Saint John Hosting First Startup Weekend in Five Years
For the first time in five years, Saint John will play host to Startup Weekend, and an organizer says they’re wide open to good ideas from new apps to bricks-and-mortar businesses.
Saint John Startup Weekend, taking place Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, is an event that’s part of a larger international network by TechStars that takes place in 150 countries around the world. Events are held a couple times a year in Fredericton and Moncton.
All startup weekends follow the same model. Any participant is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams form around the top ideas, which are determined by popular vote. From there, the teams spend the next three days developing business models, market validation and designing everything you need to make a great pitch
The weekend wraps up with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders where they receive critical feedback and a winner is chosen. This year, the winner of the Saint John event will have the opportunity to pitch at a national Startup Weekend competition for a grand prize.
The idea to host a Startup Weekend again came after Saint John was given a Startup Community designation from Startup Canada earlier in September. A group in the city’s entrepreneurial community decided it was time to get Saint John back on the map with a Startup Weekend event.
“There’s now the Startup Canada communities, Saint John is recognized as that and we want to build the ecosystem out and this is a very great way of getting people excited and bringing people together and have them develop ideas in a really concentrated period,” says Ashley Frank, a member of the event’s organizing committee.
While a lot of Startup Weekend events encompass a certain theme, this time around, Saint John organizers are leaving it intentionally broad.
“Ours is going to be more generally focused. Sometimes startup weekends will have tech focus or health-tech focus of a fin-tech focus. Ours is going to be more general. If you have an idea for a brick-and-mortar store, or if you have an idea for the latest and greatest app, we have it open,” says Frank.
There is going to be no limits to what ideas people can pitch. Our goal here is to get a mix of people who come from industry, come from universities, come from the community, who have some passion to help drive our entrepreneurial ecosystem and bring them together and really let them develop over the weekend and build their network.”
Organizers have lined up mentors and judges for the event, including Andrew Oland, Kelly Lawson, Matt White, James Stewart, Donna Mazerolle, Greg Hemmings and Chris Weir.
When people think of startups in New Brunswick, most people think of either Fredericton or Moncton as the strong communities. Frank says organizers hope the Saint John Startup Weekend will be the beginning of a re-spark of the city’s startup ecosystem.
I hope this will elevate the profile of Saint John around startups and let people know that these opportunities exist here and not just in Fredericton or Moncton or Halifax of Montreal,” he says.
Frank, who works at Cardinal Path, a marketing and analytics consulting firm that located to Saint John back in May, says Saint John has an opportunity to carve its own spot in the New Brunswick’s startup community.
“We need more cafes, we need more people doing services. The tech stuff is great. I come from a tech background and that’s my passion, but I’d love to see somebody start a brick-and-mortar business and making it successful, to test their idea and actually make things happen.”