3 day startup

3 day startup

By Tiffany Young Friday, 26 June 2009

During a downturn, many individuals will try their hand at entrepreneurship. Forty aspiring entrepreneurs attending the University of Texas met at the Austin Technology Incubator at UT’s Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation Building off Braker Lane over a three-day weekend to see if their ideas could lead to a successful business venture.

“3 Day Startup exemplifies what is possible when the brightest students from almost all of the departments of UT-Austin assemble to achieve a common goal,” said Vanessa Castañeda, communications director for the startup event. “We have two explicit goals for the weekend. First, we want to bridge the gaps between the somewhat fragmented entrepreneurship efforts in the individual departments. Second, we want to strengthen the ties between campus entrepreneurship and the Austin startup community at large. That’s why we work with all of the entrepreneurship organizations on campus, in addition to venture capitalists, law firms [and] local technology startups.”

A variety of participants are chosen, ranging from web developers to business and legal students to press and media.

In just one weekend, the students work to transform their idea into a viable business by doing everything from creating logos, checking to make sure the business name has not been taken, creating a business plan and presenting in front of a panel.

“This experience confirmed that I, with others, can be very productive in a very short time,” said Ekaterina Konovalova, a participant in 3DS who designed about 20 logos over the weekend for the business venture FamiGo. “You’ve got so much adrenaline, I didn’t feel tired, even though it was the busiest time in the semester. It gave us a chance to be very creative, but everyone was very polite and cohesive. Everyone was very fast.”

The first day, the students meet one another and brainstorm their ideas in small groups. By Saturday, participants narrow down their ideas and begin focusing on just a few ideas. While designers work on logos, business students go into the community to ask for support for their ideas and developers work on prototypes.

On Sunday, participants focus on their presentation. At 7 p.m., the groups pitch their idea to a panel made up of angel investors (individuals or groups who provide capital for a business startup), press and CEOs, not to see whose ideas are the best, but to see if they are viable in the market place.

This year Adam Dell, a venture capitalist and Michael Dell’s brother, was on the panel. Much like the TV show “The Apprentice,” panelists interrupt as presentations are given to ask questions or discredit ideas, so the presentations must be well-thought out and backed by hard numbers.

One idea from the weekend led to the development of FamiGo, a startup based on using mobile games to bring families together. The startup has five board members, elected by the participants of 3DS, who will be putting the business model into practice over the summer.

“We are going to build a company, and I’m taking it on as a true founder — a full-time job with no cash compensation,” said Matthew Sullivan, a neuroscience Ph.D. student and 3DS, LLC board member. “We are currently tapping into our contacts to find a game developer. This is the most pressing and most important task.”

FamiGo was accepted into Capitol Factory’s mentorship program, a local technology incubator that gives up to $20,000 in cash for basic business infrastructure. In addition to cash, each company in Capitol Factory’s program gets access to a network of mentors, service providers and more than $20,000 in free services, such as banking and brand development. The mentorship program began May 22 and lasts throughout the summer, ending with a “Demo Day” where the five startups chosen by Capitol Factory will present their business to investors.