Derek Andersen, founder and CEO of Startup Grind, will share his insights on growing a startup culture when he comes to San Antonio next week to experience the city’s entrepreneurial scene.
Startup Grind is a Silicon Valley-based organization that educates and mentors entrepreneurs through monthly business events and speaker series. The organization’s San Antonio chapter will host Andersen on April 10 at Geekdom, starting at 6 p.m. The event is open to the public, and admission is $7. To sign up, click here.
Andersen launched the Startup Grind community in 2010. In its first two years, Startup Grind was merely a side project with three chapters. It has since expanded to 200 chapters in 98 countries.
Andersen will talk about how he grew his organization into an international community, how it helps local communities foster an environment of startups, and how San Antonio can continue to mature its tech and entrepreneurial scene.
Matthew Espinoza, director of San Antonio’s Startup Grind chapter, will interview Andersen in a trademark “fireside chat.” These conversations between an experienced entrepreneur and an audience of aspiring startup founders have been a feature since the company’s founding, with over 5,000 fireside chats to date.
Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community in the world. It actively educates, inspires, and connects around 1 million entrepreneurs by supporting their mentorship, partnering, hiring, and funding pursuits. Local chapters grow startup ecosystems through events, media outreach, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Entrepreneurs.
“What makes Startup Grind unique is their local impact on the entrepreneurial startup culture,” Espinoza said. “The long-term goal is to educate every entrepreneur in the world.”
An experienced entrepreneur, Andersen founded Vaporware Labs in 2009, a software company that creates fun, useful applications in the social and mobile space. He also launched the professional social network Commonred, which enables its users to start professional relationships with like-minded people. Income.com acquired Commonred in 2012.
Startup Grind is held monthly, usually at the Geekdom Event Centre. The San Antonio chapter was founded in 2013 by Laura Lorek, and its first event featured TechStars San Antonio’s first Managing Director Jason Seats. To date, the local chapter has had 25 fireside chats, with future plans to bring entrepreneurs from outside the San Antonio region.
Next month, Yousef Kassim, CEO of EasyExpunctions will share his experiences as an entrepreneur at Trinity University in a May 2 fireside chat. To sign up, click here.
