Past event…

Nov 16 2012 Event Ended

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. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

Location:

StartupCity Des Moines 317 6th Ave., 5th floor Des Moines, IA 50309

Schedule

Friday

Nov 16

6:30pm Registration Starts
7:00pm Dinner & Networking
7:20pm Welcome & Speakers
7:30pm Pitches Start
9:00pm Attendees vote for the top ideas
9:15pm Teams start forming and discussing ideas
10:00pm 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

Nov 17

9:00am Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
9:30am Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Call for needs & skills
2:00pm Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
6:30pm Dinner
7:30pm Mid weekend check-in, status reports, call for help
10:00pm Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Nov 18

9:00am Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
10:00am Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
3:00pm Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
4:00pm Dinner
5:00pm FINAL PRESENTATIONS
7:30pm Judging & awards
8:30pm Wrapup
9:00pm Go home!

Speakers

Jeremie Miller

Singly co-founder | Twitter

Working on empowering awesome apps for people. Helped found Jabber/XMPP, open platforms FTW!

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Judges

Craig Ibsen

Senior Advisor and Limited Partner | LinkedIn

Craig has over 25 years of leadership experience in general management, business development, and marketing in the U.S. market and internationally. He is known as a seasoned corporate executive, investor and entrepreneur.

Craig is a Principal at LFE Capital. With $45M under management, LFE Capital invests in businesses with revenues of $2 to $20 million that need capital to support a plan of rapid growth. Investment themes include Health and wellness, consumer products and services, and business
services.

Earlier in his career, Craig served as President of Pricer AB, a publicly traded company in Sweden and as an officer of the Maytag Corporation. Prior to that Craig founded Appliancezone Inc, a global supply chain service based in London.

Craig currently serves as Chairman of Global ID Inc, based in Fairfield, Iowa and Fitness on Request Inc, based in Minneapolis.

Craig is a Des Moines, IA native. He holds a B.A. from Luther College and an M.B.A. from Drake University.

Sheldon S Ohringer

CEO at Caleris | LinkedIn

With more than 30 years experience in business and a veteran of the telecommunications industry, Sheldon co-founded and is the CEO of Caleris, Inc, an outsourced technology and customer services helpdesk company. From its inception in December 2003, Caleris has grown by more than 800%. Caleris has grown from one Technical Support center to three Technical Support centers in its first 4 years. The company has received many awards including the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI) awards for Economic Growth in rural Iowa for 2005 and 2006. In 2008, Caleris was recognized by the TAI as Top Growth Company. Sheldon was honored as CEO of the Year at the TAI Prometheus Awards for 2009.

Prior, he was the President and CEO of FirstWorld Communication. He not only rebuilt this company from a $1M per year CLEC to an Internet Infrastructure and data center company, but also led its highly successful IPO with a market capitalization of over $1 billion. He led fund raising of over $270 million dollars in the IPO and concurrent private offerings in March 2000. Sheldon has served as president of ICG Telecom Group, and had major executive level roles in business development and corporate development roles with US Long Distance, and Teleconnect/Telecom USA.

Sheldon has made over 20 angel investments, and has 11 active angel investments currently..
Sheldon began his career at Northwestern Bell in a Management Training Program after graduating from the University of Iowa in 1979 with a BBA in Marketing and Management.

Jeff Tegethoff

Executive Vice President of Business Development

Jeff Tegethoff is Executive Vice President of Business Development and on the Board of Directors of Appcore, llc. Jeff brings vast experience in financial leadership, corporate strategy and business development thru stages of rapid growth, having been the lead in negotiating and closing funding rounds in excess of $250,000,000 for various companies from seed stage thru later stage financing activity. Currently, Mr. Tegethoff serves on the Investment Policy Committee and is a Partner at venture development firm Broadhorn Capital (Des Moines, IA) and real estate firm Monument Capital Management (Indianapolis, IN).

Since 2003, Jeff has been an active venture capital and emerging markets investor, often serving in C-level and Business Development positions of portfolio companies. Jeff has provided financial advisory services for companies in the United States and throughout southern Africa, identifying capital sources and designing optimal capital structures across a wide spectrum of industries.

Jeff began his finance career in 1997 with experience at Paine Webber and Morgan Stanley.

Mr. Tegethoff has a Bachelors of Science in Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Brian Hemesath

VolunteerLocal + Tikly | LinkedIn

I love creating business models and building products on the Internet, particularly from scratch. I have been called a serial entrepreneur on more than one occasion.

I built a boutique web development firm with my brother over 9+ years and sold it in 2010. I co-founded an SMS mobile marketing startup in 2005 and sold it in 2012.

My current focus is growing two complimentary startups: Tikly (www.tikly.co) and VolunteerLocal (www.volunteerlocal.com).

I'm a mentor at Startup City (downtown Des Moines) and enjoy sharing my business experience with other startups.

Specialties
Anything Internet, carrier grade SMS (common short codes), e-commerce and online payment systems, creating white label systems, API creation and integration, creative marketing ideas, selling stuff I built.

James Eliason

Co-Founder/CEO of Goodsmiths | Twitter LinkedIn

Entrepreneurship is my passion.

Having started 3 companies and helped develop 5 different products (web/mobile) I have had successes and failures. I have also been sued by Twitter, and they haven't closed my account. Co-Founder of Goodsmiths, The Marketplace for Makers.

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