Garage48 Serious FUN 2016 hackathon was not a joke, it was serious fun! The 17 teams had been working all 48 hours passionately to develop products to solve problems of humanity. Asking an AI beer bottle for advice, a pair of pants to make music with, doing your nr 2s, getting motivated verbally and knocked out physically are all what humans are all about. So perhaps were the participants just solving problems that are even too real?
Our partners-in-crime Komeediklubi and Saku Brewery thought that FUN ideas need to be INDEED brought to life! 100 participants and 16 prototypes and 1 world-record later, we can say that YES - there is nothing more serious than humour!
Besides the fun factor, another great initiative was to bring "senior" start-up people together to challenge them again for 48 hours. It proved to be a great step, because no one backed off even from the craziest of ideas. A pill with placebo effect, a toilet app to monitor your natural needs or a hologram for cats? It seems that the serious fun gene is embedded to our participants as much as intelligence and skills. Or as the co-organiser and host the event Andrus Purde put it: "Garage48 Serious Fun showed that technology and humour go together like politics and scandals, and that a lot can be done in just 48 hours."
The event was important for one more reason. Garage48 Serious FUN was the 60th global hackathon for the Garage48 team! Additionally, exactly 6 years ago 6 co-founders gave birth to the NGO Garage48 in order to motivate start-ups to actually act upon their dreams! The 4 co-founders were also participants themselves at this event – Ragnar Sass, Jüri Kaljundi, Rain Rannu and Martin Villig, who now have founded famous IT companies in Estonia and abroad. The founders could also hardly keep their laughs during the final presentations. Especially Ragnar Sass, who's laugh is sunshine of our lives.
We are honoured that Saku Brewery was the big sponsor for this event. The company is a big fan of technology and innovation, using many new technologies in their activities as well. The Brand Manager at Saku Mihkel Mõttus praised the hackathon for brining people together, who can create amazing working prototypes using various technologies. The winner impressed with a near excellent performance. "The idea, the team, the solution and the absurdity were brilliant, " said Mihkel to compliment the winner team Placebo.
Although for this special event we didn't have the traditional mentoring round, we had Estonian comedy crème de la Crème helping to make the prototypes of the teams even more hilarious. Kaaren Kaer, one of the creators of "Tujurikkuja" and Film Director at catapult Films, and Mart Normet, Head of Entertainment Programmes at Estonian Public Broadcasting, were to forces to teach some of the secret funny skills of theirs.
The legendary Mart Normet proved to be a superfan of the event, saying: "Sadly there is no Michael Jackson anymore, but luckily there is now Garage48. That is room full of people who are willing to save the humankind, the planet. Why do I throw out such a bold statement? Because I deeply believe that one anarchistic act in a day, saves the world. One anti-establishment act… even one tiny rule that is intentionally knocked down makes the world a better place.
That is why I did enjoyed the Garage48 Serious FUN hackathon– room full of impressive ideas that made their way to become working prototypes. Yeah! Rest in peace, Michael, the world is in good hands."
However, to make the event possible, there was a lot of hard work involved. We want to especially thank the main organisers of the event Andrus Purde and Maarika Susi. Maarika, having now organised over 20 events for Garage48, enjoyed the event event the most! We also want to thank our power-girls team of this event: Kai Isand, Triin Kallas, Helise Johanson, Susanne Org, Heleri Holm and Triin Liiv. Plus Rain Kõrgmaa, who helped out with all the technical equipment throughout the event! A very special thanks also to our brilliant and supersweet photographer/designer Maido Parv, who managed visualise all the magic!
Thank you also to the amazing people at Mind Media, who made the live stream happen. You seriously rock!
And the biggest THANK YOU goes to all our sponsors and partners, who are all wonderful for believing in us.
Thank you to Microsoft, Pipedrive, Apollo, Happy Socks, Heavy Mental, Vahvlihaldjad, Bambona and Al Mero pizza! Thank you for your contribution to the start-up world, it really means a lot!
Let's now go to the part you've been all waiting for. Here are the winners crowned at tonight's finale and all the teams of Garage48 Serious FUN 2016:
Placebo
Why pretend you're something else other than what you are?
Placebo works. Even if you know it's a placebo.
We're bringing to market a line of products that have no effect on you, except for what you wish to believe in. Placebo. Works.
Team members: Joao Rei - Project lead, Jordan - Developer, Verner - Front end - e-commerce, James - 3D / Design, Liis - Web Design / Product Design, Nik - Copywriter, Kristjan - Front end / Android, Siim - Developer (Full stack), Iulia - Project designer
Komeediklubi Special Prize + Saku Special Prize + Favourite of the Audience
Screaminder
Prize: 30 hours of branding consultancy by Saku Brewery
Anger makes people achieve more. And anger they will get. Loads of anger. Motivational anger. Thats right. We are building an app that will make you very angry. And make you do stuff. Better, harder, faster, stronger. Can not wake up in the mornings? - The app will call you and scream the s…t out of you to get the f…k up and do something meaningful with your day. Can not remember mothers new boyfriend's birthday? What the hell xxx. Work assignment deadline is approaching? Loads of use cases that need motivation. Anger is the answer.
