Startup Games

Last updated
Startup Games
Founded2012
Headquarters,
USA
Key people
Gillian Wilson, Founder & President [1]
Number of employees
5
Website startupgames.com

Startup Games is an Austin-based non-profit organization that hosts a series of events centered on competition between tech startups in games common to startup culture. Founded in 2012, the organization holds several annual competitions, with each company playing on behalf of a charity of their choice. [2]

Contents

History

Past events

Startup Games was founded in 2012 with the original name of Austin Startup Olympics. The inaugural games were held on January 21, 2012, at uShip's headquarters and featured Adlucent, Boundless Network, BuildASign, Mass Relevance (now part of Spredfast), SpareFoot, Spredfast, uShip and WhaleShark Media (now RetailMeNot). uShip won the inaugural Startup Games competition. [2]

The organization's only Summer Games edition took place on June 9, 2012. BuildASign was the winning team. [3]

SpareFoot won the next three Austin editions of Startup Games from 2013 to 2015, playing for Kure It Cancer Research. [4]

Startup Games held its first Startup Games: Level Up event on April 11, 2015. This event is for companies larger than 250 employees. [5] BuildASign was the winning team.

Impact and growth

To date, Startup Games has donated more than $175,000 to charities and is expanding to other startup communities, with San Antonio, New York and Chicago scheduled for 2015. [5] [6]

Leadership

Startup Games was founded as a collaboration between the eight original competing companies. It has since been independently incorporated as a non-profit company, with one of the founding members, Gillian Wilson, serving as president. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amateur Athletic Union</span> US nonprofit athletic organization

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has more than 700,000 members nationwide, including more than 100,000 volunteers. The philosophy of the AAU is "Sports for All, Forever."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Poizner</span> American businessman

Stephen Leo Poizner is an American businessman, technology entrepreneur and former Republican California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate. Poizner also was an independent candidate in the 2018 California Insurance Commissioner election.

Charles Allen Austin is an American former athlete who won the gold medal in the men's high jump at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He was inducted into the United States Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2012. Currently, Charles and Javier Sotomayor are the only two high jumpers that have won gold medals in the Olympics, Outdoor World Championships, Indoor World Championships and World Cup Championships. Hennadiy Avdyeyenko, who won the inaugural 1983 Outdoor World Championship setting the championship high jump record with a jump of 2.32m, and Charles are the only two high jumpers to win and establish the championship record in both the Outdoor World Championship and Olympic Games. He currently holds or previously held the high jump record at the three biggest outdoor track and field competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Austin (entrepreneur)</span> American internet personality and entrepreneur (born 1986)

Sarah Maria Austin is an American author and tech entrepreneur. She is the CMO and co-founder of metaverse funding platform, QGlobe, and former CEO at Broad Listening, an artificial emotional intelligence agent. She is the chairperson of the board of directors at Coding FTW, a nonprofit organization that promotes diversity and equal rights in the technology sector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Kenny</span> English track cyclist

Sir Jason Francis Kenny, is an English former track cyclist, specialising in the individual and team sprints. Kenny is the holder of most Olympic gold medals (7) and medals (9) for a British athlete. Kenny's seven Olympic gold medals place him joint 15th by reference to gold medals won in the Summer Olympic games since 1896. He is the single holder of the records for both most Olympic golds and Olympic medals for a cyclist.

Singularity Education Group is an American company that offers executive educational programs, a business incubator, and business consultancy services. Although the company uses the word "university" in its branding, it is not an accredited university and has no academic programs or accreditation.

uShip Texas-based Internet company

uShip, Inc. is an Austin, Texas-based Internet company that operates uShip.com, an online marketplace for shipping services. Individuals and businesses post items they need shipped in a variety of categories, including auto transport, boat shipping, moving services, and the transport of heavy industrial equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foundation Capital</span>

Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. The firm was founded in 1995, and in 2012 managed more than $2.4 billion in investment capital. As of 2023, the firm has over $6 billion in assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Startup ecosystem</span> Type of ecosystem

