We are quite sure everyone visiting our site has heard about Garage48. But as assumption is mother of all… screw ups, two words of introduction should be in order. Garage48, a two-day hackathon event was kick-started in Tallinn in April 2010. Since then its phenomenon has spread all over the Baltics, Nordics and even Africa. Within past three years there have been 19 events with close to 100 participants per event, hundreds of projects finished and numbers are still counting. Do take a look at their lovely infographics about 2011 and 2012 for a nice visual on numbers.
Let us make it clear right now – we love Garage48! It is astonishing to see how much pure enthusiasm and willingness to give up your late night hours can succeed with. But nevertheless, as stated by some judgmental-oriented people, this event does not really count for serious business, but is rather a fun event with entrepreneurial aspect and that’s what’s expected to be the doom of it – an entertainment can only thrive so long.
We will not start to argue with those wiser and more knowledgeable than us (though, we have our own advantages), but instead took a look at all of the overall winners of Estonian and Latvian events plus had our eyes across non-winners to see if any “black horses” have emerged and succeeded. Indeed, some have. So let’s get down to business.
2010, the starting year of Garage48 hosted two events in Estonia, seeded 81 ideas and resulted in 33 finished projects. Though one of the winners did not make it afterwards, Tartu event winner Defol.io is still attracting designer portfolios and has managed to hold several Estonian design competitions in their portal. Not bad, lads!
Next year was when it all went booming. Five events in Estonia and Latvia resulted in 143 ideas and 73 projects executed. Yes, there are winners who have given up, and some that look like they are about to, but this year also gave REAL winners. And a chance to notice that Tartu has kicked our capital’s ass in providing real business cases from the hackathon. Winner Qminder got selected to Seedcamp Prague, one of the most prestigious startup accelerator programmes in Europe, in less than 100 days since its initiation. It also made to Mobile Premier Awards Finals and won Estonian Best m-Service Business&Commerce category thus being selected to present nation at WSA Mobile 2012. The very same event gave us VitalFields (formerly known as WeatherMe) which just raised €250.000 seed money from venture investors and JomyBooks – struggling, but not giving up. Let us notice that VitalFields did not find its way in an instant either, but is truly promising now.
What about our Latvian friends? Riga winner Planify made it to Seedcamp Stockholm, but then… disappeared? Don’t grief too long, because one of the projects, Campalyst made it event further to Seedcamp New York and is on its way to success. A respectable result! Another Riga event presented GateMe – not a winner, but survival nonetheless. Speaking about survivals – lastehoid.net from Public Services event in Tallinn has been quite successful on a local market. Not too bad for a two-day effort!
2012 with its 4 events up-to-date, 105 ideas and 47 projects has not yet fruited, but we shall give them time to ripen. At this point we can conclude that so far one of 11 winners has succeeded and in overall three projects out of 153 have raised money.
So – what’s the verdict? Can fun be turned into business? We believe so. Garage48 projects are about on the same survival rate as start-ups usually are. But bear in mind that these projects are not developed on business-basis, which actually makes their ability to attract seed fund a remarkable one. Events have also formed teams and created contacts that lead to business afterwards which, together with Garage48 HUB, give start-up landscape an additional push. Well done and keep up the good work!
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