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

Stamford Innovation Center

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!

To learn more about Startup Weekend Stamford's host, the Stamford Innovation Center, click here.

We are looking forward to another awesome event.  Click here to join our mailing list.

Schedule

Friday

Apr 26
  • Kick-off with Bob Dorf
  • 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 27
  • 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

Apr 28
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Lunch
  • Coaches arrive--Ask Questions
  • Gut check--Prep for presentations
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & Awards
  • Wrap-up
  • The End
Speakers

Kathleen Warner

COO Startup America   |  LinkedIn

Kathleen serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the Startup America Partnership and is responsible for business operations and management of resources. Kathleen also coordinates a number of strategic activities and initiatives, including the Startup America Women initiative, all focused on heightening engagement with, awareness of and support for high growth startups. Prior to joining the Startup America Partnership, Kathleen served as district director for a US Congressman where she oversaw multi-office district operations and helped develop and implement policy objectives, strategies and operating plans for the district. Kathleen, an attorney, also spent over ten years in the private sector. Kathleen received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. She resides in Wilton, Connecticut with her husband, two children and two dogs.

Bob Dorf

The Startup Owner's Manual, Co-Author

A leading Customer Development expert, Bob Dorf is an allegedly retired serial entrepreneur and co-author with startup guru Steve Blank of The Startup Owner's Manual -- the step-by-step guide to building a successful company that teaches startups how to use the Customer Development method Steve created. Bob travels the world helping startups, foreign governments and major corporations learn to effectively deploy the Customer Development process through intensive 8- to 10-week Lean LaunchPad sessions, workshops and hands-on consulting that he conducts repeatedly in Russia, Latin America, and the US. He teaches the Lean LaunchPad program at Columbia Business School, where he is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, and has led training sessions at Tech de
Monterrey, Mexico, Skolkovo Business School in Moscow, Moscow State University and many other Universities. Bob’s deep experience consulting to Fortune 500 companies and service, retail, and web businesses balances Steve’s VC and software-centric experience. He’s counseled dozens of nonprofits pro bono as well.

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Judges

Marty Bell

Prescients, Founder

Marty is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and an Annenberg Scholar receiving his M.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the founder of Prescients, LLC a “C Suite” strategic Go-to-Market consulting and lead generation software group. Marty served on the board of NPD, one of the world’s largest marketing data analytics firms, on the board of Weston software, on the advisory board of Precipio, an oncology diagnostics Lab in partnership with the Yale-New Haven Tumor Profile Panel and as a mentor at the Stamford Accelerator Center. Marty brings to each involvement the experience and insights gathered over a career spanning more than 40 years. Prior to Prescients, Marty was a co-founder and President of Comart Associates, a publicly traded international promotion agency with a staff of over 400 associates in 8 offices worldwide.

John Seiffer

Business Advisor   |  LinkedIn

John is the entrepreneur behind CEO BOOT CAMP.com. An angel investor since 2005, John currently serves as President of The Angel Investor Forum and is also on their screening committee. He's a serial entrepreneur and an advisor to several Connecticut companies. Prior to that, he was a "remote control CEO" for a company he owned in Texas and managed while living in Connecticut. John started his career as an entrepreneur in 1979 and started consulting with other entrepreneurs in 1994. He was part of the group that founded the International Coach Federation and in 1998 he was elected to serve as president. It now has over 15,000 members worldwide. John has been an entrepreneur since 1979 and consults with company owners to improve their CEO skills through his company, CEOBOOTCAMP.com

Adam Quinton

Golden Seeds, Managing Director

Adam is an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies. He is a Managing Director at Golden Seeds. He serves as a Mentor for 37 Angels and the Women Innovate Mobile accelerator program. Adam, is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Astia and a Founding Angel at Astia. He is also an Advisor at Topstone Angels. He supports Women2.0 as a first stage judge for their San Francisco and New York pitch competitions. Adam is a Board member at Thrive Metrics. He serves on the Advisory Board of leading Board and executive search firm RSR Partners, Philadelphia based Cloudamize and San Franciso based SwoopTalent. Adam has over 25 years of investing and management experience most recently at Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was Managing Director and head of Global Macro Research. He was a top ranked sell side investment analyst in the UK, Asia and the US. Additionally he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs where he is a Capstone workshop advisor and member of the Management and Gender & Policy faculties. He holds a MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Cass Business School, London.

Geoff Schneider

Cava Capital, Managing Partner and Founder

Geoff founded Cava Capital based on the idea that entrepreneurial experience is essential to being a great investor in startups. Geoff has more than 20 years of operational and leadership experience with a range of companies in consumer marketing and media, technology products and services, information services and Internet marketing. Geoff has helped build over 20 venture funded businesses into viable high growth enterprises, been instrumental in the raising of millions of dollars of venture capital, worked with many companies as advisor and investor and sat on several boards of directors at various stages of company growth. Geoff has participated in several angel investments and has been a strategic investor in two venture capital funds. Geoff has led the Cava investments in etouches, Zadspace, Precision Health Media, Neuehouse, and EveryScreen Media and manages the firm’s strategy and execution. He currently holds board positions at several of these companies.

