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…

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1776 DC - 1133 15th St. NW, 12th Florr

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What is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a 501c(3) non-profit organization based in Seattle, WA, on a mission to promote entrepreneurship around the world. Our weapon of choice in this quest is 54-hour workshop-competitions that vividly demonstrate how much of a business can be accomplished in just a weekend. This includes polishing the problem statement, building a prototype (fake it until you can make it), finding some potential customers to validate your idea, and creating a presentation about it all. Our typical event begins early Friday evening with a diverse group of industry experts, creative professionals, engineers, and business hustlers convening at the designated location over some (gourmet) pizza. An hour or so into the mingling, the organizers break up the feast to begin the Startup Weekend kick-off ceremony, which consists of an overview of the upcoming work and some brief inspirational speeches from experienced entrepreneurs. The moment the speakers are done, the floor opens up to 60-second idea pitches that are timed very strictly. It’s common to have as many as 70 pitches in a 100-person event but only 15 or so of them will capture enough eager minds to form a team. Some ideas are so alluring that the authors can really pick the best people to build them, while others may struggle finding the right talent. And sometimes a talented person can’t decide which team to join. Fear not! The facilitators will help you find the talent or the team that fits you as much as possible. As soon as your team is assembled, you’re free to start working. Mentors often come on Friday night so if the person with the right expertise is available, you can ask for help right away. If the venue is available until at least midnight, the newly formed teams usually get started immediately. Otherwise, they go to the nearest watering hole to bond and strategize the game plan for the rest of the weekend. Saturday starts at 8 or 9 a.m. with a hearty breakfast and hot coffee. At this point, all teams should know the direction of their work and have some idea of what help they would need from the mentors who begin arriving around 10 a.m. The facilitators do a quick check-in with each team separately to get their names, contact info, and any special needs or requests. Other than that, the teams should be doing something until the lunch. The lunch on Saturday is often accompanied by several presentations by world-class experts on topics related to product development and startup company management. The speakers and topics vary between events depending on people’s availability and the organizers’ wishes. After food pit-stop, it’s more work independently and with mentors until the last man collapses with some breaks for dinner. Some hosting venues allow late-night access whiles others must close early, which could mean another night of working at a bar, coffeehouse, or other impromptu space. On Sunday morning things suddenly speed up beyond belief. Teams realize they have barely 8 hours to complete their business model, prototype, and presentation.  There’s little time for idle talk or food and that’s where true teamwork emerges. The organizers will announce the order of presentations shortly after lunch on Sunday so you have enough time to prepare your presentation and motivate the teammates responsible for the prototype. Depending on the number of teams, the closing ceremonies may begin as early as 5 p.m. of Sunday. The program of the demo night is simple:

  • a quick overview of what has happened since Friday night for those who didn’t realize 2 days have passed;
  • 5-10 minute presentations of the completed projects (order is decided randomly; exact time allowance is determined by the number of teams) followed by 3-5 minutes of questions by the judges;
  • mildly entertaining activities by the wannabe emcees, aka the organizers, while the judges are painfully deliberating on which team gets to be called the event winner;
  • a speech by a high-profile guest or a judge;
  • acknowledgements of sponsors, hosts, and volunteers;
  • the announcement of winners and the awards ceremony.

At this point, everyone goes through their catharsis and is ready for more food and networking (and maybe even some partying). When you come to your senses on Monday morning (or evening, you party animal!), you’ll be amazed with the people you’ve met, the knowledge you’ve received, the experience you’ve gained, the comfort zones you’ve left, and what you’ve accomplished in some 54-hours you’ve spent among the most innovative and risk-taking people in your city.

Schedule

Friday

Apr 5
  • 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

Apr 6
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
  • Lunch + Speaker
  • 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

Apr 7
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Lunch
  • Coaches on-site periodically. Pitch practice sessions in afternoon.
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & awards
  • Wrapup
  • Go home!
Speakers

Alex Hsiao

Creative Director at Perphic   |  LinkedIn

Alex is an Entrepreneur & an award winning Designer. A proven visionary leader and strategist in the interactive product design space, with extensive experience in user experience, brand management, and graphic design. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, CNN Money, CNBC, CNET, Ad Club, Communication Arts, Cool Hunting and PC Mag's top 100 web sites.

Alex's diverse startup experience ranged from an UX consulting, international trade, import and export, retail and distribution, and branding agency.

