Music and entrepreneurship will come together this weekend at Colorado State University. Startup Weekend Fort Collins: Music Innovation will bring together aspiring designers and entrepreneurs to develop business and product ideas related to music innovation that also have the potential for applications in other industries. The first themed event of its kind will run Feb. 22-24 at the university’s groundbreaking Nancy Richardson Design Center.
“This is a unique opportunity that will bring together interdisciplinary teams to develop ideas in both entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Scott Shrake, director of the College of Business Institute for Entrepreneurship. “Music is a huge part of what makes Fort Collins such a special place, so the theme of this year’s Startup Weekend is perfectly suited to embrace the culture of innovation here.”
Free to CSU students, faculty and staff
It’s a year of firsts for the event. For the first time, Startup Weekend is being offered at no cost to CSU students, faculty and staff. Visit the Eventbrite page for full event and registration details.
“One of the goals of CSU’s Institute of Entrepreneurship is to offer premier programming to the university community at little or no cost,” said Shrake.
The programming of this year’s event is particularly robust, thanks to strong collaboration with the Music District in Fort Collins and the Bohemian Foundation. As part of that, Lloyd Starr will provide the keynote address at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22.
About keynote speaker Starr
Starr currently serves as president and chief operating officer of Vinyl, Me Please. He is the former Interim vice president of Native Instruments and president and COO of Beatport. He was one of Beatport’s first employees, starting with the company in 2003 before the site launched, as a founding software developer. During his tenure, Beatport raised $12 million in venture capital and won the Denver Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Company two consecutive years, as well as multiple other accolades for quality and design. Before his exit, Starr played a key role in selling Beatport to SFXii for over $58 million and helping take Beatport public. Since leaving Beatport, Lloyd founded Velocity Plus.
“This really is going to be a fun, engaging weekend at an incredible new location on campus, the Nancy Richardson Design Center,” said Shrake.
Fort Collins Startup Week
Startup Weekend Fort Collins: Music Innovation kicks off Fort Collins Startup Week. A full schedule of events focused on entrepreneurship is planned for Feb. 25 – March 2.
As part of Fort Collins Startup Week events, Shrake will join speakers at the Founded in FoCo event from 2-3 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Bohemian Auditorium in the College of Business Rockwell Hall West building on campus. Rayno Seaser of the Egg & I, Connie Dohn of Dohn Construction, and John Arnolfo of The Silver Grille will share their experiences about how to leverage all that Fort Collins has to offer to build an enterprise. The three entrepreneurs will talk about what makes Fort Collins such a special place to launch an enterprise. The event is free and open to the public, but seating will be limited.
For the full schedule of Fort Collins Startup Week events, visit the website.
