Venture Mechanics' Scalathon events are unique. Unlike a hackathon, where the goal is to develop code over a weekend, in a Scalathon diversely-talented teams try to solve major real-world problems, by crafting venture-scale business plans optimized for scalability, monetization, and investor readiness. Instead of demonstrating your code at the end, you'll be presenting your compelling business plan to a panel of VCs to see which team has come up with the biggest venture-scale business idea.
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This Central Washington rendition of the Scalathon will focus on sectors where the region excels, such as industrial symbiosis and waste-to-energy, agtech, rural health technology, etc. In truth, this Scalathon is sector agnostic - even AI companies can participate - but we'd like to see as much leverage of the regions resources and domain expertise as possible.

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Format Overview
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• Length: 48 hours (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
  
  
• Participants: Teams of 3-6 (encouraged to mix business, technical, and domain expertise, ensuring diversely-talented teams)
  
  
• Goal: Develop a robust, investor-ready business plan for a scalable AI startup tackling a significant problem, and deliver a great pitch
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• Guest Mentors: Experienced mentors and investors from the Venture Mechanics Catapult Accelerator will roam room-to-room throughout the day Saturday and up until the competition begins on Sunday afternoon. They will touch base with the co-founders and see how their ideas are coming along, providing constructive suggestions to move their ideas forward. You can see guest mentor "office hours" at the end of this page.

Who can be a "Founder" at a Scalathon

Absolutely anyone with an idea from a problem to attach can stand up on Friday evening to pitch their idea, and pull together a team of 4-6 diversely talented individuals.
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If you are currently running a very early stage startup as a solopreneur or with no more than one co-founder, you can pitch your own existing startup as a team. Such teams will be judged separately from the "raw concept" teams.
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Key Activities & Flow
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DAY 1: FRIDAY — KICKOFF & IDEATION

• 5:00pm Registration and Networking
  
  
• 6:00pm Opening Keynote:
  Key Innovation Sectors in Central Washington That Can Promise "Venture Scale"
  Speaker or Panel, TBA

• 7:00pm Problem Space Insights: “Founders” will take the microphone and describe the problem space they are thinking about, and solicit co-founders to approach them to discuss its merits.  Potential “co-founders” will then network with founders in the room and brainstorm to identify large, meaningful problem spaces where AI can be transformative. Conference rooms will be available for breakout whiteboarding sessions.
  
  
• 8:30pm Team Formation: Initial “co-founders” will take the stage to describe the problem space they want to attack, and solicit the additional co-founders they still need to complete their teams.
  
  Ideal team formation will include at least one of the following:
  
  • An experienced ClimateTech technologist
  • A Go To Market (GTM) expert, aka “growth hacker”
  • A domain expert in the problem space

DAY 2: SATURDAY — BUILD & VALIDATE

• 9:00am Doors open
  
  
• 9:30am: Team registrations and room assignments
  
  
• 10:00am How to Build a Fundable Venture-Scale Business Plan with Venture Mechanics' CEO Ron Wiener. This is a customized version of Venture Mechanics' bi-monthly workshop Is My Startup Venture Fundable tuned for Climate Solutions startups.
  
  

• 11:00am Teams Get To Work on:
  
  
  • Market Analysis & Sizing
  • Monetization Model
  • Competition & Differentiation
  • Go-to-Market Strategy
  • Exit Strategy
    
    
• Guest Mentors: Experienced mentors and investors from the Venture Mechanics Catapult Accelerator will roam room-to-room throughout the day to touch base with the co-founders and see how their ideas are coming along, providing constructive suggestions to move their ideas forward.
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DAY 3: SUNDAY — FINALIZE & PRESENT

• 9:00am Doors open
  
  
• 9:30am Teams sign up for a time slot to practice their pitches with pitch coaches
  
  
• 10:00am Teams get their 25 minutes to pitch their deals to coaches in the Airbus Room (10 minutes to pitch, 15 minutes for feedback)
  
  
• 2:00pm Teams submit their final pitch deck to missioncontrol@venturemechanics.com.
  
  
• 3:00pm Team Presentations (10-min pitch + Q&A) to the investors on the judging panel.
  
  
• 5:30pm Awards
  
  • Teams are separated into two groups for judging: "raw concept" teams first, and the "existing solopreneur and duopreneur" teams.
  • Judges will announce their top selections for the most scalable startup ideas
  • Audience will crowdvote for their top selections
  • Prizes awarded
    
    
• 6:00pm -7:00pm Networking reception
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DETAILS‍

• Meals provided:
  • Pizza at 7pm Friday
  • Light dinner and adult beverages Saturday 6pm-7pm
  • Appetizers and adult beverages Sunday 6pm-7pm

MOST IMPORTANT

Upon registration, participants will receive the Scalathon Guide, which will lend insights on how to best prepare for the event, what the judging rubric will be, and other details. We recommend registering as soon as possible as space will be limited.

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