For thousands of years (give or take), the Olympics have inspired countless hearts to accomplish extraordinary feats and secure a place in the pantheon of the world’s great humans. It was in keeping with this tradition that eight visionary startup companies – including SpareFoot – took to the Games in Austin’s very first Startup Olympics on Saturday, Jan. 21.
Hosted by uShip, tech startup-friendly events included foosball, ping pong, flip cup, beer pong, connect four, pop-a-shot, darts, shuffleboard, trivia and an obstacle course. The competition was fierce, and the afterpartying was the stuff of legend.
SpareFoot claimed third place overall, but first in points-per-employee— first- and second-placers uShip and BuildASign are at least three times our size. Furthermore, each and every member of SpareFoot felt like a champion. Developer/Designer Jeffrey, who competed on the third-placing SpareFoot trivia team, was glad for an opportunity to showcase the company’s wild side.
“I can’t wait to yell my head off like that again,” he said, already looking forward to next year’s event.
One area in which SpareFoot was the clear dominant force was the inflatable obstacle course. The team, consisting of Michael, Brett, Britney and Ryan, demonstrated that SpareFoot can always be counted on to provide speed, perseverance and physical perfection.
“I felt like I was in the Fast and the Furious,” Account Manager Brett commented on the comparative skill and attractiveness of the SpareFoot team.
Developer Evan, who helped the SpareFoot beer pong team secure gold, described his own personal performance as “glorious.”
Each participating startup played for donations to a charity of their choice (we played for Kure It). While tempers flared and business etiquette was quickly thrown to the wind, VP of Revenue Keith realized the Austin startup community had something special.
“Magic happens when you get hundreds of people playing silly games together after drinking beer all day,” he said.
For more photos from the action-packed day, check out our Facebook album. Or, watch this amazing video.
Photo by SpareFoot Developer Long Cao
About Rachel Greenfield
Rachel does marketing at SpareFoot. Her favorite movie is The Big Lebowski, favorite color is black, favorite food is cheese, and favorite band is the Pixies. She aspires to make self-storage fun and to make her dog and cat cuddle each other.
