The 2015 Austin Startup Games Kicks Off Jan. 24th

A lot has changed since the Austin Startup Games first launched in 2012.

For one thing, it’s no longer called the Startup Olympics. And it’s bigger. The first games had seven teams competing. Sixteen teams competed in the last event and 14 are signed up for this year’s event.

uShip won the first games. Since then, the event has been held three more times including a summer games. SpareFoot won last year’s startup games and earned $23,000 for Kure It, a charity focused on cancer research.

This year, the Startup Games plans to hold events nationwide in other tech centers with the goal of raising $1 million for charity, Josh Baer, co-founder of Capital Factory, told KVUE News earlier this week.

This year’s event will be held at Vintage Innovations’ Innovation Station starting at noon on Jan. 24th. The event is open to the public with a $10 donation and a canned good.

The events usually include foosball, darts, shuffleboard, Pop-a-shot, beerpong, flip cup, connect four and trivia and a special event.

So far, 14 startups have signed up to participate. Those startups include Capital Factory, SpareFoot, uShip, Boundless Network, Headspring, theChive, WPEngine, TrendKite, Buzz Points, OutboundEngine, OneSpot, HomeImprovement Leads, RideScout and Civitas Learning.

“Each company plays for the charity of their choice, and at the end of the event, every charity walks away with money for their organization, with the largest portion of the pot going to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams,” according to the Startup Games.

Here’s a vintage video from the first Startup Games at uShip.