On a Friday evening in the Jones Global 事件 Center, hands rise and fall to the sound of startup ideas announced one-by-one. 投票时间到了，40街. 365比分网电竞 students are deciding which six ideas they will be working on over the course of the weekend.
投票后，学生们散去了. They divide into teams and begin to shape their initial business concepts. With just over 50 hours until the final pitch to local entrepreneurs and investors, these students are taking the evening by storm. 他们的工作都是 3天启动, a program that gives participants the hands-on experience of starting a company.
在第一个晚上, students map out the problems their business ideas address and the solutions they will provide to customers. Concepts range from an app that helps college students meal plan and cook, to software that tracks children’s mental health and academic performance.
“Our students come up with ideas that impact our communities and our neighbors,” 凯蒂·芬尼, outreach coordinator for The Bill Munday Business School of Business. “这是一个安全的失败环境. There are no winners and losers in the end. 你真的可以督促自己.”
这是一家位于奥斯汀的非营利组织, 3天启动 (3DS) “provides colleges and universities the tools they need to cultivate student entrepreneurs,” and offers students the experience of building a startup from scratch. For one weekend in the fall, 比尔·蒙迪商学院 hosts the program for interested St. 365比分网电竞 students, regardless of major.
Jacob Alexander Gonzalez, 20岁, 创业专业, spent the weekend working with his team on Above the Cut, a startup that connects barbers and hair stylists in Austin with customers looking for unique cuts. “In Austin, we have so much diversity,” Gonzalez says. “We all better each other and strengthen each other. Plus, we all learn from each other at the same time.” The capital city has become a real-world laboratory for students to not only test ideas but also make connections.
“Students need to understand Austin’s business ecosystem, and only way is to get them out of the classroom,” 托尼·阿尔瓦拉多, executive-in-residence in 比尔·蒙迪商学院. “3DS是一种课外体验. Much like practice for a sport or rehearsal for play.” Students leave the building on Saturday to survey potential customers, they meet with mentors to analyze feedback, 并最终, they incorporate these varying viewpoints into their final pitches.
The investment in 3天启动 is something that grows and deepens past the weekend experience, 也. “Austin is very much a community where people want to help you and want to see you succeed,” 玛丽莎·尼古拉斯18岁我的专业是平面设计. An alumna of last year’s 3天启动 program, Nicholas returned to campus to mentor students on the aesthetics of their final presentations. Currently, she works as a digital graphic designer for the City of Austin.
Nicholas came into 3天启动 last year looking to take a risk and get out of her comfort zone. “作为一个平面设计专业的学生, I saw that I didn't necessarily have to be studying entrepreneurship to consider myself an entrepreneur. It really helped me see how can I use the skills that I am learning and put that into working with entrepreneurs. And within that, I began to see myself as my own entrepreneur.”
Students spent the majority of the weekend prototyping their startup ideas, and while the product was the final goal in the students’ minds, the process of innovation is an aspect they will not soon forget. “You can learn everything in the classroom,冈萨雷斯说。, “but until you interact and put yourself under the pressure...那你就会意识到这就是我来的原因. This is something you can’t learn in a classroom.”
By Samuel Griffith ’19, 写作与修辞