# Reflecting on the largest Startup Weekend Global I have ever done.

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2023-03-13
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/reflecting-on-the-largest-startup-weekend-global-i-have-ever-done

## Content

Congrats to the Grand Champions of Startup Weekend Global — Entropy Labs!A few key takeaways reflecting on almost 1 year of building, preparing, executing and concluding Startup Weekend Global. Always a bittersweet moment to end a SW as big as this. So much blood, sweat and tears has gone into the production of this world-class event. Hundreds of hours and weekends of the volunteers spent pouring into the prep work and ensuring that things went smoothly. For that one weekend, the world truly felt smaller as we bring together thousands of people to culminate in the finals. A global community is truly an amazing thing to build and nurture. Give as much as you can and the community will give back more. Here are my reflections as the Lead Organizer of Startup Weekend Global: Marc Nager, one of the original cofounders of Startup Weekend joined us ![Marc Nager, one of the original cofounders of Startup Weekend joined us! ](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/EjOQS-ImY4rQJejVpx5P0.png?height=618&width=1100)It is truly a GLOBAL endeavor.💙 We’ve had 1700+ participants from 120+ countries, with the top 5 regions coming from Nigeria, India, USA, Singapore and Pakistan. 💙 For the first time ever, Singaporeans are not the overwhelming majority as per previous iterations done by the SW Singapore team. 💙 The entire team grappled with so many different time zones, juggling meetings and all the preparations leading up to the finals. ![Maelle Gavet, CEO of Techstars joined us from France! ](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/oA-fGh67LD1qJyVwck3Em.png?height=617&width=1100)People are still excited about Web3💙 Participants are actively engaged on Discord and buzzing each other, bouncing ideas and building their MVPs. 💙 We had people building on ideas in the Metaverse, Defi, NFTs and more. 💙 People are learning from the fallouts and meltdowns, the ideas are more concrete, and the foundations are stronger.Passion powers everything💙 I loved the supportive spirit between our participants — as we had teams that struggled with pitching in English, other participants stepped in to help translate to make sure our non-English speaking teams could have a fighting chance at the finals. 💙 Judges are waking up at 5am and staying 4 hours for the event! 💙 Mentors are dedicating hours and conducting masterclasses to help the teamsIt is possible to work remotely and build a team from different cities💙 Our top 10 finalists teams hailed from Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, UAE, Serbia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico, India, France, Belgium and Lebanon. 💙 Many of the participants do not speak english as their first language. I salute their efforts and for putting in the work!Congrats to all the winners!Big congrats to the awesome winners of Startup Weekend Global! 👉 Grand Champions: Entrophy Labs (India) — all-in-one platform that gamifies the adoption of geo-tagged utility NFTs and hosts a secondary marketplace from which NFTs can be bought & sold 👉 Second Prize: Collectif DAO (UAE, Serbia) — non-custodial liquid staking protocol on Filecoin network 👉 Third Prize: Gaita (Chile) — interoperable verifiable credentials platform that uses blockchain to make data easily accessible to insurance companies and their customers 👉 #WAGMI Prize: Otto Protocol (France, Belgium, Lebanon) — algorithmic stablecoin that utilises derivitative protection to neutralise collateral volatilitySome of the resources we had for all the participants.A great big thank you to all those who have joined us since the beginning: ➙ Our partners: Polygon Labs Unstoppable Domains Gather Alibaba Cloud Add3 QuickNode ⚡ and more ➙ Our speakers: Dalip Tyagi Maelle Gavet Marc Nager ➙ Our judges: Andre H. Dave Perrill Lauren Ingram George Coxon Praveen Kesani Ajay Ponna Venkatesh ➙ Our mentors: Darren Rogan Tobias Bauer 托比亚斯 Jackson Aw Francesco Andreolí Hector Cuesta Arvizu Wendy Siqing Z. John Engates Manny Coding Sarmad Qadri Arthur Cheong ➙ Our facilitators: Keith Engine Loh Yi Ting Check out the final pitches: https://youtu.be/Ac7mxeEGahw - Should the next Startup Weekend be in-person? - #startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #culture #entrepreneurship #strategy #eth #btc #crypto #polygon #partnerships #startupweekend #NFT #swglobal #unicorns #mentors #founders #judges

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