Startup Experience

Startup OU coordinates pop-up social meetups throughout the year to connect aspiring founders and others interested in exploring the startup ecosystem to community members across Norman and Oklahoma City.

Some meetups may be headlined by a founder, investor, or community partner that leads discussion about an issue impacting local entrepreneurship. Other meetups may be specifically focused on connecting certain groups, like founders to local talent (for team building), investors to founders (for investment), or founders to mentors (for mentorship). Refreshments are provided at all meetups, with alcoholic options offered for purchase through our on-site vendor, 405 Brewing Co.

Programming can be accessed from our registration portal. Click below to register for one or more events.

Events Portal

Pitching the business is one of the most important skills for a founder, because it is how a founder builds buy-in to the idea and the business' potential. Startup OU offers aspiring and early founders opportunities to participate in pitch clinics, where they will pitch the venture (or venture idea) to a public audience of students, faculty, staff and other community members.

Each pitch clinic may focus on a different type of pitch, such as to a potential co-founder, to a prospective team member, to an early customer, or to an investor.

Audience participants will give each founder their dynamic feedback, sharing the elements of the pitch they liked, the elements they did not like, where they might have gotten lost in the idea and, ultimately, whether they respond to the pitch's call to action.

Programming can be accessed from our registration portal. Click below to register for one or more events.

Events Portal

Startup Weekend is a three-day sprint of learning and collaboration where aspiring entrepreneurs can connect with other creators, gain new skills, and start something new. Community members from all backgrounds will get an intense, accelerated look at the entrepreneurial process as they build business plans, marketing strategies and websites, and early prototypes.

Teams are self-organized around the most popular participant ideas and work with expert mentors, including veteran entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders, to build and launch new ventures. The weekend marathon ends with team pitches to a panel of judges for the opportunity to win funding and/or in-kind prizes.

In partnership with local community partners, Startup Week is an annual, week-long event of workshops, speaker events, and social mixers spread out across Norman that connects entrepreneurial students to the local ecosystem.

Startup OU offers a series of training workshops aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and others generally interested in exploring startup opportunities. These skills labs cover several different skills areas, often in one of the following areas: market research, marketing, product/service development, management, finance or legal.

Constructed by the OU Fabrication Lab and managed by Startup OU, students and portfolio founders can reserve a mobile retail front to test startup products and operate small businesses in a real, customer-facing venue.

Borrowing from the "test kitchen" concept, the pop-up venue is an adaptable retail display that any student-led (and portfolio) company can apply to reserve. The open-air, mobile storefront includes six (6) panels constructed from lightweight aluminum frames that interlock with one another to create an adaptable structure. The panels feature clear acrylic window inserts and configurable, wire-framed inserts to hold shelving, posts, racks, and other similar attachments.

Startup OU leverages a speed-networking format to generate several quick power-meetings between students with interesting ideas and students with the skills to execute those ideas. These power-meeting sessions connect entrepreneurial students from across the university to ideas and talent in the university pipeline.

Early founders often struggle to build the right founding team. Our co-founder connection portal is a resource to check out potential founding team opportunities from a roster of aspiring founders and cofounders.

Submit a connection form (as an active or aspiring founder or an aspiring co-founder) by clicking the button below. Responses should upload to our online roster within one (1) day after submission.

Co-Founder Connection Form

Recognizing the critical role mentorship plays in increasing the likelihood of success among early-stage startups, Startup OU partners with community organizations, local government and private businesses to curate a growing and diverse network of industry mentors to provide mentorship and specialized direction to early founders.

Industry mentors are offered flexible participation, allowing mentors control over their level of and frequency of engagement with early founders. Through our ever-growing mentor network, founders have the opportunity to create impactful mentor relationships with others in the local community that have lived experience and can offer insights into Oklahoma entrepreneurship and/or industry dynamics.

Mentors that join our network are supporting the next generation of founders as they explore new ideas and launch new ventures into the state. If interested in joining our mentor network, please take a few moments to complete the form.

Mentor Sign-Up Form

Startup OU supports founders at all stages of the startup process, from idea to launch and after. Our portfolio of engaged founders are often invited to mentor earlier or aspiring founders in one of our launch programs, sharing their experiences from the perpsective of someone who may be a student like them or even just a person who was in the same place a year ago. Peer mentorships occur throughout the year and are available upon request.

Startup OU recognizes connecting with succesful entrepreneurs and professionals and hearing from people that have been through the real experience of being a founder or working in a startup provide lessons that go beyond the classroom. 

Founder Talks offer students the opportunity to engage in lively discussions with featured entrepreneurs, university alumni and industry professionals. These speaker events allow students to deep dive into a speaker's unique experiences and ask questions they would not normally be able to ask. 

Programming can be accessed from our registration portal. Click below to register for one or more events.

Events Portal

In partnership with the Pioneer Library System, the Founder Library is a human library of community entrepreneurs that students and community members can connect with to explore the challenges these entrepreneurs have faced, the tricks they have learned, and why they chose to create something in Oklahoma.

Users can “check out” an entrepreneur for up to an hour and discuss their journey to entrepreneurship, hopefully demystifying the startup process and providing direction to users about how to launch their own business in Oklahoma.