“Let’s build the next big startup”- with this slogan, Whiteboard in collaboration with German Embassy Dhaka & Better Stories, arranged “Zeitgeist.OOOshop”; a two-day long event held at GPHouse in search of ideas that will shape up the next big thing in our startup ecosystem.
Zeitgiest.OOO, an initiative which brings together top Bangladeshi talents from polytechnics, science, engineering, agricultural and business to join 10 freshly-minted start-ups as their CTOs (Chief Technical Officer) and CMOs (Chief Marketing Officer).
A total of 21 teams had emerged and received an exclusive opportunity to compete and pitch their ideas in front of startup innovation experts from Bangladesh and Germany. After different sessions where the participants defined problem statements and brainstormed, they presented their pitches.
At the end of the “OOOshop,” Michael Foley, CEO, Grameenphone announced the names of the qualifying participants and handed over the tickets to the next round called “OOOpitch”. The top 10 qualifying participants were: Green Farmer, Code Base, Med Aid, Easy Fire, Dream High, Sales Deck, Study Buddy, Pouchao, Taxto, and Village Factory.
Michael Foley, CEO, Grameenphone said, “We believe in the ‘Red Way’ of doing things. Grameenphone strongly endorses the idea of the young minds solving some of the biggest challenges of our time. We look forward to the top 10 sets of CTOs and CMOs building 10 fresh new start-ups”.
On May 8, 2018, the pitching event titled “OOOpitch” was inaugurated at German Embassy Dhaka by Mr. Michael Schultheiss, Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy. On this occasion, he said,
“We are very happy that Germany and Bangladesh are working together on Zeitgeist.OOO. Bangladeshi innovation and entrepreneurial spirit combined with German experience as one of the top tech-hubs of the world will create great ideas.”
At ‘OOOpitch’, top 10 teams pitched their idea in front of the judges.
The Jury board consisted of Kazi M Hassan, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Grameenphone; Syed Tanvir Husain Chief Human Resource Officer, Grameenphone; Founder of Culturedesign.org; Eva Maria Zoll, Head of Business Innovation, Grameenphone; Syed Ashiqur Rahman, Founder of Silicon Allee Travis Todd; Ines Neidhardt from German Embassy Dhaka; Daniel Ciganovic, Business Development Director of ME SOLshare Ltd. (Bangladesh) and Selima Hossain Allen the Director of BetterStories Limited.
Code Base, Easy Fire, Study Buddy & Taxto have been adjudged as the winners of the program. Dream High, Sales Deck & Village Factory were also added to the top list as recommended by the mentors.
Mr. Mahmud Hossain, Chief Corporate Affair’s officer, Grameenphone Ltd. concluded the event with a speech saying, “This kind of initiative is something GP feels proud to be a part of & we are always there for these young minds so that their innovative ideas get nurtured in a right way.”
