- Overview
- Schedule
- Speakers
- Judges
- Coaches and Mentors
- Sponsors
- Organizing Team
Startup Weekend Austin | Veterans, presented by Grow With Google
Friday, September 28 - 30, 2018
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Startup Weekend Austin | Veterans, presented by Grow With Google
Friday, September 28 - 30, 2018
Friday, September 28 - 30, 2018
Event starts at 6:30 pm
Galvanize Austin
119 Nueces St
Austin,
TX
78701
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Although anyone can sign up, the event will be geared towards active duty service members, veterans, their family members and civilians in the defense space.
Hurry to secure your spot; this event will sell out quickly!
Techstars & Google recognize that veterans make exceptional founders and employees. Their resourcefulness and ability to execute is unparalleled. Many veterans have gone through Techstars accelerators and successfully exited. In fact, Patriot Bootcamp was born because their founders are both Techstars alumni and veterans. Techstars now has 2 accelerators focused on defense, one in Boston & one in Adelaid. This Startup Weekend exists because Google & Techstars believe in the military community and want to create access to the startup ecosystem.
What is Grow with Google Startup Weekend Austin for Veterans? It is the best place to learn how to build a startup in a weekend and connect with your community; a melting pot of the area’s most creative thinkers, builders and implementers. It’s a 3-day long sprint to launch new products and services that solve real-world problems.
Grow with Google is an initiative that draws on Google’s 20-year history of building products, platforms, and services that help people and businesses grow. Through Grow with Google, Google aims to help everyone across America – those who make up the workforce of today and the students who will drive the workforce of tomorrow – access the best of Google’s training and tools to grow their skills, careers, and businesses.
Techstars Startup Weekend Austin and Google have joined forces to bring this special event to life as part of Austin Startup Week.
EVENT SCHEDULE
Friday September 28th
Saturday September 29th
Sunday September 30th
Speakers
James Durago
Recruiter for Technical Program Managers
Alex Goldberg
Chief Innovations Officer at Texas Air National Guard
- C4ISR
- Remotely Piloted Technology
- Manned-Unmanned Teaming
- Homeland Defense
- Emergency Disaster Response
Event Judges
Jenny Fielding
Managing Director @Techstars
Zach Walker
Defense Innovation Unit Texas Lead
• Artificial Intelligence
• Information Technology
• Life Sciences
• Autonomy
• Space
Coaches and Mentors
Dave Perez
CEO, Founder
David’s prior success was heavily attributed to his ability to connect with and understand C-Level Executives. He leveraged business acumen and communications skills to uncover issues and align the best solutions for his clients. David was particularly astute with the use of technology, analytics, and creative problem solving.
Military and Industry Leadership
David’s leadership expertise comes from his formal training and field experience leading airmen as a Combat Crew Commander and Flight Commander in the Air Force. David spent over 6 years in the Air Force serving as a nuclear weapons officer. His industry leadership includes serving on the board for the Independent Agents of Austin and Young Agent Advisory Council for the Independent Agents of Texas. David is also a graduate of the highly selective Leadership Austin Emerge Program. His non-profit leadership includes various boards and committees and he is the current President of the Capital City A&M club focused on raising scholarships for the local youth.
Matthew Walden
Strategic Partnerships Manager, Online Partnerships
Originally from Los Angeles, Matt has an educational background in Economics and Political Development from Brigham Young University. Before Google, Matt has did DHS-sponsored work with DC-based tech incubator Affinis Labs to create products that help resolve the global refugee crisis. Matt comes from a family of veterans, and sees the community as an important force for good in the entrepreneurship space.
James Durago
Recruiter for Technical Program Managers
Paul O'Brien
CEO
Historically, I'm seasoned marketer with an early career at Yahoo! and HP. From there, I led the early growth of startups such as Outright.com (Acquired by GoDaddy), Zvents (Acquired by eBay’s Stubhub), and MicroVentures (Venture Capital). Strong technical background considering the role I tend to play today; I built my first website in the '90s and operate my personal site to hone my skills. I was featured in the book, Online Marketing Heroes, and continue to blog business at seobrien.com.
