For those who are not yet familiar with this concept, Startup Weekend (SW) is an event that brings together entrepreneurs, graphic designers, developers, marketers and other bright people with smart business ideas. But for those who already know what it’s about, we invite you to our next edition, which will take place during the weekend 24th – 26th of April 2015.
Startup Weekend is a concept that was created in USA and exported all around the world. Its main goals are education and personal development. The organizers provide you the context, resources, mentors, and most important, the opportunity to meet new people that are also eager to create a startup.
The main idea of the event is very simple: you have 54 hours and the opportunity to start your own business during this time. At the beginning, everyone has the chance to pitch an idea in front of the group, then the participants vote for the best and the most interesting ideas, and the teams are created. The next step is the most exciting: the development of the business idea. The teams must take into consideration everything that is essential for a business: the visual component, the technical one, the way it will work, and also the marketing strategies. At the end of these days, the projects are presented in front of a jury formed from entrepreneurs, IT developers and business people. At the end of the event the jury choose the best ideas.
The first event of this kind took place in 2007, in Colorado, USA, when Andrew Hyde brought together 70 entrepreneurs to try to create different startups in just 54 hours. The model quickly expanded to cities around the world, and then, in 2010 the Startup Weekend organization was officially founded. From its beginning and up until today were more than 1000 SW events all around the world, involving more than 100.000 entrepreneurs, across more than 600 cities in over 120 countries, and over 8000 startups were created.
Three years ago, Startup Weekend was also organized for the first time in Cluj. During the past editions a lot of teams were created, people had the opportunity to learn, to share their experience and to launch their ideas at different incubators such as LaunchHub or Hubraum, and other tech events like: HowToWeb, Tech Open Air, IT4Change Summit.
Remembering the winners of the last editions of SW Cluj:
The reason why “startups” have become such a preferred workplace/business model is pretty simple. The desire for developing something different, for helping the community, as well as the abundance of creativity and energy, are all contributing to this new trend that is continuously expanding.
We know there are a lot of people out there that want to share their knowledge and ideas and for that reason we encourage you to join the fourth edition of Startup Weekend Cluj. For more details please visit us on twitter or facebook.
by Peter Lawrey
by Răzvan Costa
