Past event…

Mar 1 2013 Event Ended

HVCC TecSmart Campus, Malta, NY (345 Hermes Rd.)

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!

Schedule

Friday

Mar 1

5:00pm Registration Starts
5:30pm Dinner & Networking
6:30pm Welcome & Speakers
7:15pm Pitches Start
8:15pm Attendees vote for the top ideas
8:45pm Teams start forming and discussing ideas
9:00pm Start to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Saturday

Mar 2

8:00am Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
8:30am Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Call for needs & skills
2:00pm Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
6:30pm Dinner
7:30pm Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
10:00pm Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Mar 3

9:00am Arrive, coffee
10:00am Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
3:00pm Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
4:00pm Dinner
6:00pm FINAL PRESENTATIONS
7:30pm Judging & awards
8:30pm Wrapup
9:00pm Go home!

Platinum Sponsors

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Gold Sponsors

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Judges

Claudia Iannazzo

CEO and Partner, Pereg Ventures

Claudia Iannazzo, serves as the CEO and Partner of Pereg Ventures, a New York based venture capital firm that focuses on identifying entrepreneurs with ambitious ideas that will transform the way the world markets. Pereg Ventures invests in ventures that solve real-world marketing problems, including market intelligence technologies, spend management tools, advertising solutions, and online and mobile enablers.

Claudia has facilitated more than $10 billion of acquisitions, divestments, IPOs, alliances and partnerships for public companies and new ventures around the globe. Having started her first company in her undergraduate years at university, Claudia has continued to work with entrepreneurs throughout a 15-year career spanning 5 continents.

She has led strategic alliancing, acquisition and turnaround activities for two Australian advertising giants, Tabcorp Holdings (Australia’s largest gaming, entertainment and hospitality company) and Foster’s Group (Australia’s leading brewer and winemaker), and held executive commercial positions within several multinational technology companies, including as Head of Commercial for Infosys Technologies (Australia/ New Zealand) and BAE Systems Limited (Weapons Systems division).
Most recently, Claudia utilized her corporate development expertise to help forge commercial arrangements between startups and multinationals. Focusing on entrepreneurs in North America, Asia and Australia, she supported the creation of effective sales, marketing and business strategies to attract investment or acquisition. Claudia continues to advise publicly listed and private-equity backed companies in acquiring start-ups and technology-rich businesses, and in establishing commercial alliances.

Claudia was formerly a mergers and acquisitions attorney with Baker & McKenzie in Melbourne, Sydney and London. Claudia holds a Masters in Applied Finance from Macquarie University (Sydney), and a Bachelor Degree in Law and a Bachelor Degree in Science (Biochemistry) from the University of Melbourne.

Colleen Burke

Executive-in-Residence, Skidmore College

Colleen Burke is currently the Executive-in-Residence in the Department of Management and Business at Skidmore College. As one of the earliest women to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School, Colleen has had a forty-five year career as entrepreneur, consultant and professor. In 1978 she moved to Saratoga Springs to purchase, along with her partner, the then-bankrupt Saratoga Mineral Water Company, transforming and repositioning the product from Saratoga Vichy Water to the brand we know today and then selling the company to Anheiser Busch. She was also the founder of the Saratoga-based Children’s Design Center, a national catalog of children’s furnishings, clothing and toys. Before returning to Saratoga and Skidmore in 2011, Colleen spent two decades as a strategic consultant to many start-up ventures and dot.coms in the high technology arena, including internal knowledge ventures in global consulting firms such as Arthur Andersen LLP and Anderson Consulting, now Accenture.

Mario Martinez

President & CEO, MARTCO

Mario L. Martinez, President and CEO of MARTCO and various associated companies. For the past 30 years, along with wife Dawn, have been self-employed as owners and builders of residential and commercial real estate projects. Involved in all phases of Real Estate & Construction, as developer and general contractor. Successfully built residential developments in Staten Island and built award winning projects in the Catskills, having specialized in Government Contracts and Leases with the GSA, VA and SSA as well as designing and building medical space to hospital grade specs and banking offices. Also own and managed properties in Sullivan, Ulster & Orange Counties, as well as NY and NJ. Member of the Board of Directors of Catskill Hudson Bank since 2001 which is headquarted in Kingston, NY. Chairman of the Board since 2005. B/S degree in Accounting from St John’s University.

Silver Sponsors

Coaches

Mike Hickey

Executive Director, Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship @ Siena | LinkedIn

Mike came to Siena with over 25 years experience in technology businesses, with the last 15 as a software executive. He has served as an officer for two public companies. He has bought and sold over 12 companies. In his previous role as President of Pitney Bowes Software, Hickey managed a global software business to record revenue of $400 million with over 1900 employees. As President of Pitney Bowes Software from 2007 until 2010, Mike merged two like sized former public software companies (MapInfo and Group1 Software) into one integrated global business that became one of the 70 largest software companies in the world. His efforts led to 66% increase in operating profit. He and the business received a leadership award from Vantana Research highlighting these accomplishments. In 2008 Mike was named to Tech Valley’s Hot 10 list of executives and government officials who make things happen in Tech Valley. In 2012, Hickey was invited and participated in the Clinton Global Initiative to help work on solutions for entrepreneurship in America.

