Gaida Zirkelbach, an attorney in Gunster’s West Palm Beach office, had the opportunity to participate in Startup Weekend West Palm Beach‘s July 18 event as a coach.
Startup Weekend is a nonprofit network of entrepreneurs based in Washington that hosts events around the world, allowing people from any industry to get together and share ideas. The West Palm Beach event was overseen by Startup Palm Beach, an Entrepreneur Resource Center and coworking space located in downtown West Palm Beach.
As a coach at the event, Zirkelbach helped guide, inspire and educate teams of strangers collaborating on a startup idea they hope to bring to life – over the course of a single weekend.
The weekend got started with individual participants pitching their ideas, according to a Palm Beach Post article about the July 18 event. Those pitching the best ideas were then designated team leaders, writer Patricia Potestades wrote. Throughout the process, participants learn how to launch successful startups. The winning team at the end of the weekend is given an opportunity to present to potential investors at a “demo day” the following week.
Zirkelbach was a perfect fit as a coach for emerging entrepreneurs. In her day job, she works as a business and technology attorney at Gunster, where she provides advice on day-to-day operations as well as in response to big-picture type questions, guiding many of her clients from startup stage to an exit event (and everything in between). She says she especially enjoys finding opportunities and managing risk during a client’s high-growth stage.
Read more about the July 18 event: Startup Weekend Palm Beach brings budding entrepreneurs together (The Palm Beach Post, 7/20/14).