Back in the day he was Director at AOL for Audience Product Technologies, providing vision, brand management, and user experience design direction to numerous R&D initiatives, consumer applications and services. Alex’s creative direction guided such products as AIM, AOL China, AOL Radio & Video. Most recently he helped shape design experiences at BlackJet, Verizon, Netflix, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Intuit, TurboTax, Quicken, Plaxo, Cox, Cricket, DivX, Software AG, Small Business Administration, AP, American Heart Association and The Humane Society.

Evan Burfield

Founder of Synteractive, Cofounder of 1776   |  LinkedIn

Evan Burfield is the cofounder of 1776, an incubator platform for connecting the hottest startups in the world with the resources of the most powerful city on earth. Evan’s community leadership flows from his belief in entrepreneurship as the engine for solving the major problems facing America and the world today -- from education to energy efficiency.

Evan became an entrepreneur in 1996 when he founded netDecide, shortly after graduating from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Before he turned 25, he built netDecide into the leading provider of enterprise wealth management solutions for top tier financial service firms such as Bank of America and Ernst & Young. In 2005, Evan graduated with a First Class degree in Joint Honors Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he won the Webb Medley prize for most outstanding thesis for his work on the effects of organizational incentives on knowledge sharing. In parallel to his studies at Oxford, Evan was also the Director of Strategy for Oakwood Global Finance, where he led the private equity firm’s analyses of new global markets and new business models in financial services. In 2006, Evan returned to Washington, D.C. to found Synteractive, a consulting firm that builds innovative social apps for startups, corporations, and government agencies.

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Judges

Leslie A. Jump

Partner at Sawari Ventures, Board Member at Startup Weekend   |  LinkedIn

Leslie Jump has twenty-five years experience building, advising and investing in new companies, products and brands, in the US and across the globe. She is a Partner in Sawari Ventures, LLC, a Cairo-based early stage venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs across the MENA region. Leslie also recently joined the board of Startup Weekend. She coaches and mentors emerging technology entrepreneurs, providing them with business and operational expertise. She also advises graduates of Flat6Labs, Sawari Ventures’ dedicated startup accelerator for seed stage investments. Before joining Sawari Ventures, she was the co- founder of Cazeema Partners, a consulting firm which offers market, risk, and financial assessments to companies and organizations seeking to do business in the Middle East. She provides early/growth stage technology companies with strategic planning as well as marketing, business development and fundraising expertise.

Haroon Mokhtarzada

CEO at Webs, VP of Digital Products at Vistaprint   |  LinkedIn

Haroon is an investor and serial entrepreneur born and raised in the DC area. While attending UMD in 2001, Haroon founded Freewebs with two of his brothers. In 2006 he raised $12m in capital for Freewebs (later renamed to Webs) and has since grown the company to 50M users, 100,000 paying customers and led an acquisition by Vistaprint in late 2011.

In 2007, Haroon co-Founded SGN the Social Gaming Network, and spun it out as a separate company after raising $15m in venture capital. SGN was acquired by Mindjolt in 2011.

Haroon has a passion for technology startups, innovation, and entrepreneurship. In addition to his new role as VP of Digital Products at Vistaprint, he continues to engage with tech startups as an advisor and angel investor. He is also deeply interested in scalable solutions for large scale problems in the developing world including women’s health, infant mortality, clean water, and energy.

Peter Corbett

CEO at iStrategyLabs   |  

Peter Corbett is the founder and CEO of iStrategyLabs – a digital agency that develops solutions to clients’ challenges and brings them to life in the online and offline world. He’s widely known for his marketing acumen coupled with a deep technical background, and a focus on community building. His client work includes brands like Disney, ESPN, ABC, NPR, PBS, GE, Microsoft, NASDAQ, Intel, GEICO, American Eagle Outfitters, Pinkberry, Honest Tea, Coca-Cola, Crate & Barrel/CB2, Chase, Rosetta Stone, The US Army, Deloitte, McKinsey, Volkswagen, Audi, Ford, Hilton, Double Tree, Embassy Suites Hotels, Marriott, Sweetgreen and more.

A tireless champion of innovation, and disruptors everywhere, Peter has mentored half a dozen startup accelerator classes, advised hundreds of early stage tech companies, founded the massive DC Tech Meetup, and created the 12,000+ person DCWEEK festival.

