– Typically starting a business takes months, but this past weekend, five Richland County residents participated in a program that builds startups in only three days.“It was great. I had been involved in the Columbus startup scene, but this was an eye opening and enlightening experience,” said participant Cameron Haring. “I was amazed in the amount of talent and enthusiasm.”He was one of twelve individuals sent by Idea Works to participate in Columbus’s Startup Weekend Feb. 9 to 12, where teams were instructed to build and pitch a startup to a panel of judges.Haring and his team of seven others, who were previously strangers, won the competition with their pitch for Coin Score, a startup that would collect and provide information about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The website would offer an “at-a-glance rating” for each currency, similar to a FICO Score and could serve as the “go-to” place for people interested in cryptocurrencies.“Despite all the news about cryptocurrencies and people who have made a fortune from it, there’s not an understanding of it and the general public would like to learn more about it,” Haring said, adding his team conducted surveys that validated this hypothesis. “Our angle was there’s a lot of curiosity around cryptocurrency, but not a great place to go and learn about them.” Haring heard a Columbus man pitch the idea at a Friday night session and later connected with him to express interest in the concept. Others also joined in and they worked to create a demoversion by Sunday. When they pitched Coin Score, the judges were impressed. “We chose that company because there was an immediate market opportunity for it. The cryptocurrency space is a hot market, and it was a company that was easy enough to execute, so it could be done, and if they don’t do it, someone will quickly,” said Falon Donohue, judge and CEO of Venture Ohio.