Startup Weekend returns to South Florida Oct. 12-14. This time, the home base will be the newly expanded Technology Business Incubator at the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University.
Startup Weekend, headquartered in Seattle, is a global grassroots movement of entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching ventures. Its organizers say it put on 400 events in 100 countries in 2011, making it the largest organization of its type. At the events -- which have taken place in countries from Brazil to Mongolia -- entrepreneurs, developers, designers and marketers come together for weekend-long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams and launch companies.
Organizers say Startup Weekend follows this 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.
The weekend in Boca Raton is still taking shape but many speakers, mentors and judges have already signed on, including Steve Repetti, CEO/CTO of RadWeb Technologies and administrator of the RadWeb Technology Partners startup fund; Raj Kulkarni, a software entrepreneur, advisor and investor; Rob Strandberg, president and CEO of the Enterprise Development Corp. of South Florida; Kimberly Gramm, executive director of the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship at FAU; Andrej Kostresevic, founder of New Frontier Nomads; Craig Agranoff, CBS News Television tech contributor; Marc Asselin, CEO of mLabs and founder of StartupSquad; Jose A. Hernandez-Solaun, senior vice president at GE Capital; Franc Nemanic, board member of Miami Innovation Fund and member of New World Angels; and Alex de Carvalho, entrepreneur, speaker, author and professor.
Startup Weekend Boca Raton, which begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 and runs through 9 p.m. Oct. 14 at the incubator at 3651 FAU Blvd. in Boca Raton, costs $99. For more information or to register, go here.