Our sponsors , partners , volunteers and judges came from Amazon Web Services , Ansys , BlackSky , Blue Origin , First Mode , LeoStella , Lockheed Martin , MXTreality , RBC Signals , The Space Frontier Foundation and Xplore . We had Korean astronaut , Soyeon Yi , as a keynote speaker as well .
In 2019 , in answer to the question of how do we help teams commercialize their Space Apps projects , we ran Seattle ’ s first Techstars Startup Weekend focused on space . Like Space Apps , Startup Weekend is also an intense weekend-long event where the focus is on building the skills for launching a startup and the product is a business . James Burk of the Mars Society joined the effort in 2020 , leading Space Apps through the pandemic years and helping launch the Space Data Hackers monthly meetup in 2021 . In 2022 , James , Sean and I brought all our programs under one non-profit organization : Space Northwest .
In December 2022 , Space Northwest led Seattle ’ s second Techstars Startup Weekend , which was a success across the board .
We saw a mixing of engineers , entrepreneurs , software people and designers . Roughly 60 percent knew space , some having experience at Blue Origin , SpaceX , Boeing or other aerospace and manufacturing . The other 40 percent were engaged with space for the first time . We saw the building of skills and the birth of innovation but more importantly , the creating of community . Of the seven teams that made it through the weekend , there were three companies in the process of exploration two months later , an impressive result for this kind of event .
I started on this journey because I wanted to spread the amazing experience I ’ d had that began with Space Apps in 2015 . I wanted people who love space and didn ’ t know they could be a part of it , to join the mission . For some , it could be just for the fun of a weekend . For others , it could be a turning point in their lives — and maybe bringing their talent into space endeavors could be a turning point for a lot more . I wanted to break down the silos between Seattle ’ s space , startup and tech communities , let the reactants mix and see what would happen .
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