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An inspiring entrepreneur looking for a team and the resources to launch your startup over the weekend? Startup Weekend is perfect for you. It brings together talented, aspiring, and skilled individuals from different backgrounds; software developers, creative graphic designers to business people. These individuals are available to you during that weekend to form a team and work (sleepless nights) to launch your startup!

Startup Weekend is a 54 hours event launched by Techstars, a worldwide network that supports entrepreneurship. It has various programs that empower entrepreneurs and their startups, either through their Accelerator Program, or their Techstars Startup Programs Startup Digest, Startup Week, and Startup Weekend which is happening here soon. Big successful startups have graduated from Techstars including Uber, Easy Taxi, Classpass and more.

The Startup Weekend is an event that’s being held in over 150 countries across the globe. From Kenya, to Japan, Oman, Italy, Australia, and all over, startups have the incredible opportunity of connecting with people, discovering and finding the resources needed for their idea. They get to learn how to build a company and to finally kickstart it, all within the span of 54 hours, isn’t that incredible?

Startup Weekend is being held for the sixth time here in Bahrain as part of the GEW that’s organized by Tamkeen Bahrain. This year’s Startup Weekend has Tamkeen as a strategic partner. And StartUp Bahrain, Vibe, Zain and Malja as their sponsors. Some of the noticeable Bahraini-based startups that took part in Startup Weekend previously include uTrack TV, Pick a Dive, Saloom App, BeautyQ.

This year’s program is organized by Bahrain’s first business angel company Tenmou and their team Seham Al Fersani, Ali Mahmood and Zahra Al Abbad, in addition to Ahmed AlRawi Malaeb’s co-founder. The event will be taking place at Malja from November 16th to the 18th. You can register for the event here.

Here’s what’s going down at the Startup Weekend:

  • Day one is all about meeting, pitching and teaming up. Participants will be categorized into three groups, developers, designers and business people. You get to go on stage, pitch your idea for 60 seconds in front of an audience. The audience will then vote for the best 10-15 ideas. If you’re chosen, you go on to form your team. You have to search for a designer, a developer, along with yourself to start working on the startup over the weekend! This is the perfect opportunity to build relations and connect with some cool people! Who knows, you might end up meeting your future co-founder here!
  • Day two is where the fun part begins. Now that you’ve got your resources and formed your team, it’s time to get to work and build your startup! The team will be responsible for literally everything — from validating your idea, finding customers to building your prototype. Don’t worry though, you’re not alone in this. There are going to be some awesome mentors that are going be around to coach you and provide you with valuable advice on the technology you’re using, marketing strategies and the business model. Some of these coaches include Yonis Attiya the Founder and Creative Director at Limefish Design, Ali Mohsen the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at WNNA, Moyez Kassam the Managing Director at 21st Century Consulting W.L.L., Nadia Muijerers a Lecturer at Arab Open University, and Hussain Haji the Co-Founder and CEO of Inagrab.
  • The final day is where it all begins! On the last day, the teams get to present their startups in front of a crowd and a panel of experts in 5 minutes. The winning teams will be receiving cash prizes of BD3,000 for the first place, BD2,000 second place, and BD1,000 for the third place. But this is not all! Once you leave the event, whether you’re a winner or not, you still managed to build a startup – and that’s something grand! You’ve already formed a great team which you can continue working with after the event and take your startup to the next level! Community Initiatives like StartUp Bahrain, Rowad, and companies like Tamkeen, C5 Accelerate, CH9 and more are there to support you through it all!

So what are you waiting for? Shouldn’t you be already on the event’s page registering for the Startup Weekend event? Make sure you Register now for early bird pricing!

Can’t make it to the event, but still interested? Then don’t worry about it all, because we’ll be live broadcasting the entire event on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram! Just follow us on @StartUpBahrain, sit back, relax and enjoy!