College students who have an idea for a new technology company but aren’t quite sure how to get it started have a unique opportunity available to them.
Florida State University is hosting 3-Day Startup (3DS), an entrepreneurship education program designed for university students with an emphasis on learning by doing. The weekend is designed with two specific goals in mind: first, to kick-start new student-run companies; and second, to build entrepreneurial capabilities in students and their university communities.
Scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on March 23 and conclude at 9 p.m. on March 25, 3DS packs an intensive lesson in starting a business into 56 hours. Forty students will be accepted into the program, although students who apply but aren’t accepted will be placed on a waiting list. Deadline to apply is March 2. Go online to http://fsu.3daystartup.org to register. The event will be held in Miller Hall, on the third floor of University Center Building C.
All applicants who are accepted will receive free cloud hosting from Rackspace for one year (up to $1,000 a month of usage); free access to Microsoft BizSpark; a legal services package from DLA Piper designed for startups incorporated within the United States; and a prerequisite leading to a three-credit-hour Directed Independent Study.
Begun in Austin, Texas, with students from the University of Texas, the 3DS concept has spread to 18 events on four continents, enabling student entrepreneurs to get start-up funding and support, with seven companies accepted into business incubator programs in their respective regions.
“The idea is simple: We start a technology company over the course of three days,” said Jonathan Adams, an associate professor in the School of Communication and the event organizer. “We brainstorm Friday and pick the best idea for a software startup and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night.”
The competition is open to all college students in Tallahassee.
“Our students here at Florida State take priority, but we encourage students from Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College to apply because we want the best talent we can find for this,” Adams said.
Mentors coming from different businesses and organizations around the city will participate. Local businesses can support 3DS through monetary sponsorship, mentorships or in-kind donations of goods or services.
The event is sponsored by FSU’s College of Communication & Information and has been receiving support from Randy Blass, the director of The Jim Moran Institute, as well as Ron Frazier and Jim Dever, who are entrepreneurs-in-residence in the College of Business. Others who are assisting with 3DS are faculty from the School of Library & Information Studies, Computer Science, the Digital Design program in the College of Visual Arts and the Program for Interdisciplinary Computing, Adams said.
For more information, contact Adams at jladams@fsu.edu or (978) 226-8834.