MIAMI UNIVERSITY JOHN W. ALTMAN INSTITUTE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
STARTUP WEEKEND 2022
OCTOBER 14th-16th, 2022
- 00Days
- 00Hours
- 00Minutes
- 00Seconds
What is Startup Weekend?
A weekend for you to test your startup idea or work with another’s, create a business plan, meet new people, and network with successful mentors from across the Midwest!
Startup Weekend is a weekend-long competitive experience where aspiring entrepreneurs, designers, creative thinkers, and engineers come together to produce a viable startup business model.

Have questions? Feel free to reach us at oxford-oh@startupweekend.org.
2022 Conference Mentors
Sarah Chapman
Mechanical engineering bachelors from Miami University and a masters in business administration from University of Central Florida.
Currently working in the field of project management at Vanderbilt University.
Blake Batson
Have worked in Banking, Financial Diligence, and Strategy Consulting at MUFG and Grant Thornton. My experience primarily includes providing buy and sell side diligence to private equity and investment banking clients. Worked extensively with our client to examine their financial statements and provide a report to lenders based on our findings.
Bill Tucker
As an Entrepreneur in Residence at the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami University, Bill supports both students and faculty as they prepare for tomorrow’s entrepreneurial workforce with the creativity and problem-solving skills needed for success.
Jule Kucera
Act One: Positively impact corporate results in the areas of inclusion & diversity, social responsibility, talent management, and learning & development.
Act Two: Write stories that explore the wild and noble territory of the human heart and leave behind a brave and honest map.
Jordyn Zahoransky
Senior Product Designer with over seven years of improving business experiences. I love working at the intersection of design, technology, and business.
Ryaan Ibtisam
Former experience includes working in various financial roles including risk management, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and portfolio optimization.
My diverse background and experiences have allowed me to bring a unique perspective while dealing with clients and solving complex problems.
Josie Dalton
Hi ! I'm a 2017 Miami entrepreneurship grad and program manager at Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub. Flywheel provides accelerator programs, connections and access to capital for startups in the social & environmental impact spaces. The Miami Social Impact Fund is a close partner of ours ! I spend most of my time working with startup founders to help them tackle their specific challenges, from funding to branding to understanding their customer and everything in between. We've supported companies from back-of-the-napkin stage to exit, ranging in business model from SaaS to nonprofit. I look forward to hearing your ideas this weekend and helping you bring them to life !
Jerri LaMirand
As a regional specialist, Jerri is bringing our INCubatoredu program to life in Texas, supporting local teachers and administrators while engaging the community and creating opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. Jerri really is the perfect person for this role — a true leader, a great collaborator, an effective communicator and a real team player.
Tsavo Knott
CEO / Co-Founder Tsavo Knott - technical fundamentalist, built and launched MeshMyCampus ("Slack for universities") from the ground up during college. CS/Design/Entrepreneurship from Miami University of Ohio. Graduated a year early to pursue early stage tech. Community thought leader around web components scalability & web application performance – specifically big data, in limited-compute environments.
Daniel Jones
In addition to his work as Associate Director, Community Engagement and External Relations for the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship, Dan Jones has a 25+ year career in the education technology (edtech) space, working in several startups as well as within Fortune 500 companies. With primary focus on business development and sales, Dan also co-taught the RedHawk Launch Accelerator in the Spring of 2022.
Brandon Jansen
Brandon Jansen is the founder of Jansen Investments. He brings over 22 years of operations and general management experience working with middle-market to Fortune 500 companies. Brandon has expertise working cross-functionally and creating followership while driving operational improvements across complex organizations.
Michael Pope
After over 20 years as an IT Professional, Michael J. Pope Jr had a personal realization. He was the definition of traditional success but was missing deeper meaning in his life. The longtime I.T. Professional had observed that the biggest issues in the workplace had nothing to do with technology, and thus sought training to help him go from Software developer to people developer.
Ryan Jenkins
Ryan Jenkins is a Wall Street Journal Bestselling author, an
internationally-recognized keynote speaker and virtual trainer. His latest book is Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From
Isolated to All In. For a decade, he has helped organizations optimize generational
dynamics, lessen worker loneliness, and prepare for the future of work.
Max McAuley
Principal at Ivy Ventures; formerly - Sr. Associate at Techstars, Strategy Manager at FWS, and M&A Consultant at West Monroe Partners. Miami class of 2016. Currently in Indianapolis after stints in New York City and Chicago. Passionate about working with early stage founders and helping their business get to the next level. Possibly only more passionate about Mac & Joe's.
Julie Alexander
Julie Alexander, Ph.D. is Assistant Teaching Professor in the First-Year Integrated Core in the Farmer School of Business, focusing on business and professional communication. She is passionate about visual, document, and presentation design.
Allie Pearson
Allie is a Senior Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble currently working on building brand strategy for the Herbal Essences business. Prior to her current role, she was a Consumer Researcher on the Baby Care business where she built expertise in identifying consumer problems, collecting and analyzing consumer data, and merging the two to drive decision making.
Brian Munn
Brian leads the lifecycle marketing team at Meetup. His team is in charge of all lifecycle flow touchpoints that help guide users along their stages at Meetup, utilizing a multi-channel approach to increase audience engagement, drive ecosystem activity, and generate new & existing revenue flows, nurturing the growth of an audience of over 50 million. Brian graduated from Miami University in 2016, majoring in Finance and minoring in Entrepreneurship.
Beatrice Newberry
Bea is an Altman Entrepreneurship grad of 2020 and Master’s of Science in Business Management grad of 2021. Her earliest professional years grew from the Institute’s social track: consulting for nonprofits, social enterprises, and worker cooperatives. She now works as a Change Consultant at TiER1 Performance helping companies and their people identify, implement, and sustain large scale shake-ups. Ambiguity lives on!
Lisa McAlister
Lisa McAlister, Founder, With Good Cause, Inc.
Lisa is a communications professional who provides public relations campaign strategy and communications planning to corporate, social enterprise and non-profit clients. Her expertise includes community engagement, mission-driven campaigns, fundraising, media relations, project management and special programming promotion.
Amber Hallmann
Jump In. Create. Splash. Amber’s personal brand is built on the intersection of business and creativity rooted in taking risks, innovation process, and generating impact. Powered by an Entrepreneurial motor, driven by client success and emboldened by escalating challenge, Vice President, Amber Hallmann is L Street’s Innovation-centric Agency Lead.
Geoff Zoeckler
Mark Lacker
Dr. Michael Conger
Dr. Kerri Cissna
Brenda Homan
Dr. Tim Holcomb
David Eyman
Lisa Kuhn
I teach Principles of Marketing, Social Media Marketing and online Community Management as well as Content Marketing here at Miami University. I specialize in creativity, digital marketing, and graphic design.
Chase Dewey
Co founded Evans Capacitor in 1996 to devote and manufacture high reliability, high value components for military and aerospace. As CEO and Chairman of Board, built business for 25 years from inception to >$30M revenue and >$12M EBIT. Successfully sold business to private equity group in 2020. Retired in 2021. Currently independent investor and advisor to start ups and other investment projects.
2022 Speakers coming soon!
Partners & Sponsors











