What Is Startup Weekend?

What is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

Startup Weekend Global Site

Past event…

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Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street, Hartford, CT


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What's New!

9/23 - Startup Weekend Hartford 2012 Winners

How Did You Hear about SW Hartford

9/21 - Parking

9/18 - Judging Criteria

9/14 - Startup Weekend Prizes

8/30 - Share an idea for this year's Startup Weekend Hartford Health & Wellness

Welcome

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.

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Schedule

Friday

Sep 21
  • Registration Starts
  • Dinner & Networking
  • Welcome & Speakers
  • Pitches Start
  • Attendees vote for the top ideas
  • Teams start forming and discussing ideas
  • 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

Sep 22
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Lunch
  • 30 min complimentary yoga by Downtown Yoga
  • Call for needs & skills
  • Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
  • reSet Presentation (optional)
  • Dinner
  • Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
  • Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Sep 23
  • Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
  • Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
  • Lunch
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • Dinner
  • FINAL PRESENTATIONS
  • Judging & awards
  • Wrapup
  • Go home!
Speakers

Bill Stapleton

Chief Executive Officer, Health Plan One

Bill Stapleton has held senior management roles in the managed care industry for the last 15 years working at Oxford Health Plans, Inc., HCA, Inc., and Health Net, Inc. Before founding HealthPlanOne, he was Senior Vice President for Health Net of the Northeast, Inc., a subsidiary of Health Net, Inc. (NYSE: HNT). His responsibilities included product development and managing the New Jersey and Connecticut Medicaid programs.

Bill earned his CPA at KPMG Peat Marwick in Boston. He holds a BA degree from Holy Cross College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Judges

Ryan Rose

VP of Technology, Fathom   |  

Ryan Rose is the VP of Technology at Fathom, a website design, branding and creative firm in Hartford.

A serial entrepreneur, Ryan co-founded getsmalltalk.com and brightegg.com and was the winner of the inaugural Startup Weekend Hartford.

Rajeev Sean Kapoor

Managing Principal, Maja Equity Partners

Rajeev Sean Kapoor brings about 2 decades of experience as growth leader, technologist, innovation executive, and board member. He is committed to exploring new ways of payer/provider performance improvement, healthcare cost innovation, outcome measurement and health improvement. He has founded and led successful companies in software development, application solutions and healthcare services.

Rajeev’s experience in the management of healthcare companies, some with revenues exceeding the billion- dollar mark combined with his history and passion in the creation of startups in different sectors of healthcare, give him a unique perspective on the underlying business challenges. Currently a managing principal with Maja Equity
with lead responsibility for the firm’s healthcare technology and care management practice. Rajeev has founded and run software and service business including cofounder/President of a SaaS based healthcare data management company, working primarily with payers and ACOs. He later sold his share to a leading payer in MN.

Joe DeMartino

President at Angel Investor Forum

Joe DeMartino is the Former President of the Angel Investor Forum and an investor with Launchpad Ventures. His background includes roles in sales, service, product management and development at Cullinet, Wang Software, and Kronos Inc. and at several other small and mid-size software companies.

Gregory Makoul PhD

Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President for Innovation at Saint Francis Care in Hartford

Gregory Makoul PhD is Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President for Innovation at Saint Francis Care in Hartford, Connecticut. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and a Senior Fellow of the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET). In addition to overseeing research, education, innovation, performance improvement, leadership development, and the new Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation at Saint Francis, Dr. Makoul is a member of the Saint Francis Care Corporate Strategy Team. He also works to build academic relationships with other institutions and to maintain his own successful research program, which focuses on communication in medicine and patient engagement in care. He has received approximately $3 million in federal and foundation funding for research and development of innovations designed to improve physician-patient communication and decision making. Dr. Makoul developed North America’s most widely used model for teaching and assessing communication skills, and has led internationally-recognized efforts to improve communication education. His educational and research work has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Makoul has also produced multimedia patient education programs and a series of award-winning videos that offer patient narratives of the illness experience, as well as an innovative website for breast cancer patients.

Dr. Makoul chaired the Board of Directors of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH) from 2008 through 2011. He also is a member of AcademyHealth, the European Association for Communication in Healthcare, and the Society of General Internal Medicine. He is on the editorial board of Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Health Communication, Health Expectations, Communication Studies, and Journal of Communication in Healthcare. In 2003, he received the American Academy on Communication and Healthcare - Lynn Payer Award for outstanding contributions to the literature on the theory, practice and teaching of effective health care communication and related skills. Dr. Makoul received a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from Wesleyan University and earned a doctorate in communication studies with concentrations in research methodology, health promotion, and health policy from Northwestern University. He is currently in the Master of Health Care Delivery Science program at Dartmouth College.