Reggie Aggarwal

CEO at Cvent   |  LinkedIn

Reggie is the CEO and Founder of Cvent, the world's largest provider of event management technology. He has led the company from a two-person startup to a 1,000-person company that has helped manage 750,000 events in 50 countries. In addition, through the Cvent Supplier Network, the company's free online marketplace that connects meeting planners with venues, thousands of Cvent customers will send $4 billion in group business to hotels and venues in 2011.

In July 2011, Reggie led the company's first round of funding in over a decade—a $136 million investment—which, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the biggest U.S. software funding deal since 2007 and the largest in the history of the events technology industry.

Michael Avon

EVP and CFO at Millenial Media   |  LinkedIn

Michael Avon serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Millennial Media, where he is responsible for the company’s overall financial, legal, and corporate development activities. He has spent the past decade building early-stage and growth companies as a venture capitalist, operator, entrepreneur, and attorney.

Most recently, Michael was a Principal at Columbia Capital, a leading communications and media-focused venture capital fund, where he focused on digital media, wireless and consumer internet investments, such as Avail-TVN, Social Gaming Network, Webs.com, Gizmoz, GoAhead Software, and Millennial Media. Michael was also a venture capitalist with Toucan Capital, and led Business Development at FOLIOfn.

Coaches

Donna Harris

Managing Director at Startup America Partnership, Cofounder of 1776   |  LinkedIn

Donna Harris is a four-time entrepreneur and cofounder of 1776. Prior to 1776, Donna served as the Managing Director at the Startup America Partnership, where she architected and led the Startup Regions Initiative, which focused on accelerating the formation of vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems across the United States and connecting the communities into a national startup ecosystem.

Prior to joining Startup America, Donna was Vice Chair of Interpoint Group, a government markets, government relations, and public affairs strategy and management firm, which generated nearly $8 billion in revenue, passed/defeated legislation and executed public affairs campaigns for corporations, non-profits, foundations, and governments globally. She was also previously Founder and CEO of Kinderstreet, which sold SaaS solutions company in the education, sports and recreation markets. She was also Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Product Management for Centromine, a provider of web-based clinical/fiscal systems in the Health and Human Services industry. Donna has also held positions at Oracle and EDS.

Donna is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Georgetown University and an alumna of Springboard Enterprises, a non-profit focused on scaling high-growth, women-led businesses, which has helped nearly 450 women-led companies raise $5 billion in equity financing. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University and MBA from The University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Eric Koester

Serial Entrepreneur, StartupWeekend Board Member   |  LinkedInGoogle+

Eric Koester is the Founder and COO of Zaarly, a location-based, real-time commerce platform. Eric previously served as VP Operations & General Counsel at Appature Inc., a cloud-based relationship marketing software company. Prior to joining Appature, Eric was a corporate and securities attorney for Cooley LLP where he represented public and private technology, energy and life sciences companies, venture capital firms and investment banks in a wide range of transactions, including public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, securities issuances, technology licensing transactions, corporate partnerships, commercial agreements and venture capital financings. Before joining Cooley, Eric was the Financial Reporting Manager at Ventana Medical Systems, a leading diagnostics company acquired by Roche. Eric began his career in Morgan Stanley’s financial advisory services group. Eric has also founded and operated several technology and consulting businesses during his career.

Eric is a well known writer and author, including the books Green Entrepreneur Handbook (2010) and What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High-Tech Business Venture (2009). He is a frequent speaker at conferences on the topics of small businesses and startup companies, green businesses and technology law. Eric was named the Technology Hire of the Year in Seattle (2010)

Minh Nguyen

CEO at App Press, Cofounder of Plaxo   |  LinkedIn

Minh has over 17 years professional experience in web/online product development. A serial entrepreneur, he is currently the CEO of App Press and an advisor at 500 Startups, Acceleprise, and The Fort.

Evan Burfield

Founder of Synteractive, Cofounder of 1776   |  LinkedIn

Evan Burfield is the cofounder of 1776, an incubator platform for connecting the hottest startups in the world with the resources of the most powerful city on earth. Evan’s community leadership flows from his belief in entrepreneurship as the engine for solving the major problems facing America and the world today -- from education to energy efficiency.

