Lincoln Nebraska: We Invest in Your Success

Lincoln is preparing to host the first Startup Weekend and Week. The event is to engage aspiring and established entrepreneurs and teach them to the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. Startup Weekend is a grassroots effort, powered by the Kauffman Foundation, touring across the nation to educate and comprises the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs in the nation with over 400 past events held all over the world. Their next stop, Lincoln.

Jason Ball, Director of Business Development at the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development and Jaime Henning, Director of Lincoln’s Young Professionals Group (YPG) have been advocates of bringing the event to Lincoln and are now serving as active members of the planning committee for the event set to begin Sept. 7. This six day event will bring together developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiast to share ideas, form teams, build projects and ultimately launch startups. Lincoln Startup Weekend and Week will provide attendees with educational, networking and business opportunities.

“The startup community in Lincoln shows a consistent interest in opportunities to share ideas, make new connections and socialize with community thought leaders,” Ball said. “There is a great team of people making all these events happen to further the startup community here.”

Just like the Partnership and YPG, several companies and business leaders have stepped up to engage in Lincoln’s Startup Weekend and Week to ensure its success in the community. Local coaches include John Fulwider, Ph.D, organizational and leadership coach, and John Radway, vice president and business development coach at Leadership Resources. Amanda Thonen of Design Data is serving as the event lead. Organizers include William Dye of Design Data, Brian Ardinger of The Big Plate, Blake Lawrence of Hurrdat Social Media, Jeff Meese of Invest Nebraska, Jill Thayer of NUtech Ventures, Deb Payne of Business Directions by Deb and David Keck of the Raikes Program among others.  

Startup Lincoln Weekend is scheduled to kick off on Sept. 7 starting with the formation of teams and the development of business plans and continue through Sept. 9 for final presentations. Startup Week will directly follow with four days of continued events including a quick pitch competition, a co-working event, and a tech crawl.

The Partnership is sponsoring the event in conjunction with a number of other local companies including Assurity, Firespring, Pinnacle Bank, and Nelnet among others.

For more information on the event and how to register visit http://lincoln.startupweekend.org.