Notes from Spring 2016 3 day startup at Texas State

I participated in Texas State’s Spring 2016 3DS as a mentor. It was a great experience! I want to share my experience in the hope that more people will participate as students and mentors.

Students

Like most things in life, you will get more out of 3DS if you put more into it. Come prepared! Things to do beforehand:

1. Come in well rested. The 3DS program is ~48 hours, and the more of that time you spend working on your idea, the better it is going to be.
2. Decide what you want to achieve this weekend — feedback on your idea, connections with other startup-minded students, practice in getting customer feedback, establishing mentor relationships, etc.
3. Do your research! Have some idea of the addressable market, which competitors are in the same space, who your target demographic is, how you will differentiate, etc.
4. Consider ideas from the perspective of all stakeholders. You may be happy to sell this service, but would someone really want to buy it? Or vice versa. What about the third parties who would be affected by this change? How are they going to react?
5. Decide that you will be flexible. Your idea may not get picked or you may receive negative feedback on your idea. That is OK! The point of the weekend is to learn and grow. Come in with an open mind and you’ll be all the better for it.

Mentors

1. Come in with an understanding of the local market. Most people have ideas related to their pain point, and students are no different.
2. Have an understanding of the local entertainment scene and app development. These are by far the two most common categories in which students will pitch.
3. Be supportive! It is hard for people to pitch their ideas, and often they don’t have a lot of details thought out. Ask probing questions and get the students to think about what the missing pieces are to make their ideas a reality.
4. Make connections. Bring business cards to pass out, point people to your LinkedIn, and try to speak with every group.

Schedule

On Friday evening every student has an opportunity to share their idea for a startup. Come prepared with an idea that you are excited about! The students then get to vote on which ideas are the most promising. Once the most promising ideas have been determined, then students form teams around these ideas and start refining vision.

Saturday is all about customer feedback. Now that teams have an idea, it is important to see if people would actually pay for this idea. Teams should always mention that they are students when pitching ideas. People love to help out students and feel much freer to offer feedback when it is a project connected with a school. Incorporate the feedback, as people are very direct when you are asking them to pay money for something. A startup idea usually goes through multiple iterations to become something real. Mentors, act as connectors! Use your network to offer up relevant people to speak to within the industry.

Sunday is where the startup pitch is refined. The teams have customer feedback on what is worth paying for; now it is time to consider investors. What will it take for someone to fund this company? Focus on a realistic plan that solves a real customer pain point, know the addressable market size, know the competitors and have a differentiation point that will make your business a success!

Then go get some sleep, you’ll need it after this whirlwind weekend!