Around this time last year, we were graced with “The 12 Days of TechStars,” a video that proved entrepreneurs can, indeed, sing. Yet, where did all that holly jolly talent go?
With a new holiday season upon us, there’s no better way to prepare than by warming up those vocal cords, dusting off any nearby instruments and tuning up the neighbor’s unicycle all in the name of charitable competition. The first-ever Techies Got Talent is welcoming “startup nerds” to the stage in an “American Idol” battle royale of gifted greatness.
The entertainment will be kicking off at Foundry24 this Thursday, November 29th, at 7:00 p.m. Thirteen acts (below) will be doing their best to wow the crowd, whether by “magical melodies,” karate moves or the musically-inclined like.
Three of the city’s most well known personalities will be filling in the seats of reality TV’s Paula, Randy and Simon—Tom O’Keefe, better known as @BostonTweet; HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Evangelist @Pistachio, Laura Fitton; and TechStars Boston Managing Director Katie Rae. According to talent show co-host Harvey Simmons, EverTrue’s dean of marketing affairs, Katie Rae will be the Simon of the trio and, undoubtedly, the hardest to impress.
Fellow co-host Kelly Rice, the marketing manager at Kinvey and voice behind last year’s TechStars tune, started cooking up Techies Got Talent earlier this year after finding herself in countless conversations over a shared love of music.
“After realizing my instinctual suggestion—‘Let’s start a band!’—was hardly feasible for a group of busy startup folks, a small seed was planted in my brain,” Rice says. “There must be a ton of musical, and other such talents, in the startup scene that I bet no one really knows about.”
And what better way to highlight those talents than by putting together a talent show?
Fellow organizers include Boston Startup School’s Community Manager Kelly McDonald, Saverr’s Community Manager Matt DiStefano and the CEO and Founding Alchemist of Indie Ambassador Ben Maitland-Lewis.
The tickets are priced at a $5 suggested donation. All proceeds will benefit One Laptop per Child, whose mission is to “empower the world's poorest children through education.” To Simmons, that also means “enabling the most disadvantaged to discover their talents and to flourish with the help of tech”—a quality also reflected in this talent show.
To register, click here. And don’t forget to follow the fun on Twitter, with the hashtag #TGT12.
The performers are listed below, with commentary from the Techies Got Talent team. Oh, and because you’ve all missed “The 12 Days of TechStars,” well, you’re welcome.