He lives in Madison, Connecticut, with Limor Peer Makoul, PhD and their daughters Zoe and Laine.

William J. Carew

President & CEO, Ovation Benefits

Bill Carew is a healthcare entrepreneur and business leader with a passion for innovation, leadership and personal growth. With a tight knit group of partners, he has launched and grown four successful businesses, all of which have been positioned as innovative market leaders in mature industries.

As President and CEO of Ovation Holdings, Bill is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the main operating companies, Ovation Benefits and the newly-launched Karelia Health. Over the past three years the company has completed multiple acquisitions, opened up new markets, launched numerous new products and services and incubated Karelia to become a new stand-alone business.

Bill is a member of the Metro-Hartford Alliance Healthcare Council and Chairman of the Wellness Committee, a frequent presenter to industry trade groups, and an active contributor to business and industry panels influencing the direction of healthcare policy and legislative activity. He was responsible for the creation of the “Ovation Nation” online community and lead contributor to “The Business of Healthcare & the World Around Us” which can be found at www.ovationbenefits.com/blog.

Bill has a BA in History from Boston College and an MA in Economics from Trinity College. Bill is a past recipient of the 40 Under 40 Award by the Hartford Business Journal, a member of the Northwest Catholic High School Board of Directors and immediate past Chairman of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters. Bill resides in Simsbury, CT with his wife Karen and their four children.

Coaches

Supriyo

Healthcare Information Technology Consultant

Supriyo "SB" Chatterjee is a consultant specializing in Healthcare Information technologies. He has worked for companies like Aetna Healthcare, McKesson, US Army Medical Corps, UNICEF, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, IBM & NASA. He has been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award five times since 2008. He holds graduate degrees in Computer Science, Business Management and Economics. He has been active with local startups and entrepreneur groups since 1998. He is the former President of Trinity Club of Hartford (Alumni chapter of Trinity College) and currently, the Acting Director of CTDOTNET - an organization of Microsoft development technologists.

Gregg Lallier

Principal, Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C

Gregg J. Lallier is a principal whose practice primarily focuses within the hi-tech and venture capital industries. Mr. Lallier has represented both mature and emerging growth companies in a variety of hi-tech enterprises, including software, e-commerce, information technology, clean technology, and health care services and equipment. He also regularly represents angel, venture capital and other institutional investors.
The scope of Mr. Lallier’s legal services include:
• debt and equity financings
• mergers & acquisitions
• joint ventures and strategic alliances
• technology and intellectual property licensing

Mr. Lallier received his J.D. from the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, and his B.S., magna cum laude, from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Larry D. Miclette, Jr.

President and CEO, Zaginteractive

Larry D. Miclette, Jr. is the founder, president and CEO of ZAG Interactive in Glastonbury, a full-service marketing agency with expertise in website and application design and development. From the company’s grassroots beginnings in 2002, Larry has branded ZAG Interactive as a company that implements beneficial solutions for clients while managing projects of various sizes from conception to completion and beyond. His vision of organic growth within the progressive world of website and software development has positioned the company as the primary resource for national clients in a variety of industries.

Randy Savicky

Founder/CEO, Strategy+Communications

Randy Savicky is a brand journalist, corporate storyteller and Founder/CEO of Strategy+Communications, the pioneering Connecticut public relations and inbound marketing agency for entrepreneurial companies.

Founded in 2002, Strategy+Communications specializes in making our clients more visible to customers, investors, the media and other key audiences by connecting the new PR and marketing to their business goals.

By leveraging his senior-level “both sides of the editor’s desk” experience as a journalist (Newsday, Pro Sound News, Surgical Rounds, Good Times) and PR executive (Edelman and Ruder-Finn, two of the world’s largest agencies), Randy and his firm develop programs that influence traditional, digital and social media to drive traffic, leads and sales.

During his 30-year career, Randy has worked with such global brands as Apple, AT&T, IBM, Ford, Fujifilm, Mattel, Motorola, Quantum and Sony as well as with startups and stage 2 companies like Arbinet, BarnesandNoble.com, Cache-A, ClubMom.com, Fastrack Healthcare Systems, Juno, New Paradigm Software, Viaweb and Weston Software.

