Startup Weekend Athens

Startup Weekends are 54 hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas and form teams.

Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds.

Beginning with pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product.
During this time the teams are offered professional support by developers, business consultants, legal advisors and investors. On Sunday evening teams demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts which decides on the three most commercial ideas that will come up over the weekend and support their implementation.

Why attend a Startup Weekend event?

Education:
Startup Weekends are all about learning through the act of creating. Don’t just listen to theory, build your own strategy and test it as you go.

Build your network:
Startup Weekend attracts your community’s best makers and do-ers. By spending a weekend working to build scalable companies that solve real-world problems, you will build long-lasting relationships and possibly walk away with a job or a even an investor.

Co-Founder Dating:
We all know it’s not just about the idea – it’s about the team. Startup Weekend is one of the best ways to find someone you can actually launch a startup with.

Learn a new skill:
Step outside of your comfort zone. With a whole weekend dedicated to letting your creative juices flow, Startup Weekends are prefect opportunities to work on a new platform, learn a new programming language, or just try something different.

Actually launch a business:
Over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months. Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend.

Get face time with thought leaders:
Local tech and startup leaders participate in Startup Weekends as mentors and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in your community.

Join a global community:
Join over 30,000 Startup Weekend alumni, all on a mission to change the world.

About Startup Weekend Athens

We organized the first Startup Weekend Athens in 2008 and Andrew Hyde, the founder of Startup Weekend came to Greece to moderate the event. At first there was apprehension but once the action started going people shared ideas, openly discussed them, formed teams, networked and mostly importantly worked hard over the weekend to have working prototypes and web sites as well as a first draft of their business plan.

Since we have organized 3 Startup Weekend Athens events at the Microsoft Innovation Center and we are still amazed with the energy and spirit over these weekends.

More information at http://startupweekend.org/ and at http://athens.startupweekend.org/.