5th Annual Dayton Techstars Startup Weekend
April 2, 2026
On Friday, April 10, Techstars Startup Weekend kicks off its 5th annual event in Dayton, at Dayton’s Arcade Innovation Hub. Startup Weekend is a great place to connect with passionate people driven to build something new. There is no better place to meet new friends, colleagues, mentors, cofounders, and investors. Over an action-paced three days (54 hours!), participants will have the opportunity to meet mentors, investors, cofounders, and sponsors who can show them how to get things done.
Techstars Startup Weekend aims to bring together motivated, passionate individuals with shared interests to collaborate and take action by fostering learning, building connections, bridging different skill sets, uncovering potential, and turning ideas into tangible outcomes.
The event kicks off Friday evening with dinner and networking. Afterward, people can pitch their business ideas. Those ideas are voted on, and the pitches receiving the most votes are the ones worked on for the weekend. After that, attendees are broken into teams, and at 9:30 pm on Friday, the work really begins.
A full day of workshops, mentoring, and paradigm-shifting informational sessions comes on Saturday. Sunday morning, all attendees return to continue working with their teams and mentors, finalizing their presentations, which are given on Sunday afternoon. When it’s all said and done, there’s an afterparty at a local brewery to celebrate everyone’s hard work.
“Startup Weekend truly blew my socks off!” said Annie Alexander, of Cedarville University. “It’s so cool to see what we’ve accomplished in a short amount of time. Everyone’s confidence has grown, and abilities and skills have grown as well.” Micha Hermiller from The Modern School of Design added, “I didn’t realize we were actually going to be making a company, and the fact that we’ve done it, too, it just blows me away!” When asked for her thoughts, Army Sutanningsih, a Sinclair College student, summed up her experience by saying, “This is a really amazing program, especially for young people who are interested in being an entrepreneur. You meet a lot of people, get networks, get new ideas — this is cool!”
Registration for this year’s Techstars Startup Weekend are available here. The registration cost covers attendance, 6 meals, Startup Weekend swag, access to the Arcade Innovation Hub workspaces for the weekend, mentorship, ice cream, and more!
