My non-profit, Startup Tampa Bay, emboldens entrepreneurs to solve meaningful problems, build innovative technology, create jobs, excite our citizens, attract top-notch talent, and develop Tampa Bay into a national entrepreneurial focal point. Over the 3 years I spent building the organization, hundreds of volunteers came together to host the events Startup Week, Startup Weekend, and Tampa Bay Hackathon which have impacted tens of thousands of people.

Tampa Bay Hackathon

Tampa Bay Hackathon brings together the Tampa Bay tech community and local businesses for a weekend of problem-solving and building real tech solutions.

As the lead organizer of this event, I formed strategic partnerships with businesses and organizations, created all the branding and marketing material, crafted the event structure, wrote all the copy found on our website and marketing materials, managed our social media channels, executed on marketing strategies, and coordinated the event logistics from start to finish.

Check out the video to watch me host the final demos and see the sweet tech everyone created.

Startup Weekend

I credit Startup Weekend for igniting my passion for entrepreneurship and technology. Now a part of Techstars, Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where teams of designers, developers, and hustlers launch startups from scratch. We hosted Startup Weekend Tampa Bay and it was such a success that my co-founders and I decided to file the 501c3 and begin hosting a series of events around entrepreneurship.

I organized and hosted three of these events in Tampa and flew out to Texas to guest host another. The passion of the attendees is absolutely contagious and to this day I have never seen a more inspiring, action-packed event. Organizing one of these bad boys involves a lot of fundraising, managing of volunteers, content creation, grass-roots marketing, and caffeine.

Startup Week

Startup Week Tampa Bay, our largest event, is a five-day unconference. This free-to-attend marathon of an event is a crash course on all things entrepreneurship for the community. Comprised of themed tracks, the event brings together experts locally and nationally to teach attendees everything from design to marketing to brewing beer. We’ve hosted six Startup Weeks to date, each one raising over $100,000 in funding and impacting upwards of 3,000 people.

Bringing one of these behemoths to life involves managing a team of hundreds of volunteers for months. The day after the event ends we begin coordinating sponsorship for the next year. Comprised of a hundred mini-events, the week-long conference is an exercise in diligent project management and coordination. In my time with the non-profit, I coordinated the design-focussed events, venues, and sponsorship.

Check out the 2018 recap video to see what it’s all about. We got Gary Vaynerchuk to speak. He’s kind of a hack but he promoted the t-shirt I designed so that’s pretty cool.