A Season of Extraordinary Tech Startup Activity Continues in NJ
A Season of Extraordinary Tech Startup Activity Continues in NJ
Winter has been a season of extraordinary tech startup and pre-startup activity in New Jersey this year. Besides the incredible meetups that take place each month in Hoboken, Asbury Park, Somerset, Red Bank, New Brunswick, Princeton and elsewhere– including two new meetups for women entrepreneurs– the state saw its first ever collaboration between journalists and coders in the form of HackJersey, a weekend event at Montclair State University that produced extraordinary results.
There was also a student Hack Week going on at Princeton during that school’s winter break organized by the school’s Entrepreneurship Club and a GobalGameJam weekend in which four colleges in N.J. participated. The New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) hosted its annual Capital Conference which had a new format that gave startups a chance to discuss important ideas with VCs and thought leaders in a small group setting.
The NJTC also began its series of three demo day events which highlight new ideas and nascent startups. The first one at Devry University in Cherry Hill attracted many ideas from the South Jersey tech ecosystem. More demo days are coming in other parts of the state.
The New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network held a poster and pitches event where startups were judged on best pitch, best poster and most fundable. Life sciences and tech ideas abounded. Very early companies (if you can call them that) got a wakeup call to see if they were viable through the Jersey Shore Tech Meetup’s collaboration with IncubateNYC and Lean Startup held another workshop at Mission50 to get N.J.’s tech businesses thinking lean.
NJTechWeekl.com attended many of these events and there will be stories coming out on them in the next few weeks. More events are on their way as winter wanes including Lean Startup Machine’s Newark event March 1-3, 2013 and Startup Weekend at FDU, March 15 to 17. The winner of Startup Weekend will automatically be eligible as a “semi-finalist” for the TechLaunch LaunchPad 2 program. And, the team will receive 2 hours of legal counsel from SorinRand and 2 hours of accounting services from WeiserMazars.
The deadline to apply to N.J.’s tech incubator TechLaunch’s 2nd class is Feb. 22. And all N.J. high school, college and grad students are invited to a Hackathon at the College of New Jersey March 16 and 17.
Have we missed anything? Let us know! NJTechWeekly.com is inspired by the volume of activity happening here! The tech startup ecosystem is bouncing back stronger than ever after Sandy. Keep up the good work!
