Startup Weekend Coming to MatchBOX

The community curator at MatchBOX Coworking Studio in Lafayette says this weekend’s Greater Lafayette Startup Weekend aims to boost the entrepreneurial spirit in the community. Emily Carter says the event, which begins Friday evening and runs through Sunday, gives participants the chance to learn what it takes to build a startup from the ground up.

Participants will bring their ideas to the event and a certain number of those ideas will be chosen. The participants then form teams to develop those ideas into business plans that will ultimately be pitched to a group of judges at the end of the weekend. A group of mentors will be available to give tips to the teams throughout the weekend.

Carter says the event gives participants a head start on getting started up, even if their specific ideas weren’t chosen to be developed. "You’re leaving with knowledge that you’ll need to pursue any startup that you might dream up in the future. That’s important to know before you have that big idea because once you have that big idea, also adding the education that you’re going to need in order to get that thing off the ground becomes a really time consuming thing that kind of takes you away from building out your idea."

Carter says MatchBOX Coworking Studio was formed out of a partnership that came together at a startup weekend. She says last year’s winners are still going strong with their products and one them, Dime, will return this weekend to talk about their journey over the past year.

Carter says the event is a community effort and the goal is to inspire people to pursue their ideas after the event is over.