Startup Games is an
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
-based non-profit that hosts a series of events centered on competition between tech startups in games common to startup culture. Founded in 2012, the organization holds several annual competitions, with each company playing on behalf of a charity of their choice.
History
Past events
Startup Games was founded in 2012 with the original name of Austin Startup Olympics. The inaugural games were held on January 21, 2012 at uShip’s headquarters and featured Adlucent, Boundless Network, BuildASign,
Mass Relevance
Khoros, formerly Spredfast + Lithium, is a global customer engagement software company that provides online community management, social media marketing, social media analytics, digital care, and content management software and services to ente ...
(now part of
Spredfast
Khoros, formerly Spredfast + Lithium, is a global customer engagement software company that provides online community management, social media marketing, social media analytics, digital care, and content management software and services to ente ...
),
SpareFoot
SpareFoot is an Austin-based company that provides listings for self-storage units. The company was originally a person-to-person model, similar to Airbnb, that later developed into a marketplace for self-storage. The company now facilitates self ...
,
Spredfast
Khoros, formerly Spredfast + Lithium, is a global customer engagement software company that provides online community management, social media marketing, social media analytics, digital care, and content management software and services to ente ...
,
uShip
uShip, Inc. is an Austin, Texas-based Internet company that operates uShip.com, an online marketplace for shipping services. Individuals and businesses post items they need shipped in a variety of categories, including auto transport, boat shipp ...
and
WhaleShark Media (now
RetailMeNot
RetailMeNot, Inc. (formerly Whaleshark Media) is an American multinational company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that maintains a collection of coupon web sites. The company was founded by Cotter Cunningham. The company owns RetailMeNot.com and ...
). uShip won the inaugural Startup Games competition.
The organization’s only Summer Games edition took place on June 9, 2012. BuildASign was the winning team.
SpareFoot
SpareFoot is an Austin-based company that provides listings for self-storage units. The company was originally a person-to-person model, similar to Airbnb, that later developed into a marketplace for self-storage. The company now facilitates self ...
won the next three Austin editions of Startup Games from 2013 to 2015, playing for Kure It Cancer Research.
Startup Games held its first Startup Games: Level Up event on April 11, 2015. This event is for companies larger than 250 employees.
BuildASign was the winning team.
Impact and growth
To date, Startup Games has donated more than $175,000 to charities and is expanding to other startup communities, with San Antonio, New York and Chicago scheduled for 2015.
Leadership
Startup Games was founded as a collaboration between the eight original competing companies. It has since been independently incorporated as a non-profit company with one of the founding members, Gillian Wilson, serving as President.
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Startup Games Official WebsiteStartup Games Media Links
American companies established in 2012
Companies based in Austin, Texas
Video game companies based in Texas