Page 37 - Flathead Beacon // 8.27.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM AUGUST 27, 2014 | 37 STARTUP WEEKEND PREVIEW
BUSINESSMONTHLY FROM SCRATCH
TO STARTUP IN
54 HOURS
Glacier Startup Weekend, Sept. 19-21, will have participants create a working business in one weekend
BMy MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
any business ideas only take flight under the right circumstances. For more than 100 entrepre-
neurs, that magic mixture might just be working with a team of strangers and business experts all under one roof for a weekend.
Glacier Startup Weekend will hit Kalispell on Sept. 19 through Sept. 21 at Flathead Valley Community College, where more than 120 par- ticipants will gather to pitch entre- preneurial ideas, form teams and get those startups off the ground, all in 54 hours.
It’s an experience that defies de- scription, according to Mike Kazmier, who was a major driving force behind bringing a Startup Weekend to the Flathead.
Kazmier founded Avail Media in 2003 in Kalispell, and the business went on to become the largest inde- pendent digital media services com- pany in North America. By 2009, the
company was known as Avail-TVN after a merger, and when Kazmier re- tired from the company last Decem- ber, it had about 500 employees and over $100 million in revenue.
As a successful businessman, Ka- zmier knows what it takes to build an idea from the ground up, and the years of work needed to develop the fledg- ling business.
But there’s an energy about the be- ginnings of startups that draws him to events like Startup Weekend, he said.
“I love the startup space,” Kazmier said. “It’s a ton of fun. There’s always something new every day. There’s nothing routine about it.”
Kazmier had been to a couple Startup Weekend events, and real- ized it should happen in the Flathead. Startup Weekend is an international movement, with roots in Seattle but organizers moving in more than 200 cities worldwide.
He started the ball rolling on a Flathead Startup Weekend two years ago.
“We have a great critical mass of
See Startup PAGE 39
Mike Kazmier is helping bring Startup Weekend Glacier to the Flathead Valley.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON