Austin - Community Impact Newspaper

Jakub Felkl
22 | June 2009 Community Impact Newspaper • Northwest Austin Edition
3 Day Startup
Alexander Ross, an exchange student from the University of Bristol studying
mechanical engineering, plans to take 3 Day Startup to the United Kingdom. Here he
is interviewed by Xorje Olivares, the news director at KVRX 91.7 FM during 3DS.
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.
www.HillcrestAustin.org
Hill tA ti
3838 Steck Avenue
Austin, TX 78759
512-345-3771
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.
OPEN HOUSE
July 9 th
6pm to 8pm
Main Campus
(Building A- Lobby)
Concordia University’s
Accelerated Degree Program
For more details visit Concordia.edu/impact or call 512.313.3000.
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CONTINUED ON | 23
By Tiffany Young
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 wellthought
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