Salish Kootenai College students participate in startup weekend.

What does entrepreneurship look like when your entrepreneurs are students who have never started a business venture before? Driving nine hours to attend a business event that no one knew much about added a layer of intrigue for 10 students from Salish Kootenai College (SKC) heading to Sheridan College in Wyoming to participate in their first Startup Weekend event.

Startup Weekend, founded in Colorado in 2007, quickly emerged in communities engaging entrepreneurial minds across a range of interests. By 2012 Startup Weekend had become international in scope, building momentum with more than 3,000 events hosted in 150 countries. Startup Weekend brings entrepreneurs together to turn an idea into action by creating a new business in 54 hours.

Activities kick off with “Friday night pitch,” where participants drop their 60- second pitch for an idea in front of the audience who then votes on the best potential ideas. The top ten ideas are then developed. Work starts at 10 p.m. Friday night with teams racing to develop their idea using Business Model Canvas. Final presentations take place on Sunday night. Coaches and mentors work with the teams both days, guiding business logic and cheering for teams as their ideas come to life. Sunday night is when the final versions of the original business pitch are presented to a panel of judges. The Startup Weekend event is similar to a capstone course where students are responsible for a project from start to finish.

The event is a powerful learning experience as teams manage emotions, lack of sleep, and personal interactions with likeminded strangers. Investors and venture capitalists have been known to attend many startup events, along with high-profile industry leaders and startup community personalities who serve as panelists, give presentations, and coach teams. Sponsors mingle with team members along with company representatives, creating a knowledge-rich environment with a lot of great food too! Meaghan Simeon, one of the students representing SKC, recalls, “I felt like I learned more in three days at Startup than in three years of business studies. That is how intense the experience is.”

And, what were the final results? As a gesture to thank Sheridan College, the SKC team gave a prayer and honor song before final presentations. SKC student Ryan Running Crane was a pivotal team member of the winning commercial business idea. SKC students Liane Buchholdt and Tyler Baker were also on highly placed teams. The coup of the event, however, belongs to the SKC team led by Victoria Peterson and LaRenzo Roan Bear, along with Clarence Aragon, Meaghan Simeon, Brevin Holliday, Megan Guardipee, and Jay Bird, all proudly wearing their logo t-shirts produced overnight. Their social entrepreneurship idea for a product to support the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement prompted the judges to publicly thank them for “pulling a curtain back on something we know nothing about.” They were awarded a rarely given honorable mention and introduced to the Bill and Melinda gates Foundation to explore funding options. You can be sure the nine-hour bus ride home was a lot of fun.