Dartmouth's first condensed accelerator program, "3 Day Startup," took place this weekend, with student teams brainstorming, planning and pitching technology startups. Students collaborated across academic backgrounds to go through the initial process of starting a technology company.
The program was sponsored by student accelerator Mitosis in partnership with the entrepreneurship and technology transfer office, which hopes to make this an annual event.
Recruitment started in mid-September, and 23 of roughly 75 applicants were selected to participate in the event. On Friday, individual participants exchanged ideas with each other, then split into six teams focused on similar interests. Participants were then re-sorted into four larger teams before a kickoff workshop where they identified needs encountered in everyday life and potential startups that could utilize technology to meet these needs. Students interviewed declined to describe their ideas in detail because of privacy concerns.
On Saturday, the participants conducted market validation, a research method in which a business conducts a series of interviews with potential consumers that tests a concept's viability in a target market. Later that day, the groups worked on a first draft of a business plan, which outlined the problems their startup ideas would solve. Four mentors from the Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer worked with the groups for two hours to offer advice from an entrepreneurial perspective.
"Teams got really a lot out of this interaction," said Austin Boral '16, one of the program coordinators. "The teams received the contact information of their mentors so they will be able to continue their interaction with the mentors."
On the last day, teams brainstormed how to reach consumers and pitched their businesses.
Dan Whitcomb '16 applied for the program to familiarize himself with the business side of developing a software product.
"I am interested in software venturing, and I was looking forward to getting some experience working with companies and to getting the ideas for something to show to the companies," he said.
Hui Cheng '16 said she wanted to see if she could draw upon her experience working in the public sector in considering entrepreneurship and problem-solving in the private sector.
"I was a little afraid this program would involve a lot of quantitative aspects but it actually did not," Cheng said. "I learned that it is more about creating, implementing and executing ideas, so it is a very strategic process."
The entrepreneurship and technology transfer office was announced in April to oversee existing offices and better support entrepreneurship. Office executive director Trip Davis '90, new ventures and incubator programs director Jamie Coughlin, associate provost of entrepreneurship and technology transfer Tillman Gerngross and associate professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business Steven Kahl '91 served as mentors.
"3 Day Startup" is a mark of distinction as to what the office can bring to the College, Coughlin said.
"3 Day Startup" was coordinated to provide a toolset and environment for students to learn entrepreneurial principles that are applicable regardless of what field they are going into," Coughlin said. "I was very impressed by the quality of teams, their thoughtfulness around idea generation and the diversified skills sets each member brought to the table."
Coughlin said the office serves any student who is interested in entrepreneurship and collaborates with existing groups on campus.
"Mentorship is another key part of the office," he said. "The office wants to expose up-and-coming startup entrepreneurs to successful and experienced figures in the field so they can take things they learned from the experience into consideration when they embark on their own."
"3 Day Startup" was founded at the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 as a student organization and has since grown into a global initiative.
Boral is a contributing columnist.
