Gearing up for the StartupHPC Meetup at SC14

Cydney Ewald Stevens writes that attendees of the upcoming StartupHPC Meetup at SC14 are in for amazing day of helpful content on Nov. 17 in New Orleans.

Cydney Ewald Stevens, Director, StartupHPC

Cydney Ewald Stevens, Director, StartupHPC

In the initial planning for the gathering there was no shortage of topics – especially for an event focused entirely on entrepreneurs, STEM and HPC but for the premier of StartupHPC the final plan was to simply focus on an interactive exchange on the entrepreneur’s essentials with experienced experts.

As the participants can attest, while it may be easier to become a start-up now more than ever before it’s still hard – but what makes that start-up path a little bit easier is having time with successful people – ones who have gone through it themselves. That is the spirit of StartupHPC and of the community!

It’s individual’s like Rich Brueckner, himself. Readers (you) know him as the Red Hat behind insideHPC, as the ‘voice’ of Big Data. What you should also know is that Rich is a successful start-up, including his inside-Startups publication. He’s also one of the inspirations behind StartupHPC, our first ever sponsor, and collaborative partner throughout our professional careers. Rich epitomizes the spirit of this community that’s why we were delighted when he accepted as panel moderator for the Exec Q&A.

Rich leads the interactive exchange with top start-up execs Jason Stowe of Cycle Computing; Leo Reiter of Nimbix; and John Melonakos of Arrayfire as they share their insights, experiences and wisdoms of building and sustaining success alongside emerging start-up founders Kevin Canady, who’s been working on a stealth new storage company; and juvenile serial entrepreneur Thomas Sohmers who, like Canady and all his seniors, promises to challenge the ‘systems’ landscape with the launch of Rex Computing. So while you prepare your questions for anyone of these humble (and humbling) meet-up participants, don’t forget that even resident editor Rich is a ‘rich’ target for your Qs too!

Leading off the forum will be host, Orion Advisor CEO, StartupHPC cofounder, Shahin Khan along with his Orion Partner Steve Campbell who are both recognized visionaries and successful serial entrepreneurs. Campbell is the official meet-up MC and will also offer up his crash course on the start-up framework he’d originally developed for UCSD. Khan and Campbell are bringing along expert IP attorney Brad Gersich, from the Silicon Valley offices of world-renowned law firm DLA Piper, who will be going deep on patent and incorporation law. The day will also include recognizable industry influencers like Intersect 360 founder Addison Snell who will guide discussions on market insights and trends.

Between the format and content of the meet-up – it’s coming together more as a MBA mastery day presented by a faculty of experienced doers!

So whether you’re thinking about leaving or have already left the safety of an academic or corporate security blanket to start up a start up the opportunity to learn from the wisdom and experience of others is important. It’s also what we may need to simply prompt us to our own action.

Or simply asking or finding out the answer to some basic questions … what do these guys read? Who do they follow? What or who are ‘credible’ sources? How/when do they engage with the attorneys, VCs, marketing companies … etc etc etc? What were the toughest barriers? Still? What was the biggest surprise? What does ‘success’ mean? Why did they take such a huge leap and giant risk … why did they choose a start-up path versus staying on a path of least resistance?

A lot of things led to the formation of StartupHPC but in the seven years since COMPETES was enacted into law, the idea that we still struggle with creating the broad awareness and importance of encouraging STEM programs, professionals, students, entrepreneurs and their success! But we do!

That’s another big reason we’re bringing people together and why we’re particularly honored to be the biggest little major event to feature industry influencers Dan Olds and Elizabeth Leake and spotlight their incredible STEM based activities!

Dan’s of course the voice of the Student Cluster Challenges – championing the collegiate cluster competitions and undergrad teams with exclusive coverage as the teams compete throughout the US, Europe and Asia. In collaboration with Dan and through his outreach to campus communities worldwide we see a great opportunity for StartupHPC to be another access point to surface, source and showcase emerging talent and ideas that are in high demand across industries and are critical to being and remaining competitive and successful – both domestically and globally!

And where the academic friendly ends ongoing educational philanthropy begins with another in our exclusive spotlights with Elizabeth Leake, the founder of STEM Trek, a non-profit organization that supports ongoing learning through sponsored travel and conference attendance for STEM practitioners. She’s also the SC14 co-chair of the Broader Engagements initiative. If you don’t know about either of these outreach programs come meet-up with Elizabeth personally and find out more! Because there’s a lot of programs like SCC, BE and STEM Trek that can open paths to your own future and success!

StartupHPC is a gathering of change agents – from their back stories to their start-up success stories the Monday meet-up promises to be initimate, inspiring and informative. Join the meet-up to ask and learn why each of these remarkable individuals intentionally threw caution to the wind … to free fall … to StartupHPC themselves!

Register now for the StartupHPC Meetup at SC14.