What Is Startup Weekend?

What is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

Startup Weekend Global Site

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TechColumbus (1275 Kinnear Road)


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Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Whether entrepreneurs found companies, find a cofounder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

Schedule

Friday

Mar 1
  • Cocktail Hour, Registration, Networking, & Dinner
  • Welcome & Speakers
  • Pitches Start
  • Attendees vote for the top ideas
  • Teams start forming and discussing ideas
  • Start to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Saturday

Mar 2
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
  • Lunch + Talk with Joe O'Brien
  • Call for needs & skills
  • Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
  • Dinner + Talk with Will Burrus
  • Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
  • Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allowas late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Mar 3
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Lunch
  • Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • Tech Check for Presentations
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & awards
  • Wrapup
  • Go home!
Speakers

Dan Rockwell

Cofounder of Big Kitty Labs & Program Manager of the Software Prototyping Center at The Ohio State University   |  

Dan is the Program Manager of the Software Prototyping Center at Ohio State's Technology Commercialization office. With a passion for startups his skill set reflects his experience - from user experience design (11 years at Lextant) to bootstrapping startups (4 years at Big Kitty Labs). He's a self professed futurist and trend hound, always keen on learning and leveraging anything to get concepts in motion and make stuff happen. Dan mentors students and entrepreneurs alike thru speaking events at Ohio State, formation of events like WakeUp StartUp and by participating in hack/startup culture.

Joe O'Brien

Regional Director at Neo (Founder at EdgeCase)

Joe is a father, speaker, author and developer. Before helping found EdgeCase, LLC, Joe was a developer with ThoughtWorks and spent much of his time working with large J2EE and .NET systems for Fortune 500 companies. He has spent his career as a developer, project manager, and everything in between. Joe is a passionate member of the open source community. He co-founded the Columbus Ruby Brigade and helped organize the Chicago Area Ruby Users Group. His passions are Agile Development in the Enterprise, Ruby, and demonstrating to the Fortune 500 the elegance and power of this incredible language.

Joe will be discussing how startup founders should define success from start to exit, during Saturday's lunch.

Will Burrus

IT Process Engineer at Abrasive Technology   |  LinkedIn

Will Burrus is an IT leader responsible for evaluating emerging technologies for use in marketing campaigns, managing relationships with trusted partners to provide unique technology services and solutions to clients, and partnering with agency teams to implement the digital components of campaigns and projects. Will has been an IT architect and entrepreneur for the last 14 years, founding or participating in 4 startup ventures and leading both application and infrastructure projects for business of all sizes including Chase Bank, Nationwide Insurance, Grange Insurance, and BMW Group Financial Services.

Will's talk on Saturday during dinner will focus on: Skill set vs. Mind set. Which will be more valuable in the future that we are actively creating for ourselves?

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Judges

Victor Thorne

Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor, Angel Investor   |  LinkedIn

Victor Thorne brings a background of both investment and operating management experience, spanning Fortune 500 corporations to entrepreneurial ventures. He is Co-Founder of Broadline Capital, a global investment management firm. In 2008, Broadline Capital received the industry award for Asia Venture Deal of the Year, named by Private Equity International (PEI) for Broadline’s investment in China Risk Finance. PEI’s Global Awards are voted by the industry to recognize transactions for their impact on the private equity landscape. China Risk Finance is a leading provider of credit management solutions and financial products within China.

A decade ago Victor co-founded the leading provider of supply chain management and intelligence solutions to the trillion-dollar food system. Creating the industry’s first SaaS electronic supply network, the resulting company became an innovator in the automation of core business processes. The company’s robust and secure transaction engine facilitates more than $220 Billion in supply chain commerce transactions annually and converts traditional paper-based processes into more efficient paperless transactions for more than 6,000 manufacturers and distributors, and 100,000 retail operators throughout North America. In 2007, the company was successfully sold to institutional investors at a nine digit valuation.

Katie Robinson

Vice President of Strategic Innovation at FIS   |  LinkedIn

Katie is the Vice President of Strategic Innovation at FIS, the world's top provider of technology, processing and services to the banking and payments industry. As VP of Strategic Innovation, Katie drives growth and innovation both organically within FIS and externally through strategic partnerships, acquisitions and investments.

Prior to joining FIS Katie worked at Alliance Data’s Retail division, developing and managing integrated credit and marketing solutions including private label and co-brand credit card programs for some of the most recognizable brands in North America. She also established Product Management, Market Research, Innovation, and Interactive Marketing functions in the organization that drove significant revenue growth.

Katie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University.

Lance White

Wealth Advisor, Portfolio Manager, Angel Investor   |  LinkedIn

Lance serves as Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of UBS Financial Services, Inc. Mr. White has been in the financial services industry for 15 years and prior to UBS was a Senior Vice President and Wealth Advisor with Morgan Stanley. His team at UBS manages wealth for many families across the country. Mr. White is an active angel investor in many technology companies with a focus on Internet, social media and green tech. He was involved in the first launch of Ohio TechAngels Fund, which has become the largest angel fund in the Mid West. He serves as an adviser to LaunchRock, Iron.io, Crowdhut, and Sparkbase. Mr. White holds degrees in International Relations and Economics from The Ohio State University and received his Senior Consultant from The Wharton School of Business.

Mentors

Tanisha Robinson

Co-Founder at TicketFire   |  LinkedIn

Tanisha Robinson is a Columbus-based serial entrepreneur who started and sold her restaurant promotion company, Fudha, in 2011 and just launched her latest company, TicketFire, in January 2013. TicketFire aims to unlock paper event tickets by allowing users to digitize them using a mobile phone. TicketFire helps users more easily utilize and resell their physical printed tickets.

