Button Butter takes 1st Place at Startup Weekend: Shawnee State

Trent Nettleton and Kade Tomlinson took home 1st Place at SWSS with their team: Button Butter

Earlier this month, the SSU Kricker Innovation hub hosted TechStars Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is an intensive 3-day ideation event held in hundreds of cities across the globe each year.

Participants get hands on experience and learn to live, work, and build like a startup for 54-hours. They pitch initial ideas, form teams, create minimal viable products, conduct customer validation, and pitch in front of a panel of local judges.

Five teams participated in Startup Weekend: Shawnee State. Over the duration of the event, teams worked with local mentors who were able to offer guidance, support, and use their own experiences to provide advice. The 1st place team, Button Butter (comprised of Kade Tomlinson and Trent Nettleton), created a product to clean and lubricate electronic devices.

“Part of the benefit of the mentor interaction was having many good points of view and them showing us things we wouldn’t have thought about for our presentation.”

When asked about their success, Kade and Trent cited the help of this year’s mentors as being key. This year’s mentors included Kelly O’Bryant and Bonnie Barker (ECDI Women’s Business Center of Central Appalachia at SSU), Attorney Matt Seifert, Aaron Kirby and Nathaniel Berger of LIGHTS, and SSU professors Lincoln Pettaway and Jason Lovins.

“The mentors asked great questions and pointed out important things we were missing with our pitch,” said Trent.

“Part of the benefit of the mentor interaction was having so many good points of view and them showing us things that we wouldn’t have thought about for our presentation.”

Button Butter was able to create, test, and showcase their working product in 54-hours. In fact, they tested it in front of the judges during their pitch, which helped cement their victory. Judges for the event included Sean Sturgill, Evan Collier, and Tarrah Bouts.

“Startup Weekend is a great way to get ideas out there and practice the process of creating a real company.”

“Startup Weekend was very beneficial,” said Kade. “There are a lot of people who struggle to meet new people, but this allows you to throw something against the wall, see if it sticks, and network with a lot of great mentors along the way. It’s a great way to get ideas out there and practice the process of creating a real company.”

"I want to thank the Kricker Innovation Hub for organizing this,” said Trent. “I encourage people of all backgrounds to participate in Startup Weekend: Shawnee State in the future…I think a lot of people may think its only for business people or entrepreneurs. But people of all different backgrounds and majors can benefit from this experience.”

The SSU Kricker Innovation Hub will host its 4th Startup Weekend next Spring.

**Photo Credit: Quantum Frame Media - Spencer Toy