Hosted by Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University

Welcome to the event site for the Small Business Mini-Hackathon at Tufts! This event aims to convene students across the greater Boston area who are interested in building small businesses. In five hours, you will meet fellow innovators and entrepreneurs, form teams, brainstorm ideas for possible businesses to build, and select one to develop and pitch.

You will be guided throughout this process by volunteer mentors and subject matter experts. You will also have the option to accelerate your progress with AI.

You will be delivering a 3 minute pitch of your business idea, including specific steps that you will take to further investigate this idea, at the end of the event to a panel of experts for a lightning round of Q&A and feedback. There will also be an audience vote for the favorite team of the day. Winners will take home care packages featuring products from Tufts student- and alumni-run small businesses.

Location

Remis Sculpture Court, Aidekman Performance Center, Tufts University. Enter through the side entrance at 40 Talbot

Event format

The event will have six main segments:

We will launch the challenge prompt: build a small business in 4 hours. We will help you meet each other and form teams through a structured networking activity. Each team will be matched with a mentor who will work with you through the rest of the day.
Teams will then brainstorm ideas for small businesses to build and choose one for further development. They will share their idea with their mentor and get feedback and advice.
Teams will develop the solution and the go-to-market strategy which builds up their business case. They will share their business case with their mentor.
Teams will develop and practice their pitches with their mentors as needed.
Teams will deliver their 3 minute pitches to expert judges for a lightning round of Q&A and feedback. Every participant will be provided with a physical token for an audience favorite vote.
We will close the event with networking and snacks.

Intellectual Property Policy: “Open by default”

Any intellectual property developed during and within the scope of the hackathon must be open source and licensed under one of the licenses referenced in **https://opensource.org/licenses”.**

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