#3beards

Last Saturday, I judged my first hackathon.  It took place at the Soho House in New York City, and was sponsored by Yahoo! and 3Beards.  The objective was to have developers create apps that best incorporated New York's core industries: Financial Services, Fashion, Media, etc. using Yahoo's APIs.  It was amazing to see the variety of ideas and polished products that the participants were able to put together in 24 hours.  One group, 'Cash Money Records', came up with the idea to convert stock market metrics (i.e., price, volume, etc.) into sound.  Another, 'A Stitch In Time', created an app that operated like a photo-roulette, pulling photos into a grid and giving a snapshot of your surroundings, past and present.  The winner, 'Chill Zone', reverse engineered the "heat map" of where people are checked in so that individuals/patrons could see where they could go, relax, and avoid crowds.  Fun way to spend a Saturday, right?  Thanks to Yahoo!, 3Bears, and the Soho House for having me.  And, special thank you to Chris Dannen for including me.

Kevin Plattret - Web developer at 3beards @kplattret

 Who are you and what are you working on?

I am Kevin Plattret and I am a Web Developer at 3beards. We are a content, promotion and events company that aims to grow the startup community in London and beyond – we are actually going global! (More info here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/13/3beards/ )

 Do you think entrepreneurs are like super heroes?

I definitely think they are! I see them as superheroes as I believe they can really make a change. I can think of countless number of startups that are working on improving our day-to-day life in so many small ways, for individuals but also for businesses. Entrepreneurs contribute to changing the world, hence, they are superheroes!

 If you had a super power, what would it be? 

I would like to travel very fast. Since I am French and living abroad I would love to be able to visit my friends and family whenever I want. Reading people’s minds would be cool too but I think that’s insane…

If you could be a superhero, who would you be: Batman, Superman or Spiderman?

Definitely Spiderman! I would love to be as fast as he is and it must be so cool to move that way without any vehicle of any sort!

Heroes are usually inspired before inspiring others. Who inspires you?

I have so many sources of inspiration. I would say that innovative people generally inspire me, because they are full of ideas and not afraid of stretching the limits or even… fail. I find the whole startup community in general very inspiring, people I meet at events or online… but also my colleagues – they are very good at having badass ideas!

 Super heroes are never afraid of anything. What about you? What is your worse fear?

That’s a difficult one… I guess that would be to miss something super cool happening, a moment that only happens once.

As a super startup superhero, who do you aim to help or rescue?

At 3beards we aim to help startups to get together and share about their experiences and ideas. I’m very much into that.

Regarding fashion, are you more a sober all in black Batman guy or an eccentric shiny blue and red Superman guy? 

I can’t choose, I might be a mix of both… One day I am the classic French guy and the other day, I have a slightly more eccentric English style!

When I came up with the idea of Taskhub about 2 years ago, I had never heard of 'sharing economy' or 'collaborative consumption'.

Although 'collaborative consumption' sounds like a new trendy expression, the concept of sharing one's goods and skills is not brand new.

Our friends the Beards have created 20 extra special tickets to the Digital Sizzle Summer Shindig. 

Not only at a discounted price of just £20, but ALL proceeds from these tickets go to Tech Bikers, and thus to the Room To Read charity we are supporting.  

So grab your ticket and look forward to delicious street food and drink amazing craft beer at Red Market.  

Make sure to select the Tech Bikers option when purchasing your ticket and help Tech Bikers further by spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter.

http://summershindig.eventbrite.co.uk/