The latest buzz in business seems to be all around entrepreneurship and startups. Everywhere we look, companies are adopting mantras around creating a more entrepreneurial culture and looking for ways to innovate by learning from and partnering with startups.
One specific application we’ve seen, and are fans of, is the idea of applying a Startup Weekend type of competition or event within a corporate team.
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups. They’re held in cities around the world all year long.
Companies like Coca-Cola and Intuit are creating startup weekend-like events internally. And, Coke, Google, and Amazon Web Services are key global sponsors of Startup Weekend.
Where companies aren’t bringing these types of processes in-house, or partnering to sponsor a local startup weekend, their employees are attending anyway. According to organizers, a full 1/3 of attendees at any given Startup Weekend event are current corporate employees. The rest are split between students and entrepreneurs.
Clearly, individuals and companies are equally interested in leveraging the benefits of startup competitions like Startup Weekend. Hands-on education and practice ideating, researching and then pitching a new idea; expanded networks; the opportunity to meet and vet potential cofounders or partners; access to thought leaders; and the opportunity to launch an actual business in just 54 hours are the key benefits of these programs.
Interested in applying the Startup Weekend concept for your organization? Attend a local event.
If you’re local to Cincinnati, sign-up for the next big Cincinnati event, coming November 21, 2014.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 via Flickr user: Artful Dodge Photography
The Garage Group enables corporate teams to innovate like startups through smart & scrappy research, as well as entrepreneurial approaches to ideation — including competitions and events similar to Startup Weekend. Reach out to Jason@thegaragegroup.com if you’d like to discuss creating a startup competition for your corporate team.
