Venture Weekend™ is a two-day event held once a quarter for anyone who is interested in either joining a startup, creating their own startup, or investing in startups.
Saturday is Founders Day, filled with workshops, a 1st-round pitch competition, demo tables, sponsor expo, free headshots in our photo studio, and more.
Saturday night's Afterparty is a special event combining two prominent Seattle area climate-tech groups' meetups with an exposition of AR/VR apps being developed right here in Seattle. The event includes an embedded Climatetech/XR Hackathon - see details below!
Sunday is Investors Day, filled with workshops, a higher-stakes 2nd-round pitch competition, demo tables, sponsor expo, and more.
Speakers and agenda announcements ongoing! Check back for more details.
Presented in partnership with White Star Communications.
Made possible by our friends and sponsors:
Saturday, June 1st
10:00 - 10:25 AM
Opening and Keynote Speaker
10:30 - 10:55 AM
Workshop #1: Entrepreneur War Stories
Some of the best education available to startup founders is to hear about lessons learned from entrepreneurs who've gone before. In this workshop we're going to hear from three veteran entrepreneurs about some of the significant challenges they experienced in previous startups and how they survived them... or didn't. We'll hear from Keith McCall, Chic Hendricks, and Angie Parker
11:00 - 11:25 AM
Workshop #2: Unlocking Successful Customer Discovery Through Personas
with Jacob White
In this 30-minute workshop, founders will delve into the crucial aspect of identifying their customer personas and understanding the significance of building solutions tailored to these personas. By gathering and analyzing this early on, founders can gain invaluable insights that guide product development, market understanding, and GTM strategies.
Attendees will learn how defining customer personas enhances their business plans and pitch decks, setting a strong foundation for sustainable growth and success in the tech startup ecosystem.
11:30 - 11:55 AM
Workshop 3: Get Ready to Pitch for Impact
with Dana Sather Robinson
Dana is a professional pitch trainer who’s also an angel investor; she knows exactly what investors need to see in a pitch deck and hear from founders like you in a pitch presentation, so her investor-tested methods get results.
The interactive Pitch4Impact Training Program will guide you through the process of crafting, preparing, and confidently delivering a pitch and accompanying investor deck that signals to investors: this one is worth my time and attention.
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Lunch and Networking
Patronize the food trucks and dine with other guests in our conference rooms
1:00 - 2:45 PM
Round 1 Startup Pitch Competition
This is a low-stakes pitch competition where each startup gets 5 minutes to present their company plus 3 minutes of Q&A with the judges (Dana Sather Robinson, Jacob White and Angie Parker). The five top vote getters get to move to Round 2 on Sunday (Investors Day) for a higher-stakes competition wherein each startup gets 10 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes of Q&A with the investor panel.
The line-up:
- Fake Mews
- Windup Minds
- Ecellix
- Karya Solutions
- Practical Bionics
- Euphoria
- Eco-Shelter
- PwrOn
- MyBeacon
- Slot 10 TBA
2:45 - 3:15 PM
Awards and Closing Statements
3:15 - 6:00 PM
Networking
6:00 - 11:00 PM
Afterparty!
This is going to be an epic party combining two large subcommunities of Venture Mechanics': Cleantech and AR/VR ("XR"). Both Work in Climate and My Climate Journey will have their meetups on this evening, while we'll also have several XR startups demonstrating their interactive apps that they have in development. A true "sneak peek through the goggles."
Because we have these two groups together in the building, we're embedding a unique hackathon during the afterparty (starting at 7pm). Six climatech folks will team up with six XR developers in the Beechcraft Executive Boardroom to brainstorm ways to leverage XR in educating users about climate change. If you want to be one of the 12 brainiacs in the room, sign up here now! Climatetech-meets-XR
Tickets are sold separately for the afterparty, and include two drink tickets. The bar is sponsored by Aicohol.ai and NowCFO. If you've never experienced an Aicohol AI-generated custom drink you're in for a treat! (Mocktails also available.)
Sunday, June 2nd
10:00 - 10:25 AM
Opening and Keynote Speaker
Speaker TBD
10:30 - 10:55 AM
Workshop #1: Investor War Stories
Speakers TBA
11:00 - 11:25 AM
Workshop #2: How to Pick the Right Angel Network for Me?
Hear from representatives of popular Seattle-area angel clubs like the Alliance of Angels and E8 about why you should join their organizations.
Speakers TBA
11:30 - 11:25 AM
Workshop 3: The Insider's Guide to Investing in Generative AI Applications
with Yujian Tang
A recent survey showed that 77% of the startups funded in Silicon Valley in 2024 were built on AI. 90% of them will fail within the year. You want to pick the winners to invest in, but your job is tricky. You need to find the startups solving real problems before they get to product market fit.
In this talk by one of Seattle's leading experts in generative AI, you'll learn what the eight pieces of an LLM app are from a developer's point of view, and how you can use this framework to identify which startups are most likely to succeed.
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Lunch and Networking
Patronize the food trucks and dine with other guests in our conference rooms
1:00 - 2:30 PM
Investment Pitch Competition
The top five companies selected from the previous day's competition will compete again here, but in a longer format, and with professional investor on the judges panel. Each company will get ten minutes to pitch and a five minute Q&A session with the judges.
Judges: Nataraj Sindham, TBA, TBA, TBA
2:45 - 3:15 PM
Awards and Closing Statements
3:15 - 5:00 PM
Networking
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!
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