We ran the Isle of Man's first Techstars Startup Weekend, and I want your honest take

22 July 2026 · 19:15

In this month (10–12 July) we ran the first Techstars Startup Weekend in the Isle of Man and Crown Dependencies, at Launchpad in Douglas.

54 hours. Over 70 people involved over the weekend. One flew in from Denmark, another from Essex, just to be part of it and our Techstars Certified Facilitator, Katerina from London. A full room of folk who'd never met on Friday, pitching real businesses by Sunday afternoon.

Quick recap if you missed it:

Friday: 60-second pitches, teams formed on the spot
Saturday: lean canvas, mentor rounds, heads-down building
Sunday: final pitches in front of a judging panel

Three teams took the top spots:

ProfitM8 won it, a pricing-for-profit app
Biosphere Beacons, a public directory scoring organisations against the Island's Climate Impact - methodology and the UN goals
WhyPost, a social tool giving small businesses far bigger reach

Recap videos for each day:

Day 1 (Friday): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o28DRtixl1w
Day 2 (Saturday): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou5NgF00XuA
Day 3 (Sunday): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r0SsY6moR4

Chuffed with how it went. But it was a first, and I want the next one sharper.

So, a few questions for you:

Were you there? What worked, and what would you change?
Didn't come along? What put you off, or what would make you sign up next time?
What would make this genuinely useful for Island founders? More mentors? A different weekend? A theme?

Keen to hear the good and the blunt. Cheers.

Want to add to the discussion?

5 replies

SK
Stephen Kruger
24 July 2026 · 12:27
I was unable to attend, so i am not in a position to comment. I do hope that it will be held again - based on the feedback discussion with other people that did attend.
- CP
  Chamara PeirisMentor
  28 July 2026 · 15:15
  Thanks for for the reply Stephen. Good to hear the feedback reaching you has been positive.
  
  We're keen to run it again, and when we do I'll make sure it's on your radar early. There'll be plenty of ways to get involved next time.
  
  Cheers
LK
Lisa Karran
24 July 2026 · 14:25
Having just attended as a mentor on the Sunday, I felt there was little value to be added by just floating around the teams and asking if we could assist. I felt that actually we were using up their time by interupting them when they were trying to focus on their presentations. Mentoring needed to be a little more structured and specific.
- CP
  Chamara PeirisMentor
  28 July 2026 · 15:24
  Hi Lisa,
  
  That's fair, and thanks for flagging it.
  
  The structured mentoring sat on Saturday with feedback rounds at each team's workspace. Teams had solid, focused time with mentors that day.
  
  Sunday was meant to be mock pitching with mentors on hand to critique. In practice several teams weren't ready until the last minute, so that window never really opened.
  
  We'll tighten this up for the next one.
SC
Stephanie Cloris
3 August 2026 · 11:42
Unfortunately, work commitments had to take precedence over what would have been a great weekend. Therefore I had to cancel my attendance and cannot offer any comments or suggestions.