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

Radius Café

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!

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Schedule

Friday

Apr 26
  • 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
  • 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
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Speaker, Judging & Awards
  • Wrapup Reception
  • Go home!
Coaches
Speakers

Stephanie McLarty

CEO, REfficient

Stephanie McLarty is CEO of REfficient, an online marketplace that allows you to go shopping in other companies’ surplus inventory for Telecom and AV product. Like an eBay for used and surplus new industry products, REfficient allows businesses to buy telecom and audiovisual equipment at significant discounts, keeping reusable products out of landfills. REfficient also allows equipment to be resold and recycled, and companies will receive sustainability reporting for their Corporate Responsibility reports.

Since launching REfficient in 2010, Stephanie has led the growth of the technology-based company to a customer base spanning 11 countries on 4 continents that have diverted over 1M pounds from landfill using REfficient. She and the company have received many accolades, including being the second-place winner at LiON’s LAIR 2012 and profiled in Biz Magazine as one of 20 game changers for the Golden Horseshoe region in 2013. REfficient is also a Certified B Corp.

Stephanie has been a member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) since 2008, where she sits as the Canadian Technical Expert on international standards for reuse and recycling. She was chosen to represent Canada at the 2010 and 2011 IEC Young Professionals workshops, and then selected by her peers as one of three global young leaders to work with the IEC moving forward.

Stephanie has a MA from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and a H.B.Arts.Sc from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. She has lived, studied and worked in five countries outside of Canada. She currently resides in Hamilton, ON. 

Heather Payne

Founder, Ladies Learning Code

Heather Payne is the founder of Ladies Learning Code, a Toronto-based not-for-profit startup that runs popular workshops for women (and men) who want to learn computer programming and other technical skills in a social and collaborative way. Ladies Learning Code now has chapters in Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax. In 2012, she founded HackerYou as a way to bring more intensive technology learning experiences to Toronto and beyond. Recently she spent a year working on a project for the Mozilla Foundation: her job was to build a community of people and organizations in Toronto who care about raising youth as creators – not just consumers – of technology and the web. In December 2012, the project was granted $365,000 in funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Heather was an early investor in ShopLocket, and in a former life, she helped startups like Pinpoint Social and Shopcastr to acquire their first users. In her spare time, she enjoys building websites and furthering her knowledge of Ruby on Rails.

Damien Steel

Director, OMERS Ventures

In his role as Director at OMERS Ventures, Damien Steel is responsible for contributing to the identification and execution of investment opportunities in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Damien was a Vice President with EdgeStone Capital Partners’ venture capital funds. Damien has over 10 years of experience working with growth companies on all aspects of their business including finance, acquisitions, and overall growth strategies. Damien currently serves as a member of the Ontario Security Commission’s Small and Medium Enterprise Committee and is a member of the Ontario Center of Excellence’s CCR Commercialization Panel.
Damien has an H.B.B.A from Wilfrid Laurier University, is a CA and a CFA charter holder.

Matt Gardner

Founder, Groupnotes

Matt's company, Groupnotes, was the first Canadian winner of Global Startup Battle (think worldwide Startup Weekend & the World’s Largest Startup Competition. He is creating a new web tool that lets you and your closest friends share more than ever before by letting you add privately shared discussions right on top of ANY page on the internet (signup and claim your username at groupnotes.ca)! His team of four is just finishing their three month sprint in the HYPERDRIVE accelerator.

Matt was a BlackBerry hardware developer who loves starting businesses (since grade 7!), good UX design, and talking! He's keynoted other Startup Weekend events, and is an upcoming speaker at the Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference's INFECT conference. Watch out for his orange pants, and follow him @thatmattgardner!

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