Diana Dowling

HBSAANY, Director

Diana is the Executive Director of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Greater NY (HBSAANY). She is also on the HBSAANY screening committee that reviews over 100 applicants each month. Diana started her career in international finance at Bankers Trust. She then moved to the digital media industry, where she was a Director of Business Development at Hearst New Media. She was also a VP of Business Development for MaMaMedia, a start-up in the children’s educational entertainment space that was developed in the MIT Media Lab. More recently, Diana has acted as a consultant to the clean energy industry and the consumer health care industry. Diana holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA with honors in Economics from Harvard. She is a current Board Member of the US Squash Association, and a past Board Member of the Eagle Hill School. She lives in Riverside, CT with her husband and four children.

Mohamed Abdelsadek

GE Capital, Global Head of Strategy

Mohamed has been with GE Capital for a little over a year. He is responsible for developing the Global strategy and driving strategic initiatives for the company. He has deep, global experience in the financial services sector. Among his responsibilities is evaluating new business/product opportunities for the company. Before joining GE Capital, Mohamed was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, a leading management consulting company. At McKinsey he worked with leading organizations across North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East partnering primarily with banks and insurance companies in the financial services space. During his 10 years with McKinsey he directed more than 50 projects focusing on strategy, corporate finance, risk management, private equity / due diligence and large scale operational and transformational programs. Prior to McKinsey Mohamed had a successful stint at MBH Settlement Group, L.C. where, as Chief Technology Officer, he planned, led and executed technology initiatives in the Real Estate industry for a startup company. Prior to MBH Settlement Group, Mohamed spent four years as a Senior Consultant for Lante Corporation and has also worked at IBM and Estee Lauder in various Technology related roles. Mohamed has several patents in his name including a patent for his work in cryptography. Mohamed holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Wharton, a Master’s of Science in Computer Science from Columbia and Bachelor’s Degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from SUNY at Stony Brook.

Bill Gordon

Lean Launch Ventures, Founder   |  LinkedInGoogle+

Bill received his UC Berkeley PhD working with a giant, Nobel Laureate James Watson, but then pivoted to earn a Wharton MBA after which he worked on the buy side for several asset management firms before founding, managing and later selling his interest in a broadband business in 4 countries of Europe. That adventure helped him fund and run a biotech company where he won a Gates Grand Challenge Exploration Grant for its work on a novel approach to creating a malaria vaccine. Currently, he enjoys being an angel investor and advisor to many tech startups. He also served on the PopTech Board of Directors

Susan Balloch

Golden Seeds, Managing Director

Susan Balloch is an angel investor. She is a Managing Director of Golden Seeds, an angel fund that invests in early stage companies founded or led by women. Susan’s 20+ year career prior to becoming an angel investor was in financial services both in the private equity world- fundraising and investor relations, and in investment banking. Susan was also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business where she taught a course in leadership.
Susan has a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Brian Brady

Stamford Learning Accelerator, Director

Brian Brady is Director of the Stamford Learning Accelerator, an experiential learning lab at the UConn School of Business. He is also a faculty mentor and Instructor in Residence, teaching in both the Management and Marketing Departments, including graduate and undergraduate courses in Entrepreneurship. Mr. Brady has taught at UConn Campuses in Storrs, the Graduate Business Learning Center (GBLC) and Waterbury in addition to Stamford. He has also worked as a faculty mentor at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI). At UConn, Mr. Brady developed a new course in Entrepreneurial Marketing and has run marketing workshops for the Young Entrepreneurs of Kenya Program, an initiative of UConn and the U.S. State Department and for participants in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). He has also served as a faculty judge for the National Black MBA Case Competition. Previously, Mr. Brady was a founding partner and president for twelve years of an award-winning marketing and promotions consultancy, serving a variety of regional, national and international clients. He has served as Director of Corporate Advertising at ADP in Roseland, NJ, prior to beginning has agency career in account management at Omnicom/BBDO in New York. He earned his Master’s Degree in Communications from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT and obtained his B.A. from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Mr. Brady has been a member of the American Marketing Association, the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Chief Marketing Officers’ (CMO) Council.

Coaches

David Furth

Leap the Pond, Founder

David Furth is an experienced software and services industry executive and the founder of Leap the Pond. Prior to starting Leap the Pond, David served on the management team of a number of successful software companies. As result, he understands firsthand both the challenge and thrill associated with market entry and revenue growth. David holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College.

