This Friday, local business leaders, politicians and entrepreneurs will meet at the University of North Florida for the 2014 Jacksonville Startup Weekend.Yash Nath, president and CEO of event sponsor iStart Jax, sat down with Melissa Ross to talk about why this weekend will be even bigger than the last.
"There are a couple of new things we're going to do this year," said Nath. "We've strengthened our partnership with the (Small Business Development Center) and also with UNF."
"We are going to have an entire batch of students who are going through entrepreneurship class actually participating."
Nath added that this year will also include a focus on comprehensively preparing entrepreneurs with leadership and coaching.
The Startup Weekend will feature creators and innovators who can get connected with experts and potential investors to turn their pitch into a business. Nath says this sort of event means that a startup can be created in as little as 54 hours.
"During the past two years, 32 startups were created. There were several who were funded, and many are on the verge of being funded," said Nath.
From KYN to One Spark, Jacksonville has developed a community of innovator-friendly resources to help get ideas off the ground.
Nath says the three-day event, including skill-building and networking opportunities, will provide an atmosphere where entrepreneurs can learn a lot from one another.
The idea for iStart Jax and the Startup Weekend arose from Nath's personal encounter with Mother Teresa over 20 years ago, and his internal question, "What can I contribute?"
Nath plans to continue giving back with a program called eMindset to help unprivileged young adults who are interested in joining the entrepreneurial community.
"We want to make sure that we can empower them. It's a mindset, it's a framework (in) which they can learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and they can apply the skills in their lives," said Nash of eMindset.
The 2014 Jacksonville Startup Weekend begins Friday night at 6 p.m. on the University of North Florida campus. You can get more info at Jacksonville.StartupWeekend.org.
You can follow Melissa Ross on Twitter @MelissainJax and Aaron Badida @aaronbadida.
