Guest Bloggers: Team JustBit from Italy EAA2011 Winners

So far the competition has been really exciting with new entrants showing their stuff. While you're waiting for us to post the details for Stage 2 (coming next week), have a look at what 2011 winners,Team JustBit, had to say about their experience with the EAA:

Participation in the Ericsson Application Awards is a bit of a tradition for JustBit. Thanks to our second place winning in the 2010 edition (with the Childroid Application) we have been able to further develop the JustBit team. In the 2011 edition, we finally won the long-awaited first place in the student category. The achieved successes and the Ericsson incubator (Ericsson Project EGO Italy) led JustBit to become a start-up whose reputation is growing very fast in Italy.

Back to the experience of this past year...
We joined the EAA during the mini-contests and, as our idea was accepted and very much appreciated, we decided to carry out the development. These steps have been very useful for us to refine our idea and understand what we really wanted to acheive; moreover, having specific deadlines helped us to improve group harmony and it forced us to behave like a real working team.
To be honest, we didn't expect to be able to reach the final for two consecutive years, nor to win first prize. We couldn't believe there would be so much interest in our idea from our peers at the awards ceremony. This event allowed us to meet a lot of intelligent people and to increase our cultural awareness.

Figure: Team JustBit at Ericsson Studio

This experience changed us radically. It taught us to coordinate and work in groups; it opened pathways for dealing with an international public, and thanks to that, we have been able to gain a certain reputation in Italy. Moreover, this experience gave us the possibility of meeting people who could change our lives and the prize money also allowed us to invest even more in our start-up.
It's been an exciting experience. Stockholm is fantastic!

Regarding our little company...
We have many projects in the pipeline, but the main one is obviously What's In My Kitchen. We hope to receive an invitation from Ericsson to use its facilities in Silicon Valley to significantly expand our horizons and work experience. At the moment, we are meeting with various venture capitalists. The project requires considerable economic efforts – from aggressive international marketing to many other aspects – that we would not be able to sustain on our own. We intend to refine and release our work on the world market as soon as possible.

The EAA is a unique opportunity that no one should miss.
Good luck everyone.

The JustBit Team
www.justbit.it

Figure: Team JustBit with their prize