Outside the Valley

Startup Weekend Coming to Memphis

By Will | February 25, 2008

Memphis has been chosen to host a “startup weekend” in late May. The word has been hot around Memphis the last couple of weeks concerning this event.

Startup Weekend is a 3 day event where local entrepreneurs get together and launch a company over a weekend.

Andrew Hyde, founder of Startup Weekend had a few comments on StartupWeekend.com: “About two months ago I was contacted by Harry Brown, requesting that Memphis be added to the list of Startup Weekend location possibilities. Memphis’s community motivated, and launched themselves to the top of the list. Memphis, (a place known for it’s BBQ and tradition, and not necessarily their tech startup talent) has really impressed me in how their community got together.We talked about location, and Harry introduced me to Eric Mathews of Mercury Labs.”

Eric has been active an instrumental in bringing people together, along with Gwin Scott and others associated with the Emerge small-biz incubator here in Memphis. I have touched base with Eric and Gwin a couple of times over the past few months and they have been working to bring more tech talent together.

This is great news for Memphis. A special thanks to Harry Brown, Eric and other local leaders.

This should be interesting. I think that it will be fun and I look forward to meeting any of the local talent that I have not already met.

Below are the votes on the voting page of the Startup Weekend website. If the votes were any indication, this is looking good.

startupweekend votes.jpg