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

Friday, 116 S Highland Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15206 East Liberty, Pittsburgh

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 5
  • Registration Starts
  • Dinner, Networking,
  • 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. Tracksplotation performance

Saturday

Apr 6
  • 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.

Sunday

Apr 7
  • 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!
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Judges

Don Morison

Chairman/Executive Director, BlueTree Allied Angels

Don Morison is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader who has consistently leveraged technology to improve the customer experience and top and bottom-line results, in multi-channel consumer product companies.

He has been involved in the growth and development of several businesses, including American Eagle Outfitters, from 1 to 165 stores (as President/CEO), Sundance Catalog Company (as Executive Director), and Bear Creek Corporation (as Senior VP of Sales and Marketing).

His business experience includes Retail, Catalog, E-commerce, Restaurant and Franchising. Mr. Morrison has been involved in several business turnarounds, divestitures and acquisitions and serves on several Boards of Directors.

He is currently Chairman and Executive Director of BlueTree Allied Angels, a Pittsburgh, PA based angel investment organization. Mr. Morrison is actively involved in mentoring and coaching many start-up and early-stage companies in the region.

Matt Newton

Vice Chairman of TriStar Investors

Presently leading the strategic development efforts for TriStar Investors. TriStar is the largest privately-held owner of land and property rights to the wireless cell tower industry in the United States. They invest in real property and develop cell tower locations throughout the U.S.

In addition to TriStar, Matt enjoys helping high-growth technology companies as an investor and advisor.

Rich Lunak

President & CEO, Innovation Works

As President & CEO of Innovation Works, one of the nation’s most active early-stage investor according to Entrepreneur Magazine, Rich Lunak leads the organization’s efforts to provide business expertise, seed capital and other resources to high-potential, technology start-up companies in Pittsburgh.

Audrey Russo

President & CEO, Pgh Tech Council   |  LinkedIn

Since 2007, Audrey Russo has served the technology business sector for southwestern PA as President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Tech Council (PTC), the oldest (1983) and largest technology trade association in North America. In this role, Audrey has facilitated strong interaction across all business sectors of the regional economy, which she believes will only succeed and grow through technology innovation and commercialization. With a background in information technology, operations and finance, Audrey previously worked for large multi-national Fortune 500 companies (Alcoa, Reynolds Metals), as well as at MAYA Design, and in an adjunct faculty and project role at Virginia Commonwealth University. She loves the complexity of Pittsburgh’s physical, literal and metaphorical terrain and believes that vital cities are the moral imperative in achieving competitive, diverse and vibrant economies.

Russo earned her Bachelor of Science degree in social work from Ohio State University. After graduation, she served as director of social work for Toledo’s Northwestern Ohio Developmental Center and then as project manager of criminal justice services for Stark County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. She also served for a time as unit director for Apple Creek (Ohio) Developmental Center.
She entered Syracuse University on a scholarship at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs, and she graduated from there with a master’s degree in public administration.

Currently, Russo is a member of CEOs for Cities: Pittsburgh Innovation Design Team. In addition, she serves as a board member of the Pittsburgh CORO Center. Russo also served on the executive board of the Rudlin Torah Academy in Richmond. Other previous affiliations include the Medical College of Virginia Treatment Center for Children, the Richmond Jazz Society, the Virginia Mental Health Players, the Richmond Jewish Community Center, the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, Virginia Mental Heath and Retardation Services and the Autism Society of Virginia.

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Coaches

Denise Desimone

Denise DeSimone's career primarily has been in starting companies. All told she has started several ventures.
In 1998, Denise founded one of her greatest successes, Unicorp. As CEO, she developed this privately held technology based business from the ground floor with sales reaching a global market. Within just another two short years, revenues exceeded $74 million. But if you ask Denise, it’s not all about the numbers. She led great teams that listen to clients’ challenges, assessed their needs, and examined business processes, to develop solutions.

Denise has been recognized for her achievements over and over. Most recently she is the recipient of the Ernest & Young 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year for Western Pa, West Virginia, and upstate New York and Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business for 2009. Some of her other achievements include 2007 Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Top 5 Women Entrepreneur Recognition, Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Growth Companies, and Microsoft Partner Development. Denise has also been appointed to several Advisory Boards and is a member of the Women's Professional Organization

Ed Engler

Managing Partner, Pittsburgh Equity Partners

VC with over 10+ years experience investing in early-stage information technology companies, 20+ years leading IT companies in executive and director positions, 25+ years of experience in large-scale distributed systems technology.

