Startup Weekend, whose mission is to kickstart and foster startup communities worldwide through events and networking sessions, had a very lively 2011.
According to internal statistics shared exclusively with TechCrunch, the organization held a total of 260 events in 202 cities, in 67 countries (you can find the obligatory accompanying infographic below).
All in all, the ‘startup weekends’ attracted some 21,316 people, who collectively formed 2,817 teams.
Startups that were incubated at its events raised at least $30 million in outside funding in the course of last year, although Startup Weekend CMO Joey Pomerenke tells me there were probably more fundraising rounds completed that they simply don’t know about yet.
Some of the startups that got funded: Zaarly, Scanadu, LaunchRock, Foodspotting and Cloudbot. Two companies even got acquired: Keepstream and Volly.
One dude (Jon Rossi, organizer of Startup Weekend Denver and Boulder) even got himself a custom tattoo in support of the organization! (see picture on top)
This wasn’t mentioned by them in the retrospective, but it’s noteworthy: Google recently inked a two-year, global agreement with Startup Weekend to help expand its operations.
On that note: Pomerenke says 2012 is poised to become an even more eventful year, with 400+ Startup Weekend events planned so far. There will also be more verticals (see for example Startup Weekend EDU for the education industry) such as health, gaming, media and more.
Pomerenke also comments:
“There is a lot of great data we have compiled here, but the metric that is most important to us (but harder to track) is the impact we have on the peoples lives that go through our events. That could mean they learned a new skill, they found a co-founder, they got a job or maybe they were inspired to take that entrepreneurial leap.
This is something we plan on tracking better in 2012.”
Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, out of the box thinking, unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The participants that attend a Startup Weekend...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
