Data & Sources

Machine-readable datasets behind the synthesis, plus how the research was produced.

Datasets

These live in the repo under BACKGROUND/. Links open the file on GitHub.

Asset	File	Rows	Contents
Speakers	people/speakers-database.csv	625	Catalogued speakers across years
Organizations	people/organizations-database.csv	53	Companies and orgs in the ecosystem
Sponsor involvement	people/sponsor-involvement.csv	53	Sponsor participation by year
Sessions	sessions/all-sessions.csv	398	Full session catalog (2018, 2023 deepest)
YouTube	people/youtube-videos.csv	303	Archived TCSW video record
Quantitative master	quantitative/TCSW_Quantitative_Master.xlsx	—	Consolidated metrics
Sponsor master	sponsors/TCSW_Sponsors_Master.xlsx	—	Consolidated sponsor data
Raw captures	raw/	67	Source captures (pre-synthesis)

Archive map

BACKGROUND/
├── README.md                  # In-repo dossier
├── analysis/                  # Master findings, strategic SWOT, operations + platform research
├── history/                   # Year-by-year summaries + complete timeline
├── sponsors/                  # Sponsor database (md/csv/xlsx/pdf), logos, Fortune 500, 2026 tiers
├── investors/                 # VC firms, MN Cup, startups
├── sessions/                  # Session catalogs (csv/json) + recurring signature events
├── people/                    # Speakers, organizations, contacts, sponsor involvement, YouTube
├── media/                     # Coverage database + social intelligence
├── quantitative/              # Consolidated metrics (xlsx/pdf/json) + source PDFs
├── official-site/             # Captures of the live tcstartupweek.com site
└── raw/                       # 67 raw source captures

Methodology

Research used web search, URL content extraction, sched.com archives, and public records. The full process is documented in the repo:

• RESEARCH_METHODOLOGY.md
• RESEARCH_PROMPT_TEMPLATE.md
• SEARCH_SYNTHESIS_WALKTHROUGH.md

Confidence & gaps

All facts derive from public sources: the live site, BETA pages, sched.com archives, regional media (TCB, Star Tribune, Start Midwest), and Medium. Attendance figures for virtual and distributed years are publisher-stated estimates and may be undercounted or rounded. Data gaps remain for 2015, 2016, 2022, and 2024. The complete source list with access status is in analysis/master-findings-report.md.