Nathan Ryan
CEO
Those leadership roles––in strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship, technology, and design thinking––prepared him to assume an advisory role for Emmy-winning culinary media company, Life & Thyme. Shortly after, Nathan was a co-founder of internationally-recognized digital agency, Toi, where he developed relationships with clients from startups like Genee and Set For Service—both of whom went on to be acquired—to major corporations like Verizon and Red Bull.
As CEO of Toi, Nathan managed the company’s strategy, financials, operations, marketing, and sales, and emphasized the importance of both employee and client satisfaction. There, the new realities of freelance culture came into focus for him, inspiring Toi’s partnership with WeWork to host roundtable and speaking events around the country. Discussions focused on the future of the Creative Class intended to share solutions for a more equitable future––for freelancers, agencies, and other businesses that work with contract labor.
In 2017 he co-founded Blue Sky Partners, which helps business leaders, startups, and companies of all sizes put sustainable systems in place so they can scale.
Jorge Manresa
AFWERX - Rapid Acquisition Professional
processes across Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and AFWERX-Austin
technology hub. In his current position, Jorge has enabled business
processes to reach non-traditional business entities, start-ups and regional
academic centers. Previously, Jorge led as Deputy Division Chief, Air Force
District Washington (AFDW) Contracting Division, where he led 25 contracting
professionals with the administration of AFDW's $1.2 billion contract
portfolio. He also served as the Source Selection Decision Authority over
the Headquarters Air Force National Capital Region, Enterprise Information
Technology and Infrastructure services contract. Prior to his tour in
support of Headquarters Air Force, he served as the lead Contracting Officer
supporting NATO & Jordan's F-16 Training Systems Foreign Military Sales
program, USAF MQ-1 & MQ-9 aircraft sustainment program, and USAF E-3
Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft sustainment program.
Jorge also served as a Professional Military Instructor at Air University,
Spaatz Center for Officer Education, Squadron Officer School (SOS). He
obtained both his Baccalaureate in Aviation Business Administration (2000)
and Master of Business Administration in International Commerce (2006) from
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida. Jorge has also
obtained an unlimited Contracting Officer's Warrant from Air Force Materiel
Command, completed Air Command and Staff College, and attended the Program
on Negotiations Certificate Program at Harvard Law School.
Matthew Scott
Principal, Investing in Technologies with Aerospace and Defense Applications - AFWERX
• Artificial Intelligence
• Information Technology
• Machine Learning
My role includes:
1) Determining the required amount and source of funding to support the entrepreneur's startup
2) Identifying capable Air Force entrepreneurs with an innovative approach to an established unsolved Air Force challenge
3) Conducting product due diligence to access technological feasibility
4) Coaching entrepreneurs: developing and delivering a business plan to drive scalability of a product; providing strategic market validation
5) Scouting technical solutions by networking with diverse, innovative members from industry, academia, and government
Andy Aguiluz
Global Training and Development Manager
Shaun Martin
Advisor, Speaker, Founder and CEO at Rebase
Alex Goldberg
Chief Innovations Officer at Texas Air National Guard
- C4ISR
- Remotely Piloted Technology
- Manned-Unmanned Teaming
- Homeland Defense
- Emergency Disaster Response
Craig "Yogi" Leavitt
National Security Strategist
Jenn Marrs
Product Manager and Community Outreach Director
Jennifer Marrs is the Director of Community Outreach for AFWERX Austin Hub, where she connects academia, technology companies, startup founders, and technology incubators/accelerators, to the U.S. Air Force innovation ecosystem. She is also a product manager at AFWERX where she is involved with due diligence on acceptance into the various AFWERX programs. She also leads ongoing support with product development, fundraising, and establishing key partnerships for portfolio companies as they scale. In addition to her role in AFWERX, she is currently a Captain in the Texas Air National Guard serving as the Chief Innovation Officer for the 136th Airlift Wing.
She graduated 2016 from the McCombs School of Business with a Masters in Science Technology Commercialization.
Event Sponsors, and Partners
The Startup Weekend Austin | Veterans, presented by Grow With Google team is grateful for the support of local community partners without whom this event would not be possible.
Learn how to become a sponsor here.
Other
Venue Sponsor
Organizing Team
Techstars Startup Weekend Austin is 100% led by volunteer community leaders.
Learn how to get involved here
Facilitators
Joey Arora
Director, Community Development - United Stated Air Force Innovation
Event Staff
Brandon Melo
ValorUp Intern
Event Blog
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