ABQ – Collide ABQ

It’s That Time…

That time when everything starts happening all at once. School starts and then every festival or event I really care about happens over the next two months. Here is a list of startup/entrepreneur events you should be excited for.

August 21, Tech.co Pitch Night – Check out the pitches for ABQ Startup of the Year.
August 26, ABQid Demo Day – The next class of startups from ABQid pitch their companies. I don’t think I have linked to the next class yet, so here they are:
- Bee The Swarm
- Blackpin Inc.
- Dear Dr. Dora
- Indigenous Beats
- MetaPipe
August 27 – 28, ABQ Mini-Maker Faire – Two days of making, building, creating and learning at Balloon Fiesta Park.
September 9 – Cultivating Coders – Demo and graduation day.
September 9 – 11 – NM Game Jam – 48 hour event to develop your own game.
September 9 – 17 – Umbrella Week – Art, Tech and Culture. One week, two weekends of great events, like TedXABQ and Danger Carnival
September 15, Deep Dive Coding Demo Day – The summer cohort of students show off their projects.
September 28 – 30, Experience IT – A weeklong event showcasing technology in our community.
October 6, Rise of The Rest – Steve Case comes to Albuquerque for a $100K pitch contest.

The next two months are some of the best in Albuquerque, if only there was more time to do everything.

Tech.Co Albuquerque Demo Night

Last Thursday was a full day of checking out local companies and startups. It started with Innovate New Mexico, put on by Albuquerque Business First. They had a ‘World Fair’ type competition of local startups and gave out several awards at the end.

I wasn’t able to attend Innovate New Mexico, but in the evening there was the Tech.Co demo day at El Rey. I was able to attend this fun event and check out local companies presenting their products. Most of the companies have been around at various events, but it was great to get updates on what they were doing and see their software. This event was a little different that others I had been to. In the past the events are usually pitches, but at this event many of the companies got up and gave live demonstrations.

Some of the companies presenting:

The keynote of the night was Andy Lim (of Lavu) showing off his new company Addmi.

I always enjoy supporting and learning about our local entreprenuers. If you are sorry you missed it don’t worry. Mark down August 22nd on your calendar. That will be the next Tech.co event, Startup of the Year Pitch. Follow them on twitter @techcoabq to stay up to date!

Global Entrepreneurship Week in Review

This last week was Global Entrepreneurship Week in Albuquerque and, like last year, there was a huge number of events to participate in.

Some of the big news from the week:

The launch of SINC, Social Impact through the Nonprofit Community, (@SINC_NM), Albuquerque’s first incubator for non-profits.
Expansion of ABQid (@goABQid) into Santa Fe with the SFid.
Village Capital: This is Albuquerque – YouTube Video promoting Albuquerque. I had no idea we are credited with the creation of the Sopapilla’s in North America! Really we are done here, not sure why we are trying to invent more things we can never top that…
2015 State of the City Address – Transcript, lots of talking points and great information here.

There were a bunch of competitions throughout the week, here are all the winners I could dig up:

InnovateHER (11/13/15)

The SBA and Microsoft offer a prize competition for products and and services that impact and empower the lives of women and families.

As Girls Grow ($2000)
Teeniors ($1000)
Etkie ($500)

STC.UNM Elevator Pitch Competition (11/13/15)

UNM Students pitch their technology and business ideas in 90 seconds to a live audience. There were five winners each getting $2500.

Gregory Allen and Danielle Fox – Trade Square
Jacob Collison – evaporation technology
Rebekah Hartenberger – Personal Attack Warning System
Zeke Chavez – Crowd Tank
Alexandra Luna – FoodEze

Startup Weekend Albuquerque (11/13/15 – 11/15/15)

54 hour event to form a team, share an idea, and create a pitch for a new company.

Albuquerque Mayor’s Prize (11/17/15)

A prize for groups helping to support the creation and growth of new companies in the city. $200,000 worth of prizes.

Scrappy Startup Challenge (11/17/15)

A 3 minute pitch contest in Santa Fe. Winners can get badges to SWSX, legal consulting, marketing consulting, free rent at Fat Pipe and mentoring.

Village Capital Water 2015 (11/18/15)

A Washington DC based business accelerator that did a 4 month program here in Albuquerque to help bring ideas and products to market to solve water issues. Two $50K prizes were awarded.

Emrgy (Georgia)
Aquees (Maryland)

I probably missed some, but an exciting week. Check out Eric Renz-Whitmore’s recorded periscope interviews from GEW ABQ.