Startup Weekend participants from last year. Image: Techstars
Pitch an idea, join a team and build a start-up. Ultimately, find out if you have the chops to be an entrepreneur.
Startup Weekend is returning to Dublin from 16 to 18 November with the challenge for budding entrepreneurs to build a business within 54 hours.
Startup Weekend has been running in Dublin since 2011 and this year is part of the first ever Techstars Dublin Startup Week event series.
‘A lot of people go not to just work on their own idea, but to gain experience working on a start-up with other people’
– PADDY QUINLAN
Supported by Bank of Ireland, the event will be held at Google’s offices on Barrow Street.
Every year, Startup Weekend brings up to 100 budding entrepreneurs together in the hope of creating a viable company following three days of intensive brainstorming, coaching from industry professionals and customers interviews. This all culminates in the team pitching to a panel of local entrepreneurs, business professionals and investors.
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“The idea is to launch a start-up in 54 hours,” explained organiser Paddy Quinlan.
“Attendees work over the entire weekend and, on Sunday night, they pitch to a panel of judges. Startup Weekend is an opportunity for people to experience the world of building a start-up, in a supportive environment, with access to all of the supports necessary.
“A lot of people go not to just work on their own idea, but to gain experience working on a start-up with other people. They get coaching from local entrepreneurs and stakeholders, like investors and industry professionals, which helps them build new skills.”
The winning idea will be determined on the basis of a number of criteria, including scalability, customer base and website prototype design.
This year’s Dublin Startup Weekend takes place during Global Entrepreneurship Week and is part of the Techstars Global Startup Weekend Challenge, with 15,000 entrepreneurs at more than 200 locations around the world taking part.
“For the past five years, Bank of Ireland have supported Startup Weekend in Dublin and across Ireland as it really is an excellent first step into the world of entrepreneurship,” said the bank’s entrepreneur in residence, Gene Murphy.
“After 54 hours, attendees may be incredibly tired but they’ll have a taste of the tough work that goes into turning an idea into a business, have begun to build a network of people that can help them, and have a lot of fun in the process.”
Early bird tickets are now on sale for developers, business folks and designers for this year’s Dublin Startup Weekend, supported by Bank of Ireland and Google Ireland.