Roy Ben-Itzhak

Experienced C-Level Executive, Entrepreneur, Strategist

Over 10 years experience in providing financial oversight to VC backed startups, restructuring operational systems and spearheading new initiatives. Trusted advisor to senior management in CFO and COO roles, especially in facilitating company growth and sustaining profitability . Strong experience negotiating and drafting multi-million dollar deals from LOI to execution. Adept at managing investor expectations, negotiating and building consensus among stakeholders. Skilled orchestrator of financial models and presentations to investors. Resourceful, articulate and enthusiastic in promoting business ventures

Adam Paulisick

Business Development, Neilsen Catalina Solutions

Adam has had a long history in the online ecosystem, currently leading the business development charge of Nielsen Catalina Solutions' (NCS) New York Office (while calling Pittsburgh home and commuting to NYC each week) combining offline data into online, mobile, print and TV media targeting and measurement. Prior to that role, he served as Senior Director of Commercial Operations for Nielsen’s Emerging Media division (audience, advertising, video and social media market research) where he was responsible for driving profitable growth within Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Before Adam's arrival in London he led global account planning for Nielsen’s Online and Mobile Media portfolio and was one of the early leaders of the BuzzMetrics team (acquired in 2007 by The Nielsen Company) guiding business development for online word-of-mouth analytics. Prior to BuzzMetrics Adam worked at an early stage private equity incubator as part of the proof of concept team evaluating and empowering early stage companies. Adam continues to be active in the early stage venture community as a mentor in domestic and international accelerator programs such as AlphaLab (Pittsburgh), seedcamp (US+Europe), London Techstars (Springboard), and entrepreneurs roundtable accelerator (NYC).

Turadg Aleahmad

Cofounder and CTO, Geknowm

Turadg works at the research, design and business, principally in the education domain. With a background in cognitive and computer science, he worked 1998-2006 on web-based blended learning systems before it was cool. Always a strong proponent of open source, he wrote the php-mode for Emacs, and nearly regrets the association. He later earned a PhD from CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute and Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research, researching the how to build technologies for education that are both desired and scalable. His dissertation explored and expanded HCI methods for discovering, designing, implementing and testing software that users want. For this, he built and evaluated two systems in Rails, one of which won at Startup Weekend DCEDU.

Ellen McDevitt

Marketing and Brand Management Expert, EMS Consulting

Most of her career has been spent in some form of marketing. From marketing computer software, to selling and managing trade event space at international industrial events, to building and marketing a new high-tech trade association, to product development and marketing of consumer packaged goods, Ellen is an experienced industry builder, marketer, and brand builder. While her heart lies with startups and small companies, she has also worked for subsidiaries of large corporations in the USA and Germany.

Seth T. Hufford

Seth specializes in leadership development, coaching, program design, and group facilitation. He believes that by increasing the leadership capacity and awareness of individuals, we in turn create improved relationships, workplaces, and communities. Working across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, Seth has engaged people at all stages of their careers – young professionals, middle managers, and senior executives.

Seth’s career has seen him head up strategic and organizational development initiatives for the Allegheny County Controller's office, manage global executive education programs at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, and direct both Leadership New York (a program of the Coro New York Leadership Center) and Leadership Development Initiative (a program of Leadership Pittsburgh Inc.). His work experience started at Booz Allen Hamilton –the worldwide management consulting company.

Seth holds a Master of Public Policy and Management from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Arts from Dickinson College. Other than his professional pursuits, Seth enjoys spending time with his wife, two sons, and good friends, talking public policy and politics, listening to music or seeing live shows, watching and playing international football, and exploring the urban fabric of cities.

Paul Burke

Chief Creative Officer, Co-Founder Thinktiv

Paul is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Thinktiv. His primary role is to ensure that Thinktiv customers acquire and maintain a dominant market position through strong brand, marketing and product experiences. Paul has 15+ years of experience creating and delivering integrated measurable, marketing communication systems in both B2B and B2C businesses and acts as an advisor to Thinktiv’s largest clients on brand and marketing strategy.

Eric Silver

Founder, WebKite

Eric is the Founder of WebKite, a new online publishing platform which turns data into customizable online directories with a complete set of sorting and search tools-including patent-pending search-focused list generation and learning. Eric has worn several hats with WebKite: he is the sole author on two of their pending patents, coded the initial alpha in Ruby, raised their angel round, and has worked with several WebKite clients to build profitable web-based properties.

Eric is also the founding principal of Alt-Capital, a syndicated angel fund focused on great entrepreneurs building online businesses. Eric serves on the boards of Shoefitr, Rent Jungle, and Flashgroup. Previously Eric has worked as the CMO at ModCloth, as a consultant at McKinsey, as a consultant for Deloitte Research, and has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Eric was the keynote speaker at Startup Weekend 2012.

Jordan Messina

Co-Founder, WizzyWig

Jordan Messina is a startup guy and python enthusiast. Jordan was the co-founder of DeviceKnit (Alphalab Winter 2010) and Insurance Zebra (Alphalab Winter 2012). He's now working on WizzyWig, a platform-agnostic content management system that allows users to update their website and see their changes by adding one line of code on their site. Jordan created WizzyWig with two other Pittsburgh entrepreneurs in 48 hours as part of the 2013 LAUNCH Conference Hackathon. The team won the hackathon and walked away with $125K in investment capital.

