We are in the middle of StartUp Weekend for Social Good in San Francisco, hosted by Hub Ventures. The concept of Startup Weekend is to bring together budding entrepreneurial-minded coders, designers, business folks, marketers, media, and just about anyone to dedicate 54 hours (Friday pm through Sunday) to work on a startup idea.There is an emphasis on pitching ideas, forming teams, validating concepts through customer feedback, and building as much of a prototype as time allows.This StartUp Weekend has an extra layer of focus. It is being held to bring cultivate startup concepts that focus on social impact in addition to entrepreneurship.
Though we are just crossing the halfway point, the weekend has been exciting so far—it has been interesting to see the kinds of ideas that have cropped up and the unique effect adding an impact focus has added to business models. Here are a few photos from the first night.
Wes Selke, Founding Director of Hub Ventures, introduces his organization’s social enterprise accelerator program.
StartupWeekend SF participants respond to questions from the speaker.
A few areas in which social entrepreneurs create impact.
Keynote Speaker Nick Ellis talks about his social enterprise, Job Rooster, which connects anyone, anytime, anywhere to local employment through text messages–addressing issues of access to job listings for non/low-tech job seekers.
Startup Weekend organizer John Beadle explains the game plan for the weekend.
After the speakers it was time to test our pitching skills with a pitch exercise.
After individuals presented, attendees ‘shopped’ around for ideas they wanted to work on.
Groups met and strategized how to begin building a startup in a weekend.
Burning the midnight oil, groups stayed late to map out an approach to do well by doing good.
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