Startup Weekend Swansea back for third year

Enterprise competition Startup Weekend Swansea is back for a third year.

It’ll kick off on Friday, November 20th at Swansea’s prestigious Dylan Thomas centre and will span the whole weekend.

These competitions take place right around the world and see entrepreneurs, designers and developers come together to create viable business proposals.

Over 70 people attended Startup Weekend Swansea 2013 and 2014, which – between them – saw 18 businesses form. Nine of them are still trading today.

This year’s competition will be judged by Debra Williams, the former MD of Confused.com, Davied Hieatt, of Hiut Jeans and The Do Lectures, and Anna Bastek, CEO of Wolfestone & VoiceBox.

Sponsors and partners include the Welsh Government, University of Wales Trinity St David, Swansea University, Gower College, GitHub, Global Entrepreneurship Week and tech start-ups Hoowla and Adlet.

Contestants will have the chance to win £1000 worth of prizes to help them turn their ideas into start-up businesses.

Adam Curtis, organiser of Startup Weekend Swansea, said: “We run the competition every year to promote start-ups in South Wales.

“After winning Startup Weekend London back in 2009, I have always wanted to bring the Startup Weekend experience to Wales.

“Startup Weekends are a great way for business people, entrepreneurs and professionals to network and experiment with new business ideas.

“The events support people in creating a business. They pack 6 months of work into 54 hours and clearly work because businesses are created.

“I want to see Startup Weekend Swansea create more businesses in South Wales. Also through being part of the Global Startup Battle, we always hope to raise Wales’s and Swansea’s profile in the start-up scene worldwide.”