The Eight Year Old Entrepreneur
Startup Weekend is a global movement that began in 2011. Entrepreneurs across any and all fields meet-up for a 54-hour long intensive workshop style event over a weekend in order to tackle problems by creating the framework for new startup businesses while also competing for prizes.
In the last week of February, Startup Weekend came to Fredericton with a focus on Social Impact.
Blake Bell is one of the Startup Weekend entrepreneurs. He’s only eight years old, but that isn’t stopping him from founding his own company and trying to make a positive change in the world.
Bell’s idea is for a company called Stocking. He’s concerned there’s not enough generosity in the world, and he has a solution.
“It’s all about giving stockings,” Bell says, “You go and check out people’s wish list, see what they want, and buy it for them.”
The idea is simple in theory. Build a wishlist, put it online, get gifts from strangers, and give gifts to strangers. There’s one problem, though– how do you encourage people to give gifts to someone they’ve never met?
This is just one of the challenges facing Bell.
That’s where Startup Weekend comes into play. He has recruited a team of engineers and system designers to help turn his dream into a reality.
Startup Weekend is all about bringing together like-minded problem solvers.
A wide variety of mentors and speakers work with participants to help them iron out any issues with their business plan.
Mayor Mike O’Brien and GNB Entrepreneur in Residence gave speeches during the opening ceremony and shared some of the civic issues most impacting the City of Fredericton and the Province of New Brunswick.
Throughout the 54-hour event, several of the 10 initial teams entirely scrapped the idea they had originally begun with because of logistics.
This is exactly what happened with the young founder of Stocking.
His team wasn’t able to find a solution for shipping and fulfillment of gifts without creating a privacy issue for the gift recipient.
Bell wasn’t dissuaded and he certainly wasn’t out of the competition.
The former Stocking team bounced back with a new idea for a
company called Quickaid.
Quickaid is a platform that reduces wait times in ER rooms by encouraging patients to travel to less frequented hospitals in the province.
Bell says that he’s really a problem solver first and foremost. An idea frequently echoed in the startup business community.
At the end of the weekend, the teams present their idea to local business experts from the region in a “Dragon’s Den” style timed presentation.
The panel of judges for Fredericton’s Social Impact edition of Startup Weekend consisted of three of Fredericton’s most well known business experts specializing in economic development and social innovation.
Ideas are judged based on the quality of presentation, likelihood to succeed, and potential for social impact.
Bell is no stranger to pitch competitions. With his passion for problem solving and a dedicated team behind him, he easily snagged one of the three final awards.
He says that he has not given up on Stocking, but he would like to launch Quickaid before he takes another shot at solving the shipping problem with his earlier idea.
Bell has meetings scheduled with medical professionals across the province and hopes to have a prototype ready for 2019.
Not bad for an eight-year-old.
