprisinglysuccessful. “People worked really well on an individual basis,” Iliasconcluded. “The amount and quality of work was excellent, which makes me thinkthe ASW should generally be focused on individual efforts (with just a fewgroup activities) and then during incubation we focus on building the bestteams.”

Out of 20 contributors,we ended up choosing 10 winners, of which there happened to be an even splitbetween men and women. And despite the obvious distance between everyone, onewinner even welled up when the results were announced. It’s safe to say thatthe entrepreneurs truly connected, albeit virtually, and enjoyed the full Demiumexperience.