Evan became an entrepreneur in 1996 when he founded netDecide, shortly after graduating from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Before he turned 25, he built netDecide into the leading provider of enterprise wealth management solutions for top tier financial service firms such as Bank of America and Ernst & Young. In 2005, Evan graduated with a First Class degree in Joint Honors Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. While at Oxford, he won the Webb Medley prize for most outstanding thesis for his work on the effects of organizational incentives on knowledge sharing. In parallel to his studies at Oxford, Evan was also the Director of Strategy for Oakwood Global Finance, where he led the private equity firm’s analyses of new global markets and new business models in financial services. In 2006, Evan returned to Washington, D.C. to found Synteractive, a consulting firm that builds innovative social apps for startups, corporations, and government agencies.

Ashish Jaiman

Evangelist, Startup Strategy at Microsoft   |  

Ashish Jaiman is an Architect Evangelist with Microsoft. In his role Ashish helps Public Sector Independent Software Vendors and Startups to understand and adopt Microsoft platform and tools.

Ashish is in software business for last 15 years developing and architecting LOB system on Microsoft and competing platforms. Ashish is a hands-on technologist and very passionate about startups and take pride in working for 2 startups and successfully exiting out to work for Microsoft.

Bobby O'Campo

Director at Revolution   |  

Bobby Ocampo is a Director at Revolution Ventures and is responsible for investment execution, oversight, and analytics for Revolution’s portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Revolution Ventures, Bobby was an Associate with Grotech Ventures, where he was active in sourcing and executing investments in software, internet, and digital media sectors. His investment experience includes GramercyOne, HelloWallet, Lagrange Systems, Personal, Plink, and WiserTogether.

Adam Bonnifield

Co-founder at Spinnakr   |  LinkedIn

Adam is the co-founder of Spinnakr.com, a graduate of 500 Startups. Adam lives and breathes online engagement - he ran digital strategy for political campaigns since he was in college, breaking Congressional fundraising records. After graduating from Cambridge University, he was awarded the Tsuzuki Fellowship to direct online youth outreach in Japan.

Sameer Gulati

CEO at GrubBeat, EIR at Acceleprise   |  LinkedIn

Sameer is currently the founder and CEO of GrubBeat enabling mobile payment solutions for bars and restaurants. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Acceleprise, a DC based accelerator focused on Enterprise Software Companies. Prior to that Sameer has spent 15 years in various Product Management roles with Zynga, Workday and Zuora joining these companies in startup phase and helping them grow to large publicly traded companies.

Tim Barnes

CEO at MedClimate, Managing Partner at Emerald City Ventures   |  LinkedIn

A vetted product architect and serial entrepreneur, Tim Barnes has built a variety of companies from the ground-up. With successful exits in two of his own ventures, Tim has also built over 50 companies in his career in software - many with successful exits and two public offerings.

Tim is passionate about the startup community and has built Oz Consulting and Emerald City Ventures to invest in new startup companies looking to disrupt and innovate in technology. He occasionally speaks on developing new products, architecting unique and smart user experiences and about bootstrapping new companies. He is the founder of the Barnes Center for Entrepreneurship and manages several technology incubators.

Amy Schumacher

Communication Expert

Amy Schumacher is a communication expert with over a decade of experience in competitive speaking. Currently, she serves as president of Schumacher Consulting, a communication firm Amy Schumacher is a communication expert with over a decade of experience in competitive speaking. Currently, she serves as president of Schumacher Consulting, a communication firm specializing in presentation skills, strategic messaging, and media training for everyone from startup founders to seasoned politicians. She also teaches public speaking at The George Washington University and both teaches and coaches competitive speech and debate at Northern Virginia Community College. In addition to her academic endeavors, Amy serves as community manager at Exfederal.com, a government contracting job website. She holds a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication from Miami University and a master’s in communication studies from Marshall University. training for everyone from startup founders to seasoned politicians. She also teaches public speaking at The George Washington University and both teaches and coaches competitive speech and debate at Northern Virginia Community College. In addition to her academic endeavors, Amy serves as community manager at Exfederal.com, a government contracting job website. She holds a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication from Miami University and a master’s in communication studies from Marshall University.

Organizers
Mack Kolarich
Denis Baranov
Barbara Lee
Blog
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Meet the Teams!

by Maris

Dinner isn’t too far away at Startup Weekend DC and with the sun setting the teams are feeling the pressure. [...]

The Final Stretch

by Denis Baranov

It’s now less than 24 hours until Friday pitches kick-off and you embark on conceiving, validating, and building your business [...]

Prizes!

by Denis Baranov

We know you’ve been waiting. Some of you patiently, others — on the edge of your seat, biting nails, and [...]

Upcoming Events
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Past Events
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Nov 18-20 2011