Team members: Agu Suur - Epic presenter/ Front-end Fairy, Andres Kukk - Android developer, Anton Narusberg - iOS developer, Carolyn Lizbeth Einmann - UX/UI designer, Janika Liiv - Back-end developer, Kadri Tuisk - Team lead/ Marketeer, Paul Vahur - Marketeer, Taavi Rehemägi - Back-end developer
Microsoft Special Prize
Donald"Bot"Trump
Prize: Microsoft Band 2 models
Add Donald Trump to your company group Slack / Skype chat
Team members: Lauri - dev/lead, Rain - product/marketing, Sven - content & copywriting, Roberts - picture API, Jüri - product management, Ardi - dev/spiderman, Jevgeni - dev/batman, Katrin - customer support, Mihail - dev/aquaman, Jaanus - backend designer
Best "Party in the Pants" prize
Beatboxers
Prize: Heavy Mental T-shirts
A new level of pants technology. Smart pants for a smart future. Beat your pants off!
Team members: Andrew, Fabio, Vadim, Reinis = developers. Karlis = marketing. Mehmet = designer
Pipedrive Special Prize
Find Your Lawyer
Prize: Pipedrive sales CRM
We help people to find competent lawyers. By simple visualisation of their court case aggregation.
Team members: Siim Schults - Backend Desinger, Priidu Kull - Backend Desinger, Eero Raun - Backend Desinger, Mihkel Lukats - Backend Desinger
Readems connects worldwide literature enthusiasts: curious readers, creative authors and sharp reviewers. Our mission is to encourage authors to bring out hidden gems in literature.
Team members: Anu Piirisild - project manager, Cesar Martinez - front end / back end, Margus Metskivi - back end, Laura Toomast - marketing, Raigo Lilleberg - design
Rusikas24
Rusikas24 is like Taxify for private security.
Tap a button and a professional problem solver will be on his way to save your ass.
Team members: Markus Villig - team lead, Andres Susi - marketing, Sander Saarsen - developer, Edgar Miadzieles - developer, Pavel Karagjaur - designer
Pass tha Browny
Social game where you have to 'pass tha poop' ass fast as you can. Goal is to come clean out of this. But if you want to get pooperized, then floor is yours.
Team members: Jüri Siilivask - team lead, Mart Siilivask - idea author and marketer, Martin Grüner - fullstack dev, Daniel Raissar - Marketing, Maido Parv - designer
Catlip
Chasing a cursor is so 2015. Hologram is what makes generation Y cats smack their lips.
Team members: Janek Valdsalu - design stallion, Merit Burenkov - marketing & business guru, Kair Käpser - cat person
Hey Beer
Once upon a time, there was a bottle of beer - we made him talk!
Team members: Sven - hardware & stuff, Carl - landing page, Lembit - graphic back-end, Kaspar - communication, Jevgeni - pixels & borders, Henri - management
The Throne
Today, more than ever before, talking about food is a "cool" thing to do. People stress out in public that they are vegan, others even go on a clay diet. Some of us even keep track of the things we eat. But what about the other end? It's just as important for your body to have regular healthy visits to the toilet. The Throne helps you keep track of them. The Throne is a smart toilet, powered by a smart app that gives the user info about aspects of using a toilet - usage regularity, duration, correct sitting position, dehydration, etc., and integrates it into useful health data, vital tips and feedback on a mobile app.
Team members: Marko Klopets - Developing, full stack, Jaan Kruusma - Social Media, Marketing, Tarvo Metspalu - Hardware, Design, Peep Uudeküll - Marketing & Managing, Idea generator
Excuse-A-Lot
Excuse generator
FunMyLife
Are you having enough fun? Want to challenge your friends to have more good time?
An app which helps you to keep track of your fun and share it with friends. Now you`ll always know what the fun happened!
Team members: Ilja Livenson - team lead, Michael Yee - Business, Martin Verrev - developer, Mert Celik - developer, Maris Heinaru - designer, Ingrid Hermet - marketing
GlowBeat
We are revolutionizing the way you drink. Tune in your favorite songs together with your classy drink.
Rhythm of colors will pleasure your eyes. Drink stand will connect your music and will glow with the same beat.
Team members: Mathias - Market, Kristo - Designer, Oliver - Developer, Artur - Developer
StartupGag
TechCrunch of 9GAG
Team members: Aleksander Tõnnisson - IT, Siim Lepistik - IT & Editor, Sander Gansen - Marketing, Victor Cane - Managing Director, Ranno Päi - Design, Anna-Greta Tsahkna - Marketing, Piret-Klea Velleste - Marketing, Maarja Pehk - Marketing
POHHUI
Expressive true opinion about news
Team members: 4 - front-end, disain, disain, android
