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

Past event…

Event Ended

71 Orange St, New Haven, CT, United States


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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!

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.

Schedule

Friday

Nov 9
  • Registration Starts
  • Dinner & Networking
  • 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

Nov 10
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
  • Lunch
  • Call for needs & skills
  • Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
  • Dinner
  • Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
  • Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Nov 11
  • 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 and Dinner
  • (@Gateway CC) VIP Reception
  • (@Gateway CC) FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • (@Gateway CC) Judging & awards
  • (@Gateway CC) Wrapup
  • Go home!
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Speakers

Ben Berkowitz

CEO and Co-Founder - SeeClickFix   |  LinkedIn

Ben is a proud resident of New Haven, CT. The inspiration for SeeClickFix came from a desire to improve his own community with his neighbors and his government. At SeeClickFix he is CEO and a Co-Founder. Ben was named Huffington Post's 2010 Tech Gamechanger.

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Judges

Rob Bettigole

Rob is the founder and Managing Partner of New Haven-based Elm Street Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital firm. He serves as Chairman of P2 Science and Samara Innovations, and is Chairman & CEO of Occam Sciences. He is Elm Street’s observer on the BioRelix board, was a board member of ShareGrove and Retail Optimization Inc., and served as an observer on the boards of Affomix Corporation and Metagenomix.

Mr. Bettigole has a BS in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University and an MPPM from the Yale School of Management (1983), where he is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Rob has served on the Operating Board of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute since its inception in 2007.

Mary Anne Rooke

Mary Anne Rooke is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Angel Investor Forum (AIF) an investor group comprised of 2 clusters of angel investors located in New Haven and Stamford.

Mary Anne is the Executive Director of University of Connecticut’s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) located on 3 campuses. TIP’s goal is to bring early stage technology companies into the incubator, help accelerate their growth, build university & industry collaborations and to mentor these TIP entrepreneurs.

She has served on several boards and commissions in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Connecticut. Mary Anne holds a BS in Accounting from Annhurst College and a MBA from Golden Gate University's Executive MBA Program.

Joe Rubin

Joe Rubin is a Director and Co-Founder of FundingPost.com. FundingPost has been introducing entrepreneurs to investors nationwide for over 11 years through its Online Venture Exchange, Dealflow Magazine and its Venture Capital and Angel Investor Conferences in 22 cities nationwide. Joe has also invested in 11 seed deals over the past 6 years, including Sticky, Inc. (acquired by DeviceVM), Senscient, Revstor, appMobi, Giftworks, Virtus Sensors, CIMA Systems, was an investor and on the advisory board of Offermobi (acquired by Moko.mobi). Joe is responsible for the FundingPost.com's operations, and runs the largest online annual business plan competition, Pitching Across America. He spends much of his time coaching and helping early-stage companies, and speaks at events such as the NYC Economic Development Corporation's Jumpstart and Fast trac Programs, Early Stage East, and Connecticut's CTech, and is a sponsor of the UCLA Private Equity Club. Prior to FundingPost, Joe was instrumental in helping to raise $2.5 Million in angel and venture capital for his dot.com start-up producing a family-friendly network and over 100 flash-based video games which were playable online and sold as a compilation in stores like Comp USA. Joe was also the Webmaster at Knight Securities (NASD: NITE), where he helped to design its online trading platform and website. Prior to working Online, Joe worked in television and design for companies such as NBC and MTV, in addition to doing freelance commercial production. Joe began working in television production, graphic design and 3D animation professionally when he was 15, and graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor's in Communications. He now lives in Connecticut with his wife and 2 children.

