Providence, RI, September 23, 2021 — Rhode Island organizations, startups, investors, corporations, and students are working together to create Rhode Island Startup Week, the first ever week devoted to celebrating entrepreneurship in the state.Each day, from October 18 – 22, will bring a series of events to highlight innovation and entrepreneurship. You can attend workshops to learn about entrepreneurship, network with founders and investors, and get connected to the exciting growth businesses here in Rhode Island.  Many of the events will be held virtually; however, two startup Showcases, one in Providence and the other in Newport, will provide the opportunity to meet the entrepreneurs who are working to build high growth companies here in Rhode Island.

One of the many highlights of the week includes a new business app being built “live” in one week – normally a 3–6-month effort. The Mullings Group is donating their time and global team to develop an app for one lucky business.   “Our talented team will use our g.o.a.t.SaaS platform to build a business app from scratch under an extremely tight, almost impossible schedule! This is ‘Code Extreme’”, said Keno Mullings, CEO The Mullings Group. “Throughout the day we will check in live with the development team to talk about their progress”. The team members are from across the world including Rhode Island, west Africa and Jamaica.

Rhode Island Startup week will include special events from IBM, Rhode Island Israel Collaborative, Hope & Main, Howell Legal, Adler, Pollock & Sheehan, Cox Business, Verizon, The University of Rhode Island, MassChallenge, NEMIC, SBDC, SEG, CIC, Innovate Newport and many other organizations throughout the state. Each morning Cox Media will present one of their 6 finalists from Get Started Rhode Island. Verizon is sponsoring the Young Entrepreneur series from The Met School. Fan favorite, The Calamari Tank, RI’s version of Shark Tank where audience vote determines which startups will be the Top Calamari, will run on Wednesday Oct 20 at 12 noon.

On Thursday RIHub will host “A Lively Pitch” which will give 20 selected startups the opportunity to pitch to investors invited from across the county.  “Rhode Island Startup Week gives entrepreneurs a chance to show everyone the great businesses entrepreneurs are building  here”, said Adam Alpert, Founder, CEO Pangea.app “Hosting a ‘demo-day’ style pitch event gets our best startups in front of investors from across the country”.

RI Startup Week is the result of a successful RI Startup Day in 2018 that was produced by the Rhode Island Coalition of Entrepreneurs. Last year, RIHub produced the highly

successful RI Startup Weekend. “We are seeing an increase in entrepreneurship activity across the state” said Annette Tonti, Managing Director, RIHub, “This is an important moment to connect the entire innovation ecosystem, our entrepreneurs and the people of Rhode Island in a weeklong celebration of entrepreneurship.

To learn more about RI Startup Week, please visit ristartupweek.com

To learn more about RIHub, please visit RIHub.org.