See the original story in Japanese
On October 3rd, Finland’s most famous startup conference, Slush, not only made it’s way across the globe to Tokyo, SLUSH in Tokyo came directly to our Goodpatch office in Shibuya.
What is Slush?
Beginning from 2007, Slush is an annual conference held in Finland supporting startups. In 2013, SLUSH drew over 7,000 visitors and expanded it’s reach far beyond Finland with events held all over the globe.
Rakuten’s Mikitani Hiroshi and GungHo Online Entertainment’s Son Taizou will be speakers at Slush 2014 in November. The two-day event in Helsinki will bring together over 2,500 companies and 10,000 attendees.
SLUSH in Tokyo at Goodpatch
As a pre-qualifier, the eight startup teams at SLUSH in Tokyo faced off to win the opportunity to present at the main event in Finland.
Our office was full of eager spectators and participants alike.
The panel of judges consisted of Barry Lachapelle (Interaction designer at IDEO), Aki Saarinen (Representative Director at Reaktor Japan), Daniel Saito (Managing Director at Fly Data)…
Adam Gries (Founder of OKpanda), Shin Iwata (Partner at Atomico), and David Corbin (Writer at Tech in Asia).
Each team had six minutes each to pitch their idea to the crowd and the judges.
A startup focused on bringing Japanese culture to international consumers. Recently they have launched Yunomi, an online marketplace for Japanese tea & teaware, connecting local Japanese tea farms, teaware craftsmen, family-run tea shops, and speciality manufactures with tea fans around the world.
② Okuyuki
A crowdfunding service for illustrators to get their work translated into figurines via 3D printing. People who love your design can contribute to the funding goal and if the goal is met, everyone gets a copy of the real-life model!
③ Anicool
A crowd funding platform with the mission of sharing “cool anime” with the world.
④ Navii
A project using 3D on-the-spot photography to assist pedestrian navigation.
⑤ Mobingi
３クリックでAWSサーバーを起動できる、AWSの環境構築プロセスを簡単にしてくれるサービス。
⑥ Capy
A service that levels up the existing CAPTCHA technology for higher security with puzzles instead of boring jumbled characters.
⑦ Live3
A service that lets you search specially selected nearby events and purchase last-minute tickets.
⑧ Yocondo
A service for situational product searches (for example: “a present for my girlfriend”).
All 8 teams gave awesome presentations but our esteemed panel of judges narrowed it down to one ultimate champion. Drumroll, please.
Capy! The puzzle CAPTCHA service will travel to Helsinki to participate in November 18th and 19th Slush Conference!
After the presentations, everyone stuck around for pizza and sushi. (The two always go together at these sort of events!)
Everyone from Goodpatch was there to talk with all the different guests and participants! We were thrilled to meet such a energetic group of people.
We look forward to holding more similar events here at the Goodpatch office in the future! We love to see Japan connected with the rest of the world.
Reaktor’s Aki Saarinen, who you might recognize from the judging panel above, wrote about the event over at the Reaktor blog!