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United States of America

Grand Rapids

391 Group Members

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About

ABOUT STARTUP GRIND

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 3,500,000 entrepreneurs in over 600 chapters. We nurture startup ecosystems in 125+ countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Amazon Web Services.

The cornerstone of our global community are monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. 

Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, connect with strategic partners, and secure funding.

OUR MISSION

To educate, inspire & connect area entrepreneurs.

OUR VALUES

Help others before we help ourselves, give before we take, make friends not contacts.

ABOUT OUR CHAPTER

Founded in December 2019, the West Michigan / Grand Rapids chapter of Startup Grind acts as the connective tissue between all the great resources in our community. 

As such, we are here for those who are trying to navigate the landscape of great resources available. 

We also serve to contribute to the conversation as we all work to grow our entrepreneur and startup ecosystem.

GLOBAL STARTUP GRIND AWARDS

🎉🔥 GLOBAL CHAPTER DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2021 🚀🕺

🚀 Overachiever Award at the Global Director's Summit 2021
🚀 The Most Fun to Work With Award at the Global Director's Summit 2021
🚀 The Bull Award at the Global Director's Summit 2021
🚀 Chapter Director of the Year at the Global Director's Summit 2021

ABOUT OUR ECOSYSTEM

There are some incredible people, public and private organizations, and nonprofits working very hard to ensure the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem in the Great Lakes is well supported.

Whether you're in the ideation stage, fundraising, looking for talent, or whatever stage of your endeavor, there's some incredible support available.

Need help navigating? Reach out!

ABOUT OUR REGION

The Great Lakes region is no longer the best-kept-secret in tech. 

Encompassing great talent and capital hubs around the Great Lakes, we've got powerful tech cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, St. Louis, Detroit, Buffalo, Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Waterloo, Toronto, among others.

According to the 2021 Michigan Venture Capital Association Report:

OUR TALKS

We highlight local CEOs, Founders, ecosystem builders, thought leaders for Fireside Chats. We also host workshops from expert practitioners around branding, scaling, leadership, pitching, mindset... and also on to develop skills you can use IN the business.

Here's a list of some of our greatest events featuring those from our Michigan ecosystem:

HUNTING FOR SILVER LININGS

Through our event series Hunting for Silver Linings, we check in with ecosystem builders, investors, thought leaders from around the world.

Our goal is to provide deeper context around challenges and opportunities found in markets around the world, as well as mine the insight that can better inform our biases about regions, their talent, and potential for investment.

There is no shortage of programming around founders, startups, and investors, but not much about ecosystems and those who make them work. We fill that gap.

Since April 2020, we've hosted over 150 conversations, and have been able to make meaningful connections between investors, companies, founders, and ecosystem support organizations.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Y G Katsanos | Associate
Beneventure Partners

A former investment banker, Yorgo (George) has experience in advising companies, financial institutions, institutional investors, and governments on innovation, change management, and growth.

Corey Hart | Chapter Director
Startup Grind

As an investor, incremental CxO, and advisor, Corey helps firms and entrepreneurs move from ideation to market, and market to scale. Learn more here and find him on ALL socials, Telegram & WhatsApp at @coreythehart.

WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

If you're a Startup Grind Chapter Director, ecosystem support organization, domain expert, or investor interested in speaking, click here to schedule.

OUR ECOSYSTEM BUILDERS & THOUGHT LEADERS

Some of our favorites SG Chapter Director discussions so far include check-ins with:

And Some of our favorite thought leader conversations around ecosystem building are:

The complete list of events is found below, and they're all incredibly insightful in uncovering great detail into what it's like on the ground and an intro to how to build network and leverage opportunity in each.

You can also find a searchable and sortable list here.

HOW YOU CAN HELP SG GRAND RAPIDS?

We need:

Reach out to the Chapter Director, Corey Hart at corey@startupgrind.com.

Upcoming Event

Past Events

Organizers

  • Corey Hart, Startup Grind

    Corey Hart, Startup Grind

    Startup Grind

    Chapter Director

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  • MEGAN J. NORTON

    MEGAN J. NORTON

    M. J. Norton Consulting

    Co-Director

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  • Stephanie Gonda

    Stephanie Gonda

    Start Up Grind Grand Rapids

    Chief of Staff

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  • Nikki Meeuwenberg

    Nikki Meeuwenberg

    Events Manager

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  • Connor Hicks

    Connor Hicks

    Startup & Venture Capital Intern / HSL Producer

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    • Chapter Photos