A startup ecosystem is formed by people in startups in their various stages, and various types of organizations in a location that are interacting as a system to create and scale new startup companies. These organizations can be further divided into categories such as universities, funding organizations, support organizations, research organizations, service provider organizations and large corporations. Local Governments and Government organizations such as Commerce / Industry / Economic Development departments also play an important role in a startup ecosystem. Different organizations typically focus on specific parts of the ecosystem function and startups at their specific development stage(s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SXSW V2V</span>

SXSW V2V was an annual technology entrepreneurship conference, spun off from the South by Southwest conference, held from 2013 to 2015. It featured a startup competition, panel discussions, and mentoring workshops for entrepreneurs. Hosted in Las Vegas, it was the first SXSW event to take place outside of Austin, Texas. It began as an evolution of the startup competition that is held as part of the SXSW Interactive festival each spring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SpareFoot</span> American self-storage listings company

SpareFoot is an Austin-based company that provides listings for self-storage units. The company was originally a person-to-person model, similar to Airbnb, that later developed into a marketplace for self-storage. The company now facilitates self-storage rentals between consumers and storage operators. The company was profiled as one of America's Most Promising Startups by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011.

Founder.org is a nonprofit foundation in San Francisco, California, United States that invests in student entrepreneurs. The organization features a company building program for student entrepreneurs at major research institutes and universities. Operated by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Founder.org supports teams across various industries including sensors, sanitation, influencer marketing, biotechnology, health and transportation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Hoover</span> American businessperson (born 1951)

Gary Hoover is an American businessperson who founded Bookstop, an American bookstore chain, and The Reference Press, which became Hoover's business information company. He is the entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">StartupBus</span>

StartupBus is an annual technological startup competition and entrepreneurship boot camp, described as a Hackathon, created by Elias Bizannes in February 2010. The competition is held across a 3-day bus ride where contestants or "buspreneurs" compete to conceive the best technology startup. The competition seeks to attract young top talents to compete, to search for the most innovative startup conceived by the groups, where the winners are determined by a panel of judges. Starting from February 2011, it has gone through many iterations in various continents from 2011 to the present day, with the first in Austin, Texas and subsequently in North America, Europe and Africa.

Everfest is an Austin-based company that connects the festival community online. Festival-goers can find worldwide festivals, connect with friends, build a calendar and share content about festival experiences. Festival organizers work with Everfest to manage their online presence and market their event to attendees, including a perk system that allows organizers to provide discounts or free items to festival-goers.

Revionics is an American software company that develops lifecycle price optimization software for retailers. The software is marketed via the software as a service (SaaS) model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khoros, LLC</span> American software company founded in 2019

Khoros, formerly Spredfast + Lithium, is a global customer engagement software company that provides online community management, social media marketing, social media analytics, digital care, and content management software and services to enterprise brands and agencies. Khoros owns over a dozen patents for social media marketing, online community, and care technologies.

Silverton Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Austin, Texas.

New Story is a non-profit organization that provides homes to people living with inadequate shelter. The organization was founded in 2014 and has provided homes for more than 15,200 people in Haiti, Bolivia, Mexico, and El Salvador. New Story and ICON, an Austin-based construction technologies company, built the world’s first community of 3D printed homes in Nacajuca, Mexico.

References

  1. Knox, Noelle; Murphy, Maxwell. "More Firms Use Charitable Programs as a Recruiting Tool". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 Lorek, Laura. "Geek athletes compete at Austin's Startup Olympics". Silicon Hills News. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  3. Lorek, Laura. "BuildASign wins the Startup Olympics Summer Games". Silicon Hills News. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  4. Egan, John. "Three-peat! SpareFoot Captures Gold (Again) at Startup Games". The SpareFoot Blog. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 Holley, David. "Mid-Size Cos to Battle in Startup-Style Games, for Charity". Xconomy. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  6. Scott, David. "Austin startup employees compete for good cause". KXAN. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  7. Randall, Laura. "How Millennials Are Shaping the Way Companies Give Back". Coca-Cola Journey. Retrieved 19 April 2015.