Startup Weekend: Now ‘Powered by the Kauffman Foundation’

The overarching Startup Weekend organization, a nonprofit based out of Seattle, has announced the receipt of a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest American foundation with a focus on entrepreneurship. This is exciting news for…

The overarching Startup Weekend organization, a nonprofit based out of Seattle, has announced the receipt of a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest American foundation with a focus on entrepreneurship.

This is exciting news for both the organization as well as the region as the event is held in multiple cities on the Silicon Prairie. In addition, Startup Week recently added Des Moines resident Shane Reiser to their team of directors, see: Shane Reiser joins Startup Weekend team full-time.

I spoke with another one of Startup Weeked’s four directors Marc Nager by phone today. He said they’re “really excited to make this something sustainable.” And moreover, this is something that will allow them to do “what they’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”

The press release sent by Kauffman today expanded on Nager’s second thought:

Startup Weekend will allocate Kauffman Foundation grant money to invest in the infrastructure, systems and processes that will make the organization more efficient and better positioned to scale once new cities, domestic and international, are added to the network. Attention will be given to researching the science behind the proven success of the model in an effort to further improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The grant will allow Startup Weekend to educate thousands more entrepreneurs who will, in turn, launch more startups. Additional resources will allow Startup Weekend to develop relationships and programs designed to increase the resources and support available to entrepreneurs both before and after weekend events.

Additionally, Startup Weekend has been announced as a signature event during Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 15-21, a Kauffman Foundation-founded initiative held annually to promote entrepreneurship to young peple around the world.

To learn more about the partnership, visit:

Also, here are some interesting stats behind Startup Weekend, which was founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde:

  • Has helped educate more than 17,000 entrepreneurs
  • Has been held in over 120 events in over 100 cities in over 25 countries
  • Has facilitated the launch of over 560 new startup ventures

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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