Come with an idea or the intention to help.

Leave with something to show, expanded possibilities and a stronger network of people who make things happen.

Participants will gather on a Friday evening and have 90 seconds to pitch their idea for a product, service or company to the group. After the pitches people break out, discuss their ideas with others and form teams to work on the idea. The goal is to have something to demo or launch at the end of the weekend. 

Teams will likely consist of at least one developer, one designer, and one business development marketing person but can be as large as necessary. Feel free to talk to others about your ideas before the event, refine those ideas and get buy in.

You can bring a team with you or find yours at the event. Your project can be in any stage of development but be specific about what you want to accomplish over the weekend. 

Cross team collaboration is promoted and facilitated. This is a hands-on event where we break down barriers and make progress on the things we’ve been talking about. 

Accomplished mentors will be on hand to work with teams, discuss key issues that they may encounter: tech challenges, busines model, customer experience, design, getting early adopters and customers, fundraising, legal, PR and more.

This is an opportunity to brainstorm with others who have done it before and iterate on your ideas and products.

You come and build and we provide from awesome local restaurants and vendors —  the whole weekend long. We’ll make sure you’re well fed and thirst is quenched.

Let’s join together for a weekend and create things that will demonstrate that we are a thriving entrepreneurial community that is not only talking but also doing.

If you have an idea for a startup or want to be part of a startup team, this is the event for you.

5:00pm
Reception / Networking
6:30 – 9:00pm
Pitches & Team formation
9:00pm
Design / Development / Coding Begins
12am
Venue Closes
8:00am
Doors open
8:30am
Breakfast
9:00am-12pm
Morning Mentors
10am-12pm
From Idea to Traction — a workshop with Jose Caballer
12:30pm
Lunch
1:00pm to 4pm
Afternoon Mentors
6:00pm
Dinner
12am
Venue Closes
8:00am
Doors open
8:30am
Breakfast
9:00am-12pm
Morning Mentors
12:30pm
Lunch
4:30pm — 6:30pm
Demos with Mentor Feedback
6:30pm — 7:30pm
Clean up
7:30pm
Community Celebration at location to be announced

From Idea to Traction

— a Workshop with Jose Caballer

Sat June 2, 10am-12pm — free for attendees or $49 for workshop only

What makes an idea successful? Is it technology? Is it marketing? Is it design? Is it business development? No, it’s teamwork. So how do teams work together to get traction on their ideas?

Jose Caballer the Mesh Experience Chef, for ConsenSys will guide us through a 2 hour workshop that will show you the tools you need to effectively translate your idea into a living, breathing and impactful platform, business or movement.

Jose will share the following:

  1. Defining your team vision: A fast and effective process to define your team’s (product) secret sauce.
  2. Defining your community: How to understand those you serve and their needs.
  3. Planning execution: How can you align your team to execute without friction, quickly and effectively.

The tools you are going to learn are a culmination of a 20 year career in building software and software teams. They are a result of years of trial and error. Most importantly based on asking one question: How do you gain traction for your idea? Is it a visionary leader? Is it brutal honesty? Is it project management? At the end what stood out was the ability for an entrepreneur to facilitate connected and aligned action in a results oriented environment. The ability for a leader to include their team, align their vision, define their community (Customers, Users) and prioritize key objectives quickly and continuously is the secret to traction. Think of it as a conductor, a choreographer or a chef.

In this workshop you will walk away with:
  1. Facilitation tools and techniques.
  2. Three frameworks for alignment of vision, community and objectives.
  3. An Agile based framework for rapid ideation and prototyping.
“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”
Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Become a Sponsor

Mentors

Toby Corey

Zentrepreneur

Toby successfully managed three $1b+ businesses (one as co-founder/President), completed two successful IPOs, raised over $300m in private and public financing, and is a former President of leader in clean energy services with successful IPO and successful Tesla merger.

Stephen Beitzel

Software Engineer

Stephen Beitzel has been developing software for over 20 years at all stages of the product lifecycle, including ten years' experience developing high-performance Java server applications for LinkedIn and Netflix.

    Drew Meyer

    Product Marketer/Manager: Amazon

    Drew Meyer is a product marketer/manager with years of experience leading teams in Silicon Valley startups and public companies. He leads the storage product marketing team at Amazon Web Services.

      Jessica Groopman

      Industry Analyst & Founding Partner: Kaleido Insights

      Jessica is an Industry Analyst & Founding Partner at Kaleido Insights, leading the automation practice and specializing in user experience and data integrity.

      Catelyn Orsini

      Product Architect: Plantronics

      As a Product Architect, Catelyn is charged with transforming innovative ideas and features into real products. After more than a decade of designing audio devices to help connect people to each other, Catelyn's current focus is on utilizing voice communications to connect people to the technology around them.

      Danielle Davenport

      Founder & CEO: Big Deep Digital

      With over 20 years of experience at high technology companies and a key thinker and contributor in the launch of several innovative start-ups, Danielle provides capital, strategic analysis and capacity building to high potential ideas with a focus on disruptive models and technologies.

      Sponsors

      these companies support us

      ECOSYSTEM SPONSORS
      PLATINUM SPONSORS
      GOLD SPONSORS
      SILVER SPONSORS

      Location

      • 877 Cedar St. Santa Cruz, CA

      Interested? Join us at the Practice your Pitch/networking Meetup on May 30