From Idea to Beyond in a Startup Weekend
The work begins on a Friday night when anywhere from 40 to more than 150 highly motivated creative tech minds will spend the next 54 intense hours creating a company from concept to launch. Held in cities worldwide — recently Athens, Greece and Lexington, Mass.— Startup Weekend was founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde ’04 to fill the need for an event “highlighting startups and how entrepreneurs work best.”

Entrepreneurs don’t “talk a big game” but are skilled and passionate about what they do, says Hyde. Focused on learning by creating, Startup Weekend brings them together with graphic artists, marketing gurus, developers and enthusiasts testing ideas, sketching plans, targeting investors, “humanizing the business process and having fun.” “Community is goal number one of each weekend,” Hyde stresses. Startups are Hyde’s passion. As community director for TechStars, a mentor-driven seed fund for growing businesses in Boulder, Colo., where he lives, Hyde helps aspiring entrepreneurs by mentoring, proffering advice and supporting their needs. Besides the global tech forums, Hyde’s other enterprises include VC Wear, “trendy tees” with jokes on them “only VCs [venture capitalists] can understand,” and Endoze Design for his own freelance design work. Hyde’s interests and accomplishments spread beyond the tech world. He is an Eagle Scout, an Outward Bound alumnus and a Presidential Community Service Award recipient.

The fee for Startup Weekend is only $40. For Hyde it’s not about the money. “I love startups. I love making things people use. I love design. I love that things I have created are spreading across the world,” he says and adds, “And all of that is great, but now is the time to change the world for the better.” Email > andrew@startupweekend.com

JWU Part of R.I. TECH HUB
Corey Cantrell won’t graduate from JWU’s School of Technology until May, but his inbox is already full of job offers thanks to RI Nexus and a spate of similar IT collectives around the region. “I’ve made a lot of great contacts,” says Cantrell, who works as content coordinator for the RI Nexus Web site.

“RI Nexus is about community building and info sharing in the digital media and info tech sector in R.I.,” explains ThoughtCap principal Jack Templin, an Internet strategy consultant who leads the program for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC). Templin co-founded Providence Geeks as well. The group meets monthly at AS220, a nonprofit community arts space, and brings in speakers from local startups. Nexus currently has more than 1,500 on its mailing list and Geeks gatherings regularly draw at least 100 participants.

“I believe that creating a culture where geeks can connect and collaborate is essential to making the city and state a center of digital innovation,” says Templin. As the state tech sector’s growth spurt continues with more than 15,000 people working in IT and digital media and earning more than $1 billion annually according to the RIEDC, JWU’s students and faculty are thriving right along with it. Tech organizations in Providence have been a boon for JWU’s School of Technology. “We try to find leading-edge spaces for the kids, and the chances for that happening are better with the opportunities now available outside the school,” Dean Frank Tweedie ’95, ’98 M.S. says.

Members of JWU’s School of Technology faculty are also involved in techcentric initiatives. SofT instructor Brian Alves was on the host committee introducing AS220 Labs, a digital media venture the nonprofit is launching with partners including JWU, MIT, Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design. All recognize that Rhode Island’s students are as valuable a resource to the IT community as the collectives are to their education. Online > www.rinexus.com | www.providencegeeks.org