Kauffman Foundation’s 1 Millon Cups Heads To Georgetown, Delaware

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The Wednesday morning coffee and networking event called 1 Million Cups, created by the Kauffman Foundation, has added its 10th location and its first northeastern city. It’s not New York, Providence, or Boston. Instead, the latest community to join the 1 Million Cups family is on the Georgetown, Delaware, campus of Delaware Technical Community College. Georgetown, Delaware, sits about 20 miles from the Delaware and Maryland beach resorts.

1 Million Cups began in April 2012 in Kansas City, the hometown of its founding organization, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Kauffman Labs is a program of the Kauffman Foundation.

With its launch on the campus of Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown, 1Million Cups is on target to expand its network to 20 cities by the end of 2013. Program leaders also plan to have at least one international city in the mix this year.

“We are thrilled to welcome Delaware entrepreneurs to the 1 Million Cups family,” Thom Ruhe, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation said in a statement. “Georgetown represents not only our 10th city overall, but it is our first Northeastern community and the first time 1 Million Cups has partnered with a community college. We expect to learn things in this new environment that can be applied as we continue to introduce the program to ever more diverse audiences and locales.”

The 1 Million Cups model is consistent in every market. Every Wednesday morning in each city, two early-stage startups present their companies to a diverse audience of mentors, advisers, and other entrepreneurs. Each founder presents for six minutes and then fields audience questions for another 20 minutes. The program is run entirely by local entrepreneurs who serve as community organizers.

Entrepreneurs, innovators, and interested community members from Georgetown and the surrounding region will meet at 9 a.m. each Wednesday at Java 101 in the Student Service Center on Delaware Technical Community College’s Jack F. Owens Campus. The college also hopes to attract attendees from its other two campuses in the state. The first week’s presenters will be Lead Your Way Solutions, a leadership and organizational development startup, and fast-casual restaurant go brit! fish + chips.

“We’re extremely pleased to be partnering with the Kauffman Foundation to bring 1 Million Cups to the College and to the citizens of Delaware,” said Dr. Orlando J. George Jr., president of Delaware Tech. “We look forward to hosting this very exceptional program at all of our campuses to support entrepreneurs statewide.”

Georgetown joins Kansas City; Des Moines, Iowa; Houston; St. Louis; Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Iowa; Reno, Nev.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Denver; and Chapel Hill/Research Triangle Park, N.C., in offering 1 Million Cups locally. Additional cities slated to launch 1 Million Cups in the next two months are Columbia, Mo.; Lawrence, Kan.; Orlando, Fla.; and San Diego.

1 million cups is great for startups everywhere else, so is this.

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Kauffman Foudation’s Million Cups Now Brewing In Chattanooga

1 Million Cups, Kauffman Foundation, Chattanooga, Startup,startup newsWhile many know Chattanooga, Tennessee for it’s choo choo, the city has actually been on the cutting edge of a lot of things in the startup and technology space. First off, regardless of what anyone says, Chattanooga was the first city in the country to offer 1gb ethernet to residents and businesses city wide. They actually rolled out “the gig” two years ago, a year ahead of Google in Kansas City.

Last year, Chattanooga hosted the first ever startup accelerator focused on “the gig” and appropriately named it the “Gig Tank”. They have a great co-working space called co-lab and a very engaged startup community. In fact they’ve held startup events in Chattanooga attracting some of the biggest Silicon Valley names like Paul Singh.

Now Chattanooga has teamed up with the Kansas City based Kauffman Foundation to bring their 1 Million Cups program to the city. Chattanooga will mark the 7th city nationwide to implement the weekly morning gathering program that is building startups over coffee and conversation.

1 Million Cups began in April 2012 in Kansas City, the hometown of its founding organization, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Foundation leaders intend to expand the 1 Million Cups network to 20 cities by the end of 2013. To support the growth in its partner cities, the Kauffman Foundation also introduces today an enhanced website for the program and microsites for each participating city to share information with local followers.

“We’re thrilled to add Chattanooga to the 1 Million Cups family, because this city is making big strides in entrepreneurship,” said Nate Olson, a Kauffman Foundation associate and co-founder of 1 Million Cups. “Great ideas are found everywhere, and we’re excited to see the startups and community forming in Chattanooga.”

The 1 Million Cups program started in Chattanooga this past Wednesday and featured Chattanooga Whiskey Co., which has had an exciting month. Legislation signed May 16 by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam cleared the way for the company to manufacture its product in the city, and a week later the startup successfully concluded a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign.

Chattanooga’s 1 Million Cups program is being spearheaded by Bill Brock, computational engineer at SimCenter Enterprises and managing director of engage 3D, Andrew Holliday co-founder of Harvest Creative and Allie O’Connell manager of the GigTank accelerator.

“When visiting Kansas City this spring, we were struck by 1 Million Cups’ success in harnessing the energy of the city’s entrepreneurs,” Brock and O’Connell said. “We’re confident the simplicity of this program will resonate with Chattanooga’s growing startup ecosystem and become a weekly ritual for our innovators and entrepreneurs to connect.”

Chattanooga joins Kansas City; Des Moines, Iowa; Houston; St. Louis; Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Iowa; and Reno, Nev. in offering 1 Million Cups locally. Each Wednesday morning in each city, 1 Million Cups gives two early-stage startups the opportunity to present their companies to an audience of mentors, advisers, researchers, builders, makers and other entrepreneurs. Each founder presents for six minutes and then fields audience questions for another 20 minutes.

Interested in attending 1 Million Cups in Chattanooga click here. Want to check it out in another city, click here.

Tennessee is preparing for this huge startup and cultural conference 

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