Robert Manasier

Managing Director, Diamond Point Advisory Group | LinkedIn

Currently, Founder and President of a suite of firms focused on creating and providing solutions for finance/capital raising (Diamond Point Advisory Group), media creation (IFP Films) and branded business development (In Focus Brands) for businesses and entrepreneurs. With involvement in over 80 startups and numerous Fortune 500 engagements, a collaborative culture of doing has developed that is focused on Ideas to Action - Action to Revenue. To be of service to our clients while building great teams and brands that do the right thing for themselves, their clients and their communities. Heavily involved with youth sports programs including Saratoga American Little League (President) and League of Dreams.

Sinclair Schuller

CEO & Co-Founder, Apprenda | LinkedIn

Sinclair Schuller is the CEO of Apprenda. With his two co-founders, Apprenda has secured $16M in venture capital from funds NEA, Ignition Partners and High Peak Ventures to deliver private and public PaaS to .NET developers. Apprenda is the best way for Microsoft-based organizations to build and deploy next generation enterprise applications or modernize existing applications for the cloud. Sinclair serves on multiple venture networks and speaks nationally on the topics of enterprise IT efficiency, cloud computing and next generation enterprise architectures. Before Apprenda, Sinclair held positions at Morgan Stanley, Eden Communications, and consulted for the State University of New York’s (SUNY) vast IT systems. Sinclair holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Carrie McIndoe

Founder, Economic Ventures, Inc.

Ms. McIndoe has been in the field of entrepreneurship and strategic business planning and financing for emerging growth companies for over 20 years, having created Business Plan Bootcamp for entrepreneurs and funding diverse companies such as Boston Duck Tours, Boston Market and Blockbuster Video. She is acknowledged as a change agent, mentor, and educator. Her work in student entrepreneurship education through teacher training workshops has impacted nearly half a million youth.

Ms. McIndoe is the founder of Economic Ventures, Inc. a 501C3 creating the organization to capitalize on the opportunity to grow EntrePrep℠ Summer Institute under exclusive license with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Currently, she is a registered business school teacher with Gateway New York teaching entrepreneurship to Norwegian students studying in New York City. Additionally, she is an instructor for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at LaGuardia Community College. During the summer she conducts entrepreneurship summer camps at the University of Delaware and Skidmore College.

Ms. McIndoe is a graduate of Boston University with a BS in Business Administration and received a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard University Extension School. She was awarded the Boston University Metropolitan College Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession and the Henry Morgan Award for outstanding contribution to the Entrepreneurial Management Institute Program.

Lizzie Sorensen

Founder, Hip Hello | Twitter LinkedIn

Lizzie Sorensen is the founder of HIP HELLO, a Saratoga Business Development Firm specializing in PR & Events. Lizzie has been consulting, developing, and positioning brands in the competitive retail atmosphere since 2001. She manages people, products, places, and placement with great energy to get companies refreshed and focused.

During her career she has been celebrated for her impeccable taste with a keen eye on what is hip and fresh, while maintaining a timeless appeal for her clients. In 2005 she won "Best of Web" by Forbes Magazine for her work on an undercover blog about a famous big box retailer, and her marketing input has been featured in such books as Citizen Marketers.

Dwight Cheu

Commerce Hub | LinkedIn

People say that I have tons of energy and can handle a broad range of activities spanning business and technology. My sweet spot is building teams and growing businesses in high pressure, fast-moving environments. While I develop strategy looking at the big picture, I thrive in the execution: including bringing products to market, creating new technology and gaining efficiencies through operational projects.

I've been very lucky in that all seven companies in my 20+ year career had extremely positive growth -- resulting in public offerings or successful buy-outs.

Anthony DeBonis

Partner, Troy Web Consulting | LinkedIn

Anthony DeBonis is the Head of Application Development and a Partner at Troy Web Consulting, a web and mobile applications development firm in Troy, New York. Anthony is responsible for the design, development and deployment of mobile and web applications with requirements for both high security and availability in HTML5, Titanium, ColdFusion and Java Platforms. He works primarily with government and corporate entities.

Anthony is currently developing applications for several cross platform mobile applications as a Titanium Certified Application Developer.

An avid developer community member, Anthony is co-founder of the TechValley Mobile Developers Network, is on the board of the Java Developer's Network and presents at many User Groups and National Conferences. Anthony has experience with Startup Weekends, including the 1st Startup Weekend in Techvalley as one of the organizers and mentors.

Ian Landsman

Founder, UserScape | Twitter

Ian is the founder of UserScape, creators of HelpSpot, one of the first fully web based help desk applications. UserScape was bootstrapped in 2005, has never had any outside investment and been profitable since it’s first month in business.

Currently Ian is focused on expanding HelpSpot as well as launching a Startup within UserScape called Snappy that’s building the next generation of help desk software.

UserScape has been featured in several books on bootstrapping and startups. Ian graduated from Marist College and has a BS in Accounting.

Jim Wilson

Co-Founder, BeagleBird Studios LLC | Twitter

Jim knew early in life he wanted to strategize, develop and create, not sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. As a career, he has been connecting, strategizing, developing and creating for individuals and businesses to maximize their product they sell, process or buy. Jim is an avid Peter Gabriel fan and in his spare time collects vintage "Boom Boxes".

Scott Glasser

Founder, BeagleBird Studios LLC

Scott has been working to build a better internet since Nirvana was a band. He loves design, as well as front and back end development. When he isn't on his Mac, you can find him spending time with the family, whining about the Chicago Bears, avoiding zombies, transforming toy robots, traveling the universe in his TARDIS, and listening to classic Rock and Roll.

Contributing Sponsors