The very first Startup Weekend Cologne was held January 25 – 27 2013. And what a spectacular event it was. Sold out in advance, the event was a complete storming success which saw 125 participants and over 220 people coming by over the weekend.
We even had the founder of Startup Weekend himself, US American Andrew Hyde attending!
See for yourself:
I recently was asked to help Startupbus out with arranging their local stop in Cologne on their way from Berlin to LeWeb in Paris. And as I couldn’t say no to a free ride to LeWeb, I somehow ended up on the bus as a participant too.
“StartupBus is an annual technological startup competition, described as a Hackathon, created by Elias Bizannes in February 2010. The competition is held across a 3-day bus ride where contestants or “buspreneurs” compete to conceive the best technology startup. The competition seeks to attract young top talents to compete, to search for the most innovative startup conceived by the groups, where the winners are determined by a panel of judges. Starting from February 2011, it has gone through many iterations in various continents from 2011 to 2015, with the first in Austin,Texas and subsequently in North America, Europe and Africa.” – Wikipedia
As I was in the Netherlands holding a talk, I couldn’t be in Berlin for the kick-off, but I skyped a pitch in for my idea, basically a rehash of what I’d previously won with at Startup Weekend Amsterdam.
Phoning it in – Literally.
W00t! The startup news of Cologne just keeps on rolling. Only recently Startup Weekend Cologne was announced and it seems we (Lukas Strniste (@yeromee), Puja Abbassi (@puja108), Till Ohrmann (@tohrmann) and me (@blacktar) together with Startplatz (@StartPlatz) were stupid crazy enough to bring Startup Weekend NEXT to Cologne too. And that already NEXT WEEK!
Startup Weekend NEXT is a non-profit, but there’s tickets you’ll have to book to help cover the costs of this 3 week intensive educational program. We do however hope to be able to join up with some of the local startup patrons to subsidize your tickets.
Startup Weekend NEXT is only open for teams of 2 or more people and is a 3 week intensive educational programme involving a lot of hard work for the participants. This is a program for dedicated startup entrepreneurs.
tl;dr – Something freaking awesome for startup entrepreneurs!
We’re super excited to be bringing Startup Weekend to Cologne for the very first time January 25th to 27th!
There’s already a long list of amazing local and international jurors and coaches and we’re announcing more every week! Make sure to get your tickets before they are gone!
Don’t know what the non-profit Startup Weekend is all about? Fear not. Buy the ticket, take the ride! You won’t be sorry. ;)
Oh, and this week I’m also in Stuttgart Nov 17-18 scaring the bejeezus out of young entrepreneurs coaching startups at Startup Weekend Stuttgart. See you there – And don’t forget to grab your ticket for Startup Weekend Cologne before we sell out too! :)
About Startup Weekend:
“Startup Weekend is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in Seattle, Washington, USA, that organizes 54-hour weekend events during which groups of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around those ideas, and work to develop a working prototype, demo, and/or presentation by Sunday evening. Startup Weekend has grown into an organization with a global presence. As of October 2012, 672 events had been held, involving 57,000 entrepreneurs across more than 300 cities in over 100 countries, and over 5,000 startups have been created. The Kauffman Foundation, Google and Microsoft are sponsors.”