Greg Gottesman at Startup Weekend

Startup Weekend, the Seattle-based non profit which coordinates 54-hour startup marathons at locations across the globe, has formed a new board with leading venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and execs from the Kauffman Foundation.

New members include Carl Schramm, CEO of The Kauffman Foundation;  Steve Blank, an entrepreneur and professor at Stanford and Berkeley;  Greg Gottesman, managing director at Madrona Venture Group and a frequent Startup Weekend participant; Brad Feld, co-founder of TechStars and managing director Foundry Group; Laura McKnight, President & CEO of the Great Kansas City Community Foundation; and Nick Seguin, manager of entrepreneurship at The Kauffman Foundation.

Startup Weekend organizers Marc Nager and Jennifer Cabala

“A couple of years ago we were just 3 guys in a condo trying to make rent pursuing an audacious dream, and these were the people we dreamed of just talking to,” said Startup Weekend’s Marc Nager. “It’s been an incredible journey so far. We’ve got an incredible team, passionate and ready to make the next steps, and  I couldn’t imagine a more accomplished team to help us continue to discover and achieve our amazing potential.”

The organization also is sharing additional details about the Startup Foundation, which is a new community-based program supported by the Kauffman Foundation and designed to support entrepreneurship. We first wrote about the Startup Foundation — which is researching and mapping the startup ecosystems in eight cities — last month.

To date, Startup Weekend has hosted 295 events with more than 2,450 startups created. The organization has become truly global, with upcoming events planned for Tunisia, Slovakia, Brazil and other locales.

A Startup Weekend with an education focus will take place in Seattle at the University of Washington this weekend, with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and entrepreneur Mitch Kapor serving as guest speakers.

Editor’s note: GeekWire is a media sponsor of Startup Weekend EDU in Seattle.

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