Startup Weekend Iowa City is coming up – here’s what you need to know

Aspiring entrepreneurs with bold ideas will have a chance to fine-tune them at Techstars Startup Weekend Iowa City, which launches this Friday. Hosted by EntrePartners July 11-13 at MERGE Iowa City, 136 S. Dubuque St., the three-day event will offer educational workshops and the opportunity to connect with potential colleagues, mentors, cofounders and investors. “One of the reasons we run Startup Weekend each year is to not only (provide) an opportunity for people to test ideas and start businesses, but it's also a way to build community around the idea of entrepreneurship,” said EntrePartners’ Executive Director, Jay Cooper, describing the weekend as “part hackathon, part party and part speed dating.” The event is open for anyone with an idea for a business, Mr. Cooper said, and Startup Weekend has seen everyone from high schoolers to senior citizens participate. “If you show up on Friday, you're going to be in a room with a whole bunch of folks you've never met before, but you all kind of have the same goal: You want to build really cool stuff. You want to solve problems,” he added. Participants only need to bring their ideas, Mr. Cooper said – ideally starting by identifying a problem worth solving.

Weekend starts Friday evening

The event kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday, with each participant pitching their original idea in 60 seconds without the aid of props. “Tell us what problem you're solving, what your potential solution is, what kind of skills you need for your team and anything else you feel is important,” Mr. Cooper said. After attendees vote on their favorite ideas, teams form around the top picks. Educational workshops are offered on Saturday, and EntrePartners introduces Braintrust members to engage with participants. “They come in and ask the teams what they're working on, give the teams advice, maybe a little bit of structure (and) a direction ,” Mr. Cooper said, adding that, depending on how far teams have progressed, some may begin assembling a prototype or minimum viable product that evening.

The Saturday workshop is focused on early-stage startup fundamentals, including customer discovery, the Business Model Canvas, and refining business plans to help participants zero in on the problem they’re trying to solve. A key part of the event involves sending participants into the community to conduct customer discovery interviews, where they gather real-world feedback tied to their team’s idea. If the teams have prototypes by Sunday, they’re used to test assumptions around pricing and features. Insights from these interactions feed directly into Sunday’s final pitch competition, which begins at 4 p.m. after a session on creating an effective pitch deck. While no cash prizes are awarded, “we usually give the winners a few months up here at the (Entre)Partners’ Innovation Center, so they can continue to be plugged into those mentors that they worked with on Saturday (and) get to utilize some of our services,” Mr. Cooper said.

Success stories

Some past participants have seen their business idea take wing to become a full-fledged endeavor. Mr. Cooper cites Tumbleweed as an example, a digitally accessible legacy planning platform that was launched during Startup Weekend Iowa City in 2023. Tumbleweed CEO Paul Richardson flew from California to Iowa to participate in the event, where he met co-founder and CPO Colleen Kinsey. Eventually, Mr. Richardson relocated to Iowa and Tumbleweed became University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) Venture School Business of the Year in 2024.

“(Startup Weekend is) making ideas real and helping people take an idea that maybe they've had in their pocket for years and turn it into something real, and maybe that then leads to that becoming their full-time thing,” Mr. Cooper said. If there’s anything he wants attendees to learn from the weekend, it’s to “just be willing to accept bumps in the road, because (it’s) part of the startup process,” he said. “It's never just a straight line. It's always going to be a very windy, curvy path around obstacles and around pitfalls and that sort of thing,” encouraging participants to “really just use the opportunity to make some lasting connections.” Quick facts:

• What: Techstars Startup Weekend Iowa City
• When: July 11-13
• Where: MERGE Iowa City, 136 S. Dubuque St.
• Tickets are $25 and can be found at http://swic.rocks. Meals are included with ticket purchase.