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

1301 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA

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.

Event is hosted at the gorgeous Zillow headquarters in downtown Seattle, the Russell Investment Building at the corner of 2nd and Union. The sublime views of the waterfront from the 31st floor will provide a great backdrop for your own ideas. The sky is literally the limit.

This is a very special edition of Startup Weekend Seattle as it is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week celebration of innovation. The winners will have a chance to compete with teams from 130+ global teams in a Global Startup Battle. More details on http://globalstartupbattle.org/

Watch the pitches and the final presentations at: https://new.livestream.com/swsea/gsb2012

Schedule

Friday

Nov 16
  • Registration Starts, Arrive at Zillow Headquarters
  • 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.
  • Venue closes

Saturday

Nov 17
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
  • Lunch
  • Call for needs & skills
  • Coaches help teams one-on-one. You must sign up to get a mentoring spot.
  • Dinner
  • Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
  • Finished for the day.

Sunday

Nov 18
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Lunch
  • Coaches arrive. Make sure to sign up for a spot.
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & awards
  • Wrapup
  • Happy hour hosted by AngelHack at Pike Place Brewery
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Speakers

Spencer Rascoff

CEO of Zillow Inc.   |  LinkedIn

Spencer Rascoff is the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Zillow Inc. (NASDAQ: Z). Spencer joined the company as one of its founding employees in 2005 and was promoted to CEO in September 2010. In 1999, Spencer co-founded Hotwire.com, a leading Internet travel company, which was sold to Expedia in 2003. Spencer then became Vice President of Lodging for Expedia, where he ran Expedia’s largest and most profitable business line. Before his consumer Web career, Spencer was a private equity investor at TPG Capital, and an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, and Allen & Company.

Spencer regularly appears on national broadcast television programs on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Fox News to discuss real estate data, housing trends and the Zillow business. Spencer is a recognized leader in the real estate industry and has received numerous awards including: Forbes’ America’s 20 Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under in 2012, Inman News’ 2011 Innovator of the Year Award, Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2011 40 Under Forty and Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2008 CFO of the Year finalist.

Spencer graduated cum laude from Harvard University, and he serves on Harvard University's Digital Community & Social Networking Advisory Group. Spencer is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), and the Policy Advisory Board at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Spencer is also on the Boards of Directors of ezRez, a privately-held travel technology company, and Room77, a privately-held online travel company.

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Judges

Brier Dudley

Seattle Times Tech Columnist   |  

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest in a weekly column published on Mondays and a blog appearing throughout the week at www.seattletimes.com. Dudley previously covered Microsoft for five years. A third-generation Seattleite, Dudley received a B.A. in English from Whitman College and studied film production in Italy before starting a career in newspapers. He has won numerous journalism awards and several oyster-eating competitions.

Nadia Shouraboura

Founder and CEO at Hointer, Inc.

Dr. Nadia Shouraboura is the CEO of Hointer. Hointer is reinventing men’s shopping experience by bringing mobile and robotics technologies to brick-and-mortar. At Hointer men have a new way of discovering, trying-on and buying great clothing.

Nadia was born in Soviet Russia and pursued her education in mathematics and science. In 1987 she began her career, after emigrating from Russia to Israel, as a software developer working on Computer Aided Design systems for industrial robotics. Her work in modeling computational systems attracted the attention of professors at Princeton University in the US, where she was offered a full scholarship for study and research.

During her PhD work, Nadia performed research at AT&T Bell Labs and co-founded Starlight Multimedia, a developer of multi-media applications. Her work at Princeton resulted in several important papers, referenced by over 200 publications. She received a PhD in Mathematics from Princeton.
In 1994 Nadia joined a technology startup, Diamond Technology Partners, working with a variety of major retail companies. Then she joined a JP Morgan Venture startup, Mobilocity, as their Managing Director in charge of wireless division. As a pioneer in the emerging world of energy trading, Nadia worked for Exelon and was responsible for the energy trading algorithms and software.

Nadia joined Amazon.com in March of 2004. As Technology Vice President of Amazon’s Worldwide Operations she owned algorithms, software development, infrastructure, and operations for technology powering Amazon’s supply chain and fulfillment.

