Launch Party | So Entrepreneurial

What a great launch party SURF Incubator had last week. More than 300 people attended the event. It was awesome. We hung out. We drank. We socialized and networked. We even had a pitch competition, where 10 chosen founders from SURF startups had 90 seconds to explain their concept to the crowd.

The attendees voted after everyone was done.

And we won! Seconds wins 2 tickets to fly down to San Francisco to attend the DEMO conference in Oct.

Here’s a video of my acceptance speech, where I am not totally sure at the moment I knew exactly what to say… but deflecting my own praise and edifying SURF seemed to be what instantly came to mind. When in doubt, edify the organizer.

(my portion starts about 4:30 into the video)

Below are some images from the event and to find more pictures: bit.ly/SURFphotos

waiting to pitch

giving the pitch

shaking hands with Seaton Gras, founder of SURF

giving acceptance speech

The unofficial mantra at SURF is: Get inspired. Explore ideas. Start companies. It’s crazy how you feel it the moment you walk through the doors. Although SURF Incubator opened its doors at the end of April, they were busy accepting startups and inviting them to join the party even before the April 30th opening.

What once was a quite space with more empty desks than people walking around has now turned into a bustling center for early founders and tech startups. Somehow I feel a lot more at home in SURF than I ever have at coffee shops or other temporary offices around Seattle. More than 25 startups have joined the team and remaining spaces are quickly being claimed by others. In fact, there is so much interest they doubled the tenant base over the last 2 months and Neil Bergquist believes “with about 150,000 square feet of vacant space in this building there’s no reason why we can’t take all this space.”

It’s now time to have a launch party and make the launch official.

The night is dedicated to Seattle’s startup community and specifically to (us) entrepreneurs who are taking the risks necessary to advance our vibrant ecosystem. It’s about time we were honored! They expect quite a few in attendance and in an effort to accommodate SURF took an additional 2,000 square feet in the building for the launch party and startup demo.

From the sound of it – it’s gonna ROCK.

The event will feature a Startup Demo Competition, successful entrepreneurs, and the investors and companies who support them. Attendees will also have the opportunity to network with the SURF community, which includes resident startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and sponsors. A few SURF resident startups will be selected to give a three-minute demo presentation in front of local media and hundreds of attendees. The crowd will choose the best pitch via a text-voting system and the winning team will be featured in GeekWire and flown to Silicon Valley for DEMO Fall 2012.

AGENDA

5:00 – 7:00 Meet the startups, Tours, Brewery and Winery exhibit, Hors d’oeuvres
6:00 – 6:30 Startup Demo
7:00 – 7:30 Keynote and program
7:30 – 9:00 Network, Brainstorm, Celebrate

Current SURF Startup Tenants