In addition to working on her own companies, Tanisha works at Skreened, a creative apparel company, as their Strategy and Marketing Director, helping the company rapidly grow and expand.

Tanisha earned a Bachelors Degree in Arabic and Political Theory from The Ohio State University.

Nick Seguin

Partner at Dynamit   |  LinkedIn

Nick Seguin is manager of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where his responsibilities include developing and deploying programs, funding initiatives, and continuing to build networks that advance entrepreneurship both domestically and abroad. In addition, Seguin also works on programs for Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Seguin was a principal, strategy practice lead for dynamit, in Columbus, Ohio, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of the agency and led new business development. He also was a principal and founder of weBuild, a web and mobile accelerator formed to help companies move to product, revenue, and seed funding quickly. He remains a partner in both ventures. In addition, Seguin is a facilitator for Startup Weekend and assists in running global events.

Seguin earned a Bachelor’s of Science in marketing with a concentration in international business from Miami University. During this time, he studied abroad in Luxembourg.

Patrick Pohler

Founder at Anecka   |  LinkedIn

Pat Pohler is an experienced software developer with specialties in .NET and User Experience. In addition to being a serial Startup Weekend participant, Pat is the founder of Anecka, a Columbus-based software development company that builds web and mobile apps for various clients.

Pat holds a Bachelors Degree from Bellarmine University in Computer Science.

Brooke Paul

Founder at Founders Factory & Taivara   |  LinkedIn

Brooke Paul is a serial entrepreneur and experienced early-stage investor. Brooke has been on the founding teams of multiple tech startups, including several successful exits. Brooke's latest efforts have been focused on starting Founders Factory & Taivara to help early-stage technology companies develop ideas into real products by providing seed capital, mentorship, and development resources.

Brooke holds a Masters/PhD in Neuroscience from University of California, Irvine and a Bachelors in Psychology from The Ohio State University.

Alan Gilbert

Vice President of Engineering at CoveryMyMeds   |  LinkedIn

Alan is a market-driven engineering and technology executive with 26 years of experience transforming ideas into commercially-successful products. He has held engineering and management positions at IBM, DuPont, and Codonics with a strong emphasis on vertically-integrated, FDA-regulated medical devices. He has served on or led teams that have brought more than a dozen medical products to market in over 100 countries. Alan has recently joined CoverMyMeds, a Columbus healthcare startup, as their Vice President of Engineering. CoverMyMeds is well on its way to fixing the prior authorization process, one of the most painful parts of healthcare.

Matt Scantland

Co-Founder at CoverMyMeds & President at Innova Partners   |  LinkedIn

Matt can build and sell software to the health care industry, and does what needs to be done at startups.

He is a co-founder at CoverMyMeds, one of the fastest growing healthcare technology companies in Ohio. CoverMyMeds is well on its way to fixing the prior authorization process, one of the most painful parts of healthcare. CoverMyMeds' customers include more than 300,000 physician users, most of the country's largest pharmacy chains, and more than 35 pharmaceutical brands. Strategic partnerships include McKesson Corporation and NaviNet, Inc.

Matt co-founded and is now President of Innova Partners, a thriving software development company serving the healthcare industry. Founded in 2004, Innova was responsible for development of key systems at MemberHealth, winner of the Inc. 500 for 2007, and now operating one of the largest Medicare Part D plan in the country as part of CVS Caremark Corporation.

Grant McDonald

Global Product Marketing Manager, Symantec Hosted Services   |  LinkedIn

Grant is an IT marketing expert with over 15 years of experience working in global operations for companies like Microsoft and Symantec. He currently leads Global Product Marketing for Symantec’s growing cloud services business unit and also sits on the board of multiple IT startup businesses advising on marketing, sales and go-to-market strategies.

A recognized thought leader in the IT security, SaaS and cloud computing markets, Grant frequently participates in analyst, trade and industry events to speak on emerging trends in business data security and hosted services for managed service providers as well as small, medium and enterprise-size businesses.

A startup evangelist who enjoys the challenges of defining business and marketing strategies as well as driving new product launches from the ground up, Grant is excited to be a part of Startup Weekend as one of our mentors.

Bryan Beal

Director, Cloud Computing and Data Center Business Development at Juniper Networks   |  LinkedInGoogle+

Bryan has over 15 years of experience in the Cloud Computing, Enterprise Software and Network Infrastructure industries. Past employers include Microsoft, NokiaSiemens Networks, and AT&T.

Most recently, Bryan worked for Juniper Networks as the Director of Cloud and Data Center Business Development, where he was responsible for driving thought leadership in the areas of Data Center and Cloud Computing and helping companies define and execute on their cloud strategies. Bryan also led research on new cloud computing startups and innovative products and is co-author of the US Federal Government National Institute of Science and Technology whitepaper on “Leveraging Cloud Services”.

Bryan has been a keynote speaker and panelist at countless technology events including the Bloomberg CIO Summit, INTEROP, Cisco Live, VMworld and others. He holds multiple patents on cloud computing technologies, is an Advisor and Board Member to several startups including Egnyte (backed by Google, Kleiner Perkins) Iron.io (backed by Citrix, Cloud Capital Partners, Ignition Partners) and OneLinc

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Suzy Bureau
Steve Gacka
Brian Billingsley
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Nov 9-11 2012
Jun 29-1 2012