Jonathan Yarmis

'Doctor Disruptive'

Jonathan Yarmis (aka Doctor Disruptive) has been a leading voice in the technology industry for over 30 years, with a variety of experience in industry analysis, end-user computing, and public and analyst relations. His research focus has always been on “disruptive technologies,” which these days focuses on “social business,” which is a combination of social media, mobility, cloud computing and big data. Jonathan has worked at leading analyst firms including AMR, Ovum, HfS Research and a 10 year stint at Gartner. He has held titles including Senior Research Fellow, VP of Disruptive Technologies and Service Director. He has also worked at senior levels at PR firms Hill & Knowlton and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. He produced and served as content chairperson for a variety of conferences and tradeshows at eMarketWorld, including ad:tech, eFinancialWorld, eHealthcareWorld, eTravelWorld and eMediatainmentWorld. He currently serves on the advisory boards of Blink MKG and Cava Capital and is a member of the Internet Oldtimers Foundation

Randy Savicky

Strategy+Communications, Founder & CEO,

Randy is a former journalist at Newsday and senior public relations executive at two of the world’s largest PR agencies, Edelman and Ruder-Finn. In 2002, he founded his own PR firm, Strategy+Communications, to make it easier for innovative companies to become successful by directly connecting their communications programs to their business goals. The agency leverages the power of the new PR and marketing -- traditional, digital and social media and inbound marketing -- to help companies get found, get funded and drive traffic, leads and sales. His experience includes counseling B2C and B2B companies of all stages and sizes, from IBM, Apple, Sony and Fujifilm to Juno, Viaweb, Brain Tunnelgenix Technologies and the Stamford Innovation Center.

Keith Ritter

Business Leader

With over 35 years of business experience, Keith brings a wealth of communication, presentation and team building skills to the table. He has a solid track record of nurturing solid relationships with strategic partners and consensus building across multiple organizational levels.

Keith has redefined his previous experience in traditional media to include the modern forms of communication offered in digital media. Keith guided the digital businesses of the National Hockey League, including NHL.com, the NHL.com Network, NHL Wireless, the League's online and catalog commerce programs and data and content licensing. His strategic thinking and management helped to position the NHL as one of the most “tech-savvy” sports leagues. Prior to that, Keith spent nearly 25 years with ABC and CBS where he gained a comprehensive knowledge of network and local television. He has made personal sales calls on hundreds of national advertisers and their agencies and worked with leagues, national governing bodies, event organizers, and other broadcasters as well as technology companies, venture funds, and wireless carriers in the United States and abroad.

Larry Perlstein

Aspen Springs Partners, Founder

Larry is an executive with more than 30 years of diverse, poignant, and pioneering experience in technology industry research, product / service marketing and sales, and project and personnel management working for respected companies such as Gartner, Inc., IBM, GE, and PepsiCo and as a consultant. Larry most recently left Gartner, the largest information technology research and advisory firm, after 15 years, having started as an analyst and progressing rapidly into management positions. Ultimately, he managed a global 30 person research analyst team, published dozens of research and strategy documents, was widely quoted in the press, and was a regular speaker at Gartner and other corporate conferences. Most recently, he has been advising numerous companies on their social business strategy. Larry sits on the board of directors of the non‐profit Westport Cinema Initiative and on the advisory board of Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Larry earned a master of business administration in information systems and bachelor of business administration in marketing from Pace University, New York. and lives in Westport, CT.

Justin Morrison

Off-Piste Partners, Founder

Justin Morrison is held various sales/marketing and business development positions with brands such as Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and McDonald's. He has been part of multiple startups in tech, television, outdoor adventure and most recently media barter. He currently runs Off-Piste Partners which is a brand strategy group that helps companies connect the various technologies and tactics in the social media marketing world.

Dan Delmar

Corporate Strategy Consulting LLC, President

Dan Delmar is the President of Corporate Strategy Consulting LLC, helping companies with breakthrough growth. The firm works with technology clients of all sizes on business strategy, marketing, new offerings and M &A. For six years until 2009 he was an executive in the Corporate Strategy group of IBM at Armonk headquarters. He led teams that analyzed IBM’s growth opportunities, customer needs, market trends, competitors and the IT industry and had some involvement with IBM’s Venture Capital Group. Prior to IBM, Dan was the Founder and President of Corporate Strategy Consulting Inc., advising senior executives at clients such as Hitachi, Verizon, Computer Associates, Lexis-Nexis, ITT, Aeroquip, Alcatel and much smaller companies. Previously, Dan was at Accenture Strategic Services and served as the Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development at Carrier Corporation. He was also a Managing Consultant at Bain & Company for five years. Dan is an entrepreneur who has started three different businesses of his own. He has helped a couple of Internet companies get funded by venture capital funds, including one company in which he served as President. He is currently an advisor for a startup software company based in Israel. Dan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in Engineering/Computer Science from Yale.

Organizers
Meg Dalton
Brien Buckman
Peter Propp
Krishna Sampath
Zishan Ahmad
Derek Koch
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