Three innovation-inspired university students were accepted into StartupCity’s new StartSmart Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program earlier this week. Their first project, was the Startup Seattle map (StartupSeattle.org), launching within 72 hours of joining the team. The students had the opportunity of going live last night at the Mobile Innovation Hub launch party at ThinkSpace, featuring James Sun, Founder of Pirq. This website was made so that startups and innovation promoters could post their location and information in a central, more concise and visible way.
What is StartupSeattle.org?
The Startup Seattle map is a simple and concrete tool that identifies, connects and promotes startup businesses and resources. Local startups, investors, incubators, accelerators and co-workers are highlighted within the map to illustrate their entrepreneurial activity. Companies that want to be represented can post their information onto the website.
The original concept of the map is credited to Represent.LA who open-sourced the code and Boulder, Colorado community patron Brad Feld (@bfeld), for connecting StartupCity with Represent LA (@representla). Seattle is the third city to get involved in this movement alongside Boston (@bostonfounded), to promote a nationwide trend of visually representing entrepreneurial activity in cities across the United States.
What is the StartSmart Program?
The StartSmart Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program is defined by the following: Work with StartupCity, volunteer with local startups and startup a startup as a team. This allows each EIR to learn from StartupCity mentors and fellow entrepreneurs within the community to enrich their knowledge and entrepreneurial skills, while providing student participants with potential pathways for future careers.
The StartSmart team this summer consists so far of Andrew Tat, a Freshman at the University of Washington who intends to major in Computer Science, Molly Donnelly, a senior at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business who is finishing a double degree in History and Business Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Shira Genauer, a Junior at Yeshiva University’s Syms School of Business who is majoring in Business Management. These three university students bring together a diverse background of experience and talents and are excited to work together to build a foundation for the StartSmart program.
Check out the students startup project at StartupSeattle.org and follows its progress @StartupSeattle.
Learn more about the students that created this resource and follow the StartSmart Program’s journey at Startupcity.org/StartSmart.