He is currently Co-President of the Fairfield County Public Relations Association and a board member of the Fairfield Country Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Dr. Drew Harris

Dr. Drew Harris is a modern renaissance man. At various times he has earned a living as an Information Technology executive, ‘Big Eight’ management consultant, independent consultant, business owner, real estate investor, longshoreman, construction worker, dancer, musician, and author/speaker. He has been on boards of directors, presided over a council of not-for-profit organizations, and co-organized his community’s response the hurricane Katrina. He is an accomplished chef, story teller, basketball player, kids coach, and father of three beautiful girls.

He has degrees in Mathematics (BA from University of West Florida), Statistics and Operations Research (MBA from the Stern School of Business, NYU) and Management (Ph.D., also from NYU). He has been friends with elites, like the late Nobel Laureate Dr. William Vickery and Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and he relates well to children from all walks of life.

Currently, Dr. Harris teaches Strategy and Entrepreneurship, consults with both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, and serves on the Board of Director of Connecticut Innovations.

Lacey Banks McGill

Lacey provides free business counseling through the Entrepreneurial Center to help small businesses get started and create strategic growth plans. She also provides hands on technical assistance, helping to write business plans, develop realistic financial models, and implement marketing strategies including government contacting. Most recently Lacey established the Women’s Business Roundtable, a program which provides emerging women business owners a confidential forum strategic planning as well as access to an interdisciplinary team of business advisors. She also presents workshops on a variety of topics including Finding Capital for Your Small Business, Developing a Vision - Identifying Your Critical Path, and Government Contracting Tools and Tactics.

Lacey received her B.A. in Sociology from Columbia University and is a graduate of The University of Chicago Law School.

Ira Yellen

President, First Experience Communications

Ira Yellen, president of First Experience Communications, provides marketing, public relations and strategic business counsel for clients who are in the health care, education and technology fields. He recently created

HomecareMatchKiosk.com in response to the need for consumers to have a transparent referral website which matches their home care needs to agencies that provide professional caregiver service. He has mentored dozens of start ups, and is currently mentoring emerging companies at MassChallenge 2012.

Jack Antonich

President, Sales Leverage Group

Advisor to HYPE Entrepreneurial Task Force. President, Sales Leverage Group. Business Consultant and Entrepreneurship Evangelist.

Delivers the Kauffman Foundation FastTrac NewVenture, GrowthVenture & TechVenture programs at the University of Hartford Entrepreneurial Center.

Laura Dinan

Economic Development & Community Relations, CL&P   |  LinkedIn

Laura Dinan is a coordinator of Economic & Community Development for Northeast Utilities’ operating companies—CL&P/Yankee Gas Services.

Laura is actively engaged in promoting economic, business and community development in Connecticut. She has experience in event planning, marketing and speechcraft.

Jerry Michaud

President, Horizon Technology Finance

Jerry is co-founder and President of Horizon Technology Finance Management LLC (HTF), a venture lending, investment and financial services management company that offers creative financing solutions to technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and cleantech companies since 2003. Jerry also serves as President and a member of the Board of Directors of Horizon Technology Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: HRZN), a public, externally-managed Business Development Corporation created by Horizon Technology Finance in March 2008. His background includes positions as Senior Vice President of both GATX Ventures, Inc. and Transamerica Business Credit and a co-founder of its Transamerica Technology Finance division. Earlier, Jerry served as a Vice President with Financing For Science International, Inc. Before joining Financing for Science, Jerry founded and served as President, Venture Leasing and Capital. Jerry attended Northeastern University, Rutgers University and the University of Phoenix, and has completed executive courses at Harvard Business School.

Ben Wiles

Attorney, Day Pitney LLP

Ben Wiles is an attorney in the Corporate and Business Law department at Day Pitney LLP in Hartford. He represents venture capital and private equity investors and emerging growth companies in formation, debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, technology arrangements and general corporate matters. Ben recently relocated to the Hartford area from San Francisco, where he had practiced venture finance at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for the last five years. While at Pillsbury, Ben represented major Silicon Valley venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures and Walden Ventures in multiple lead venture investments in the consumer products and internet media sectors. On the "company" side, Ben represented startups in the internet media, social media, and gaming sectors from incorporation, through outside investment, to strategic exit. Ben also incorporated and represented the San Francisco Bay Area's first gaming startup incubator. On the health care side of the equation, Ben represented a world-renowned Bay Area hospital in the creation of their physician network, the acquisition of physician practices, and the overall corporate structuring and governance of the network.

http://www.daypitney.com/people/people-detail.aspx?proID=658

Organizers
John Shemo
Nick Bereza
Julie Daly
Alex Koenigsberg
Camielle Griffiths
James Smith
Laura Dinan
Derek Koch
Brien Buckman
Evan Goldstein
Eileen Peltier
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