Idea Lab takes womenpreneurs beyond their comfort zone
Ashley Patterson writes group ideas on a board during a group session during the Idea Lab women's session at the Utah Valley Convention Center on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald
Ashley Patterson writes group ideas on a board during a group session during the Idea Lab women's session at the Utah Valley Convention Center on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald
Ashley Patterson writes group ideas on a board during a group session during the Idea Lab women's session at the Utah Valley Convention Center on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017. Sammy Jo Hester, Daily Herald
Shirin Cannon of Holladay, left, explains part of her business idea for easier parking. She was part of a startup team at She Starts Idea Lab on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 with, clockwise from top, Stephanie Jensen, Rebecca Thorpe, Ronda Devereaux and Dianne Omana.
Silicon Slopes is a prime place for startup workshops — startup weekends and hackathons are a regular thing. Tuesday’s She Starts Idea Lab was the same idea packaged in a morning, and specifically for women.
“We chose this format because we’re providing these women a practical, hands-on experience. It’s an execution-focused exercise in a real-world environment. Really, there’s no better way to learn,” said Sara Jones, partner at EnableMint and co-founder of Women Tech Council.
The Idea Lab was a women’s-only startup event catered to women who are interested in being entrepreneurs, or are already down the startup path. Kadee Duclos, event director for Utah Media Group and one of the organizers also behind the day, said the event was a shortened version of a startup weekend.
“Idea Lab is a place for women to try out this environment in a safe way,” Duclos said.
She encouraged the women attending to attend other startup weekends, even though those events predominantly are filled with men. The business plans created by the eight teams at Idea Lab were all viable business ventures.
“The hope is you will now turn your ideas into a viable product,” Duclos said to attendees at the conclusion of the event.
The day started with women pitching their business ideas — some were just concepts an individual had been mulling over, and some were already in the startup phase and needed further direction. The group narrowed the ideas down to eight teams and went to work. Women who hadn’t met each other before Tuesday formed a team based on an idea of interest, and worked to validate it and make a fully-formed business mock-up. They concluded the day by pitching their business to local experts.
One team, whose idea was to combine an auto repair shop with a spa, won the award for most innovative. There were audible gasps of excitement when they pitched their business plan — a place where, as drivers wait for oil changes or tire fixes they can get a pedicure, massage, or even a haircut and style.
“This is one of those wonderful mashups that you wouldn’t think would work, but when you do it, it makes so much sense,” said business plan judge Rachel Hofstetter, chief marketing officer of Chatbooks.
Another team won the award for the billion-dollar idea: PMS, or Professional Maintenance Services. PMS aims to create a network of talented female handywomen to do home repairs. The target market would be females, and would solve the problem that many women face of letting unknown men into their homes to do plumbing, electrical and other home repairs.
Judge Sunny Washington, CEO and co-founder of Ardusat, said this was an extremely unique service idea, serving a market that hasn’t been truly tapped yet. She added that the possibilities to expand this idea into other markets is huge.
“Plus, everyone loves the name,” she said with a laugh.
Finally, the business that was recognized as the crowd favorite, was one based on an adventure app that gives young families ideas and resources for fun activities with their children. Targeted to busy parents, it’s a social app that links families with area activities. As a business, it already had a potentially solid revenue stream.
Jones was impressed with the diversity of women attending Tuesday’s event in the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo — the day brought in “a little bit of everything,” from mompreneurs to university employees to corporate workers. Many of them had traveled good distances to be there.
One team, who worked on a business that would show drivers open parking spots in a parking garage, all came from outside of Utah County. Hailing from as far away as Tooele, Logan, Layton and Salt Lake City, the five of them hadn’t met previously, but worked well together. Within just three hours, they’d already developed a potentially workable business model for what was originally just Shirin Cannon’s initial idea.
For most in attendance, the chance to connect and network and see business ideation in action was the prime reason for making the drive.
“This is neat, we’re all getting ideas for our own stuff, too,” said another woman working with a different team.
Jones said this was one of the main goals of Idea Lab.
“The ability to create with a team is exciting, and this gives them a chance to network with like-minded women,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s about building confidence and execution skills. Many startups fail because they don’t execute. We want people to be comfortable moving on, moving forward.”