Nadia lives in Seattle with her husband and sixteen year-old daughter.

Brenda Spoonemore

Co-founder and CEO of Dwellable   |  

Brenda Spoonemore is an entrepreneur and technology executive with more than 15 years of experience identifying and developing disruptive technologies in the media, gaming and ecommerce sectors. She is currently the co-founder and CEO of Dwellable, a vacation rental search site and mobile app named by CNN as one of the top 10 best travel apps for the iPad and as a Google Staff Pick on the Google Play Store.

Brenda also chairs the board of Atomic Moguls, a company she founded in 2006. Under the brand name “Fantasy Moguls,” the Seattle-based startup develops and operates successful social fantasy sports games on social networks, including the flagship CBSSports.com Franchise Football game.

Prior to that, Spoonemore was SVP of Interactive Services for the NBA, with responsibility for the league's interactive P&L, including global digital operations, licensing and strategy, as well as the NBA All-Star Technology Summit. She also served on the board of Newsvine, a Seattle-based startup acquired by MSNBC.com in 2007 and has been named to the Sports Business Journal's "Forty Under 40" list, as a Multichannel News' "Woman to Watch", and as one of the “100 Top Women in Seattle Tech” by TechFlash.

Spoonemore holds a B.A. in English from Pomona College in California and a Master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Julie Sandler

Sr. Associate at Madrona Venture Group   |  

Julie joined Madrona in 2011, and is a board observer for AdReady, OnMobile Media, ThisLife, and Rover.com. At Madrona, Julie is pursuing new investment opportunities, and is actively involved in Madrona’s portfolio companies and the firm’s activity in the startup community. She launched the Seattle Entrepreneurial Women’s Network (SEWN), a forum for women entrepreneurs, startuppers, and aspiring entrepreneurs to connect here in the Greater Seattle area.

Prior to joining Madrona, Julie was a senior product manager at Amazon on the Kindle team, where she managed online marketing/traffic for Kindle’s ebook business, both in the US and internationally. She also led the definition, design, and technical implementation of new Kindle Content products. Earlier in her career, Julie worked at Accenture, where she spent several years in product management within Microsoft’s SMSG Solutions Delivery group. While pursuing her MBA, Julie did a stint in product management and business development at TeachStreet, a Madrona portfolio company (acquired by Amazon in February 2012).

Julie serves on the board of directors of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network (NWEN). She is also a trustee on the board of the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Julie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with honors, with distinction, and with both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She also received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School. She is an avid photographer, musical theatre aficionada, and Seattle waterfront runner.

James T. Carroll

Associate, Perkins Coie

Jim Carroll is an associate in the firm's Emerging Companies practice and focuses his practice on the representation of start-up and high-growth technology companies in matters of corporate finance and securities, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.

David Beitel

CTO, Zillow, Inc.

As Zillow.com CTO, David manages the Technical Engineering team and is responsible for all website, mobile and internal product development, corporate IT, and datacenter operations. One of the initial members of the Expedia team, David held many leadership roles in product development during his 10-year tenure there. He began as a software design engineer in 1994, and left Expedia as CTO in 2005. Before his Expedia years, David worked at Microsoft in the handheld computing group. David earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Cornell University. Outside of work at Zillow, David is a technical advisor and angel investor in several Seattle based startups and a Board Trustee for Plymouth Housing Group and the Bertschi School. David lives with his wife and 2 kids in the Montlake neighborhood in Seattle.

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Coaches

Neil Bergquist

Director at SURF Incubator   |  

Neil Bergquist is an endlessly curious and passionate entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was seventeen, managing vacation rental properties in Island County. He continued to run the business through college where he played football for a nationally ranked team while earning his Masters in Business Administration at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. He currently serves as the Director of SURF Incubator which supports more than 40 startups in downtown Seattle. Prior to SURF Incubator, Neil was responsible for all Seattle-based due diligence for the Willamette MBA Fund and managed corporate real estate portfolios for commercial end-users at Washington Partners. Neil moonlights as a Board Trustee for the Friends of the Seattle Public Library and is Chair of a committee responsible for spinning off new business ventures in order to supplement government funding.

