This morning marks the aftermath of StartupCampWaterloo #3. I stumble out of my bed, dazed and confused as to what happened last night, panties hanging from the fan. Then I actually wake up and realize none of that happened and I simply went to StartupCampWaterloo with Corey!

Last night’s question was a simple one: Why Start a Startup? We were met with different answers from the panel which included a mix of experienced names as well as newer kids on the block. Essentially, you should start a startup if you want freedom of creativity but at the (early, or more depending on how successful you are) loss of money, sleep, and job benefits. Would many people give up all that just to enjoy their jobs and be creative? Hell yeah! Why the hell do you think I work where I currently work, for the money? No. For the joy of coming into the office and not dreading the next 8 hours. For the cool bonuses, for the creative freedom, for an environment where everyone is my friend, for my own push in the company. That my friends, is what being in a startup is all about. Spaetzel, an attendee actually took some audio of the panel which you can listen here.

The presentations we got to see last night had a good variation from overly ambitious to just plain out cool. I don’t want to give a detailed analysis on each one as that would take ages so here’s a few words for each of them:

• ClutterMe: Sorry guys but the idea is ok, but the execution was poor. Trying to make a “customized” home page but it’s been done very well already
• Let’s Cube: An interesting concept that was mostly mocked (HEY GUYS EVER HEARD OF DELICIOUS?) but they are taking a slightly different route. I talked to the dude running it and they plan to launch in a week. If they fix some design issues I will definitely give them a look.
• Ubigraph: Freakin’ cool man. Now, think of a business model and you got yourself something. Make it more easy to use (fun version?) and I’ll pay $10 to just play with this thing.
• InvigoFire: I think that was the name. His idea was an ambitious one to basically do what some of the multi-billion dollar companies like Google and Yahoo are doing now. Mix of OpenID, DataPortability and OpenSocial. Sorry bud, but you need to keep up more.
• AdvertisingShowDown.com: No website, no slides, just a guy talking about his idea. Idea’s are nice but execution is what matters. Also, I have a print ad that I’m almost done for work and you didn’t convince me that your service would be interesting for me to use.
• Semacode: Very cool, and has potential to be useful. Would like to see some more real-world, useful applications of this though.

That about covers all the ones I could remember. StartupCamp was definitely something neat to check out and it’s cool to see some people with ideas that could become huge. The next one is in Guelph and is a DemoCamp which should provide some more fleshed out ideas!

To end this summary, my favourite word of the night is “Obsession”. That’s what being part of creating a startup is all about. The obsession to create and grow something unique. Best of luck to all who presented last night, I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on all of them.