Rick Cancelliere

Founder, Treatspace

Rick is a nationally recognized entrepreneur connecting the dots between healthcare, design, and technology. Beginning in 2002, his design firm specialized in healthcare and drove digital marketing efforts for numerous nationally known medical brands. The Small Business Association named him Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 for consistently propelling his clients into lead roles within their categories. His niche agency was repeatedly ranked amongst Pittsburgh’s top advertising and web design firms.
In 2009, Rick launched Nerve Medical, a technology agency specializing in medical startups. Working with Project Olympus and co-founders at Carnegie Mellon, Treatspace spun out of Nerve Medical in 2012 with Rick as its CEO.
There is a social network and a professional network yet there is no health network. Treatspace will be your health network. A one-stop facts-certified healthcare service delivery platform that manages provider and practice visibility and referrals while seamlessly delivering on-demand remote healthcare services to patients.

Christopher Evans

VP, TrueFit

Leveraging extensive executive leadership experience within bootstrap start-ups and Fortune 1000s in branding, business development, marketing, angel investment and management, Christopher serves as Vice President of TrueFit. Christopher forges strategic alliance partnerships, shapes TrueFit's brand, drives new business, and spearheads our growth strategy. He also works closely with clients to dial-up the value of product ideas, seek funding, and get to market. Christopher's passion is helping clients create disruptive new technology products.

Prior to joining TrueFit, Christopher held senior roles at industry leaders including Mastech, Blue Hammock and PNC Financial Services Group. In his role as Director of Global Marketing for Mastech, Christopher helped drive strategic initiatives, which included the 2006 launch of RPOworldwide, a start-up recruitment process outsourcing firm which operated under the Mastech corporate banner, and Mastech's successful spin-off from former parent iGATE Corporation. Christopher was a co-founder of CRM start-up Blue Hammock, where he helped lead a $1.5M initial angel fundraising round, transform from start-up into a recognized industry leader, and later sell off via acquisition.

In addition to his roles at TrueFit, Christopher serves as Chairman of the Member/Partner Committee, and member of the Screening Committee for BlueTree Allied Angels, the region's leading group of accredited investors who invest in early-stage companies, and as member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of Sponsorship for MIT Enterprise Forum Pittsburgh, a leading educational organization for entrepreneurs. Christopher is Host of the YouTube broadcast program Coffee With™… for Building Bridges for Business. The quarterly video program is designed to educate and empower small business owners and startups in the Pittsburgh region.

Michael Sipe

Product Manager for Android, Google

Michael Sipe is a Product Manager for Android at Google. Michael came to Google from Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition (a.k.a PittPatt). At PittPatt, Michael developed product strategy and established commercial partnerships for applications of face recognition technology in photo organization, security, social networking, and robotic dinosaurs. Prior to PittPatt, Michael was product manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s cellular imaging instrumentation. He also has 20+ years of engineering experience.

Michael holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Krishna Pendyala

Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur

Author of Beyond the PIG and the APE: Realizing Success and true Happiness.

Krishna Pendyala has an eclectic background in technology, entrepreneurship and human development. He is also an active angel investor and a founding Charter Member of TiE Pittsburgh.

Prior to joining Waldron in 2004 as Chief Operating Officer and life coach (he has since left his role there as of Jan 2013), he was the Vice President of Consulting & Enterprise Data Management for iGATE Global Solutions. Before iGATE, Krishna served as the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Consulting at Sonic Foundry after they acquired his video search and retrieval company MediaSite.

In the mid 90s, Krishna was the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation sponsored Informedia project at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, a networked full-content searchable digital video library.

Krishna was also the founder and President of Visual Symphony, Inc., an award-winning software company that specialized in networked, interactive multimedia applications designed to enhance human performance in the early 90s.

Mark Musolino

Founder, Revv Oakland

Mark Musolino is a scientist and engineer by training, having earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Mark spent fifteen years creating products, building businesses and serving customers in the healthcare and cybersecurity industries, with a focus on biometrics and data analytics applications. For the past five years he has held technical and leadership roles at several early stage companies, and is currently a member of the Digital Intelligence and Investigations Directorate at the Software Engineering Institute.
Mark is also founder of the Revv coworking community in Pittsburghʼs Oakland neighborhood, which provides early stage companies and other technology enthusiasts a productive, affordable and convenient place to work, meet and socialize. As it celebrates its one year anniversary in March 2013, Revv has seventeen members, is home to the Pittsburgh DataWorks big data incubator, and has over one hundred events planned for the coming year. Visit www.revvoakland.com for more information.

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David Cristello
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Sep 21-23 2012