Startup Weekend Evansville 3.0 seeks enterprising ideas

If you've ever thought about building on a great idea, starting your own company, or collaborating with a team of like-minded entrepreneurs, consider attending Startup Weekend Evansville 3.0, which will be held Friday through Sunday, February 21-23, in the University of Southern Indiana's Business and Engineering Center.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: Anyone is welcome to pitch a startup idea and receive feedback from peers; teams form organically 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 events culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders and another opportunity for critical feedback.

In its third year, Startup Weekend Evansville is the largest event of its kind in Indiana. Bryan Bourdeau, instructor in business and co-founder and co-organizer of Startup Weekend Evansville, said there have been several successful outcomes since the event launched in 2012.

"We have had startups launch, provisional patents filed, license agreements transferred, much entrepreneurial education delivered, and new 'feeder' initiatives (Tech-On-Tap, co-work space) develop due to intersectional networking taking place at Startup Weekend Evansville," Bourdeau said. "These initiatives are aiding in the further development of our entrepreneurial ecosystem and the emergence of new entrepreneurial leaders in our community." 

Judges this year are Dr. Joe Trendowski, University of Evansville assistant professor of management; Jason Kellams, vice president of operations and business development at ARC Industries; Kent Parker, business executive, entrepreneur and investor; Walter Valiant, owner and president of Signarama Evansville; and Shance Sizemore, program manager at Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville. For a full list of coaches, go to evansville.startupweekend.org.

Startup Weekend Evansville 3.0 is sponsored by the University of Southern Indiana's Romain College of Business, Vectren, Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, and Lieberman Technologies.

The prize package includes:

• Two scholarships to New Venture for further idea development. (Value $2,000 from sponsor Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville)
• Four free memberships in Innovation Pointe co-working space. (Value $2,400 from sponsor Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville)
• The Venture Sharks business competition will give the winner of Startup Weekend Evansville 3.0 an automatic entry into the preliminary competition April 16-17 in Louisville. 

Founded in 2007, Startup Weekend is a 501(c)3 non-profit "on a mission to provide the world's premier experiential education for beginning and early stage entrepreneurs." Startup Weekend is billed as "the world's largest community of passionate entrepreneurs," with events held in cities throughout the world.

Registration is open to anyone (student or non-student) who wants to engage in entrepreneurialism.  If you have an idea you want to pitch and develop, or if you want to help support a great idea by serving on a team, register at evansville.startupweekend.org. 

If you wish only to observe final pitches and judging on Sunday, purchase a Demo Day ticket, which includes dinner.

You also can follow Startup Weekend Evansville on Twitter at @StartupEvv and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StartupWeekendEvv.