Kunal Shah

Co-founder, RentJuice & GM, Zillow   |  

Kunal Shah is a group manager at Zillow Rentals. He started his career as the lead engineer at Connected Ventures, the parent company of CollegeHumor.com, BustedTees and Vimeo. He was chief technology officer when the company was acquired by IAC in August 2006. Kunal went on to co-found RentJuice, a provider of rental relationship management software for landlords, property managers and rental brokers. RentJuice was acquired by Zillow in June 2012. He is an alumnus of Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sendi Widjaja

Founder and CTO of Avvo

Sendi Widjaja is the co-founder and the chief technology officer of Avvo. In this role, Sendi oversees all product development, engineering, and IT operations.

Prior to joining Avvo, Sendi spent 10 years with Expedia, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation in various development and managerial roles. Most recently, Sendi was the senior director of development managing the development team for Expedia's well-publicized next-generation e-commerce platform. Prior to this, Sendi served as the group manager of Expedia's Hotel Systems Group. In this position, Sendi oversaw all program management, development, and test teams for Expedia's highest revenue channel and also oversaw the highly successful integration of the Expedia and Hotels.com inventory management systems and streamlining of their hotel supplier-facing systems.

Sendi holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Washington.

Matt Lerner

CTO and Co-founder of Walk Score   |  

Matt Lerner is CTO of Walk Score. Matt bikes to work every day and recently broke his bicycle chain in half pulling his two boys in the bike trailer. From 2001-2007, Matt worked at Microsoft, most recently as Lead Program Manager for the Windows User Experience Team. Matt had responsibility for the Start Menu, taskbar, visuals, and other core components of the world's most widely used software.
Prior to Microsoft, Matt was co-founder and CTO of EQuill, a Web development software company he sold to Microsoft in 2001. Matt was awarded a Fulbright fellowship and has a Computer Science degree from Brown University, where he studied under Professor Andries van Dam.

Steve Seow

Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

Steve holds a Ph.D. Psychology from Brown University and is the author of Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software. Prior to becoming an evangelist, he spent time with the product development teams at Visual Studio, Microsoft Surface, Windows Phones, and Xbox.

Kristin Acker

VP of Product, Zillow, Inc.

Kristin Acker is the Vice President, Product Teams at Zillow. One of the initial members of the Zillow team, Kristin has led Program Management and User Interface Design teams at several companies including Microsoft, PictureIQ, and Pure Networks and led a program management team at Expedia. Her longest tenure was at Microsoft where she worked from 1989 to 2000, primarily on consumer products such as Microsoft Money, Publisher, Works, and Picture It. Before starting her tech career, she spent a year on the oceans serving on staff for Royal Cruise Line. Kristin graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in Economics and Political Science.

Kathy Carper

Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft

Kathy is a Senior Program Manager on the Windows team. She has been with Microsoft since 2001 and worked both as a software engineer and a program manager. Before Microsoft, Kathy has worked at Barclays Capital in NYC and at HI-CE in the University of Michigan where she works on handheld educational software.

Bryan Trussell

CEO and co-founder, Glympse

Bryan is the face of the operation, working to make Glympse part of our daily lives and make sure the product's ease and simplicity coincides with its commitment to safety and security. Bryan spent 16 years leading teams at Microsoft, working on a range of products from Windows to Interactive TV and embedded systems to casual games, including creating and launching several V1.O products, like MessengerGames, Windows CE and Xbox Live Arcade. He has a bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of Utah and an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern. He currently resides in Redmond, Wash. with his wife, four daughters and four-year-old son.

Jason Karas

CEO, Trover.com

Executive Management Professional with over 16 years of experience leading growth, investment, and product strategies for mobile, internet, and computing firms.

Jason co-founded Trover in October of 2012. Trover is a mobile discovery network that lets you share remarkable places and things in a fun, visual way - all based on your location.

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Jumana Al Hashal
Amy Bohutinsky
Erin Lantz
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