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

54 hours of organized chaos. Come. Pitch. Code. Demo. Make it Happen! Together we can put Atlanta on the map.

Be sure to follow up on Twitter at @ATLSW for all the latest details.

Sponsors, Speakers & Judges have been updated!  See below for full details.

 

Schedule

Friday

Apr 12
  • 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 13
  • 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

Sunday

Apr 14
  • 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
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & awards
  • Wrapup & Go Home!
Gold Sponsors
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Silver Sponsors
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Speakers

Dr. Joseph Nadan

Professor - Management of Technology and Business Innovation at New York University Polytechnic Institute   |  LinkedIn

Dr. Joseph Nadan, 2002 EMMY-award-winner for the Scientific and Technological Advancement of 16:9 HDTV, is on a quest to lead creative innovators into their own success using scientifically proven innovation processes. A self-styled “Innovation Sherpa”, Dr. Nadan knows of what he speaks, having also invented, innovated and/or worked on products and services including EZ Pass and the CDROM. He is Professor - Management of Technology and Business Innovation at New York University Polytechnic Institute, is Director of its MS Management of Technology Programs, and founded and runs its Executive Coaching and Mentoring Program. When he's not guiding students and clients up the treacherous Innovator's Mountain, Dr. Nadan is also a Senior Editor of The International Journal of Innovation Science, a Senior Member of the IEEE and a co–founder and Member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Innovation Professionals.

Judges

Merrick Furst

Founder & Director, Flashpoint   |  

Merrick is the founder of Georgia Tech’s Flashpoint, a first-of-its-kind startup engineering(tm) studio that develops and produces exceptional technology startup companies.  He is Georgia Institute of Technology’s first “distinguished professor of computing”.  The GT “Threads” program in the College of Computing was his creation, and he is one of the three producers of The InVenture Prize, a live-broadcast tv show that NPR describes as American Idol for Nerds.  Merrick is a co-founder of the internet security firm Damballa and is an early-stage fund investor.  Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Merrick was the founder and CEO of Essential Surfing Gear, an internet software company, which was acquired in 2000.  At the University of California at Berkeley he served as president and director of the International Computer Science Institute, and he established its Center for Internet Research.  Prior to Berkeley, Merrick was a professor and associate dean in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Merrick is an inventor, recipient of the first Presidential Young Investigator Award in computer science, and early creator electronic post-it notes, which were best-sellers on PCs.  In Flashpoint’s first year, it worked with 68 founders, 31 teams, two cohorts, 45 mentors, $800k from the Flashpoint Investment Fund, organized 90 startup engineering sessions and six demos days in Atlanta, NYC and the Bay Area, and saw the new companies receive over $10 million in investments from Andreesen Horowitz, Bessemer Ventures, 500 Startups, Sigma Partners, FFv, ATA and many angels.

Blake Patton

Interim Director, ATDC   |  

Blake brings 20 years of leadership in startup, venture-backed, and publicly traded internet, software, payments, and financial services technology companies. Blake also founded, and later sold, one of the first application service provider (ASP) companies in the online content management space.

Ed Rieker

Mayor of Avondale Estates, Serial Entrepreneur   |  

Ed is a business owner and entrepreneur who has a successful track record starting, building and selling software businesses. During the last 25 years, he has been the founder or co-founder of four heathcare software firms, two of which have been acquired by public companies. Recently, he experienced another success when PbNation.com, a company he acquired in 2003, was purchased by a public company.

Currently, Ed owns and runs 151 Locust, a coworking and business incubator, located in the heart of the commercial business district of Avondale Estates, which helps emerging small companies grow.

He received his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory. He is a member of international honor society Beta Gamma Sigma. He is co-inventor of a1998 healthcare software patent.

He currently serves as the Mayor of the City of Avondale Estates.

David Duncan

Serial Entrepreneur, President of EO

David is not only a 3rd generation Atlanta native, but also a 3rd generation Atlanta entrepreneur. In 1996, while finishing a degree in communications at Georgia State University, David and his partner Co-Founded Paddywax, a boutique wholesale candle manufacturing service. David spent the next 15 years growing Paddywax into a leading candle and home fragrance brand sold in the US, Canada, Latin America, Great Britain, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

In 2004, David’s desire to learn and grow led him to the Atlanta chapter of The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a dynamic, global network of more than 8,000 business owners in over 60 countries. After only a year of membership, his natural leadership ability earned David a role on the chapter's board of directors. For the last eight years, David has served in various leadership roles at the local, regional and global levels for EO, and has been instrumental in building EO Atlanta to be one of the organization's benchmark chapters. David is currently serving as President of EO Atlanta Chapter for the second time.

In addition to EO, David is a founding member and part of the executive committee for Start Up Atlanta, where he is working with members of Atlanta’s Entrepreneurial and Start Up community to help build Atlanta into a world-renowned and modeled entrepreneurial and start up eco-system.

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Blog
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Nov 9-11 2012