Bellevue isn’t lacking in business startups, and more may be coming out of the woodworks this weekend as the city and Bellevue College host a 54-hour competition that ends Sunday with final pitches by ambitious entrepreneurs to a set of high-level judges.

Startup Weekend Bellevue starts today at City Hall with entrepreneurs, designers and developers being matched into teams with coaches to create the best pitch for a panel of judges in order to win prizes that could push their business concepts closer to reality.

“You’re fully immersing yourself in the startup weekend and the startup culture,” said Jody Laflen, dean of the Institute for Business and Information Technology at Bellevue College. She and several members of her staff will also be coaches to startup teams. “There’s no idea too big or too small, and that’s the exciting part.”

Laflen said in her position she has been looking for ways to create a resource hub for entrepreneurs curious about the startup culture, and colleges have been behind many such successes in cities like Denver, Austin and Charlotte. This first startup weekend will be a good way to gauge how to grow such events in Bellevue in the future, she said.

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