Last week, Rhode Island Startup Week returned for its seventh iteration since the event began as Rhode Island Startup Day in 2019. With over 60 events, the initiative seeks to further cultivate the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The week-long showcase, which was launched in its current form in 2020 by Rhode Island’s Innovation Hub, featured a lineup of educational programs, networking events, competitions and university exhibitions. RIHub is “an economic development engine” for “high-growth startups,” according to Annette Tonti, the organization’s managing director.
Tonti and RIHub board members were inspired to create the statewide event after visiting the Phoenix Startup Week in early 2020, Tonti said.
She estimates up to 1,200 people participated this year, with attendees ranging from entrepreneurs to investors to government officials.
“Our big event for the week is the Newport Investor Summit,” Tonti said, in which hundreds of investors can interface with 36 up-and-coming startups looking to raise money, gain attention and form industry connections. R.I. Startup Week also hosted a “Calamari Tank” event, an entrepreneurial competition based on the hit TV show, “Shark Tank.”
For Evan Sargent, who helped found TechWalk Rhode Island chapter, R.I. Startup Week was a convenient way to launch a TechWalk chapter in Rhode Island. Founded by Christine Farrier Rosemin in New York City, TechWalk began during COVID-19 to give the city’s technology community an opportunity to network outdoors. The initiative started in Central Park and has since grown into a “really amazing community” that spans cities across the United States, Sargent told The Herald.
Sargent also enjoys the active approach that TechWalk takes to networking. “I don’t love networking events that are just around drinking and food,” she explained. She enjoys that TechWalks allow her to move around while engaging with new people, adding that “it’s like a way to be in your body and not just in your head.”
Subham Kumar Das, a software and artificial intelligence engineer, decided to attend TechWalk because a “good walk never hurt anyone.” He thought the walk would be an opportunity to meet others in the local tech industry.
Das believes it is “very difficult to find a startup company” in Providence, as most big software companies reside in New York and Boston, which he described as “the networking effect.”
“It’s easier to find talent there and connect with more people,” Das said, adding that creators flock to cities with existing startup infrastructure.
In close proximity to the entrepreneurship “powerhouses” of New York and Boston, Tonti said that Rhode Island’s compact nature allows startups to have “access to every part of the state” and connect with the necessary investors early in their startup journeys.
“Rhode Island is very much poised for a giant leap in terms of the rest of the country recognizing that we are a valid, real area for entrepreneurs to come and build their businesses,” Tonti said.
Laila Posner is a senior staff writer covering business and development.