Gary Felberbaum

Gary Felberbaum consults and strategizes in technology and engineering best practices. His specific areas of specialization are software architecture, embedded system technology and real-time systems. In a 25+ year career in product development, Gary has advised executives and helped create new products for both emerging companies and large companies. Gary’s hands-on experience in design and project management, his knowledge of software and hardware, enable him to help clients take a system’s approach to product development and embrace a technology and product vision that will work in the marketplace. Gary is a Principal of Advanced Decisions, and currently serves as Treasurer of the IEEE Connecticut Section and Chair of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Technology Council

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Coaches

Paul Hughes

Paul is a partner at Wiggin and Dana and the former Chair of the firm's Corporate Department. He works with emerging growth companies from start-up through liquidity on issues including formation, protection and licensing of intellectual property, financing and mergers and acquisitions. Paul works with ventures in a variety of verticals, including software/IT, telecomm, clean tech, life sciences and healthcare services.

Evan Kipperman

Evan Kipperman is an associate in Wiggin and Dana’s Corporate Department and a member of the firm's Mergers and Acquisitions, Emerging Companies and Private Equity, and Securities and Capital Markets practice groups. He is experienced in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, securities transactions and general corporate matters.

Bob Coughlin

Bob Coughlin co-founded and co-managed a small biotech company in CT that developed and licensed technology. He has been an investor in large and small companies for most of his life. He has worked and consulted in the petroleum , petrochemical and nuclear industries and much of his career was spent as a tenured engineering professor and researcher at several universities, most recently at UConn before he retired.
He is admitted to practice before the US Patent and Trademark office as a patent agent, and holds numerous US and foreign patents. His experience includes evaluating intellectual property.

Ben Wiles

Ben Wiles is an attorney at Day Pitney LLP in Hartford. He represents investors and emerging growth companies in formation, financing, mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, technology arrangements and general corporate matters. Ben recently relocated to Connecticut from San Francisco, where he had practiced venture finance at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for five years. While at Pillsbury, Ben represented major Silicon Valley venture capital firms. On the "company" side, Ben represented startups in the internet media, social media, and gaming sectors from incorporation, through outside investment, to strategic exit. Ben also incorporated and represented the Bay Area's first gaming startup incubator.

Luke Weinstein

Luke Weinstein has co-founded 4 ventures, been an early stage employee in 3 others, is an angel investor, a VC partner and served on the boards of several IT, web and life sciences ventures. He is a mentor for the TechStart program. After selling his venture to Fujitsu, Luke taught entrepreneurship for 5 years at UConn and was the founding Director of UConn’s CCEI/Innovation Accelerator where he mentored over 40 hi-tech early stage ventures. Luke also has strong international business experience having lived and worked in seven countries on four continents. He has a PhD from UConn, an MBA and MS Engineering from U. of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Mathematics from Carleton University.

Art Baron

Founder - Baron LLC

Art can provide mentoring support on channel development, strategic alliances, and go-to-market planning, particularly in the Enterprise market. Art's experience includes 25+ years in the business partner organizations of IBM and Rackspace Hosting where he developed alliances with leading global systems integrators and other information technology companies. Art's current activity includes support for Connecticut Innovations' TechStart program, and a social technology project for the HealthCare Sector. Art has also organized a social media workgroup with eight hospitals to share best practices.

Jeff Block

Harmonics Holdings - CFO

Jeff Block is a CFO with a degree in chemistry and experience in the medical device industries. He's had experience that range from setting up charts of accounts for startups to raising venture capital to Mergers & Acquisitions.
Jeff has been a mentor at Yale Entrepreneurial Institute since 2009 and at the West River Community Program since 2006.
Jeff served as the CFO of Harmonics Holdings, Inc. a CT Fast 50 and Forbes 500 award winning company. Jeff was responsible for the successful merger of the predecessor organizations, allowing Harmonics Holdings to raise venture capital in one of the most tumultuous times in recent history.

John Farrell

hearye.io - Founder

John Farrell is a four time startup weekend veteran and founder of the winning Movid team from SW Hartford 2012. He is currently working on his own startup, hearye.io, a social media event promotion tool. Having worked in web and technology for ten years as a programmer, he enjoys whipping up MVP prototypes the most when not working on his pitch.

Organizers
Derek Koch
Ethan Carlson
John Seiffer
Alena Gribskov
Rohit Sharma
Giulia Gouge
Mike Roer
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Startup Weekend Recap

by swnewhaven

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