Techstars Startup Weekend is coming to Harrisonburg

The Shenandoah Community Capital Fund is calling on all hopeful entrepreneurs to sign up for Techstars Startup Weekend Harrisonburg.

Anyone from students with just an idea, to entrepreneurs who have been in the entrepreneur space for years, are encouraged to register and participate in the April 8-10 event.

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour educational weekend that helps to educate, support, and empower people to become entrepreneurs. Valley-area entrepreneurs will practice their entrepreneurial skills over the course of the weekend by creating and presenting a startup business concept.

SCCF is partnering with James Madison University’s Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship to sponsor the event. Startup Weekend Harrisonburg marks the second in a series of Startup Weekend events that will occur throughout the Valley. Participants will form teams and work together to share business ideas, mentors will validate their ideas and provide guidance, and judges will evaluate each team’s business pitch.

The winning team will receive a prize package valued at $2,000 that includes a three-month team membership at the Perch coworking space, a spot in the next SCCF bootcamp, and mentoring around startup law and patents.

“Having received the Build to Scale program grant through the Economic Development Administration, SCCF is especially poised to support the launch of scalable tech startups,” says Debbie Irwin, executive director for the SCCF. “The Techstars Startup Weekend Harrisonburg event will be one of many that will help us identify tomorrow’s tech stars.”

“This will be the 16th Startup Weekend that I’ve been involved with, and I am so excited,” says Suzanne Bergmeister, executive director of the James Madison University Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship. “In the past, students have said that attending a SUW ‘changed their life!’ This weekend event is a fun, energizing, hands-on way to learn about the entrepreneurial process, whether you have an idea or not. You will meet lots of new people, gain insight into how to build a start-up, and share a unique experience with lots of innovative, like-minded people.”

Startup Weekend is one among several startup programs operated by Techstars, an international platform for innovation and investment. Techstars connects with and convenes entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, investors, community and corporate leaders to help businesses grow.