UT Austin – Student Entrepreneurship Conference

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UT Austin – Student Entrepreneurship Conference

On Saturday September 15th the Technology Entrepreneurship Society and Scientific Entrepreneurship Society are teaming up to co-host the first ever UT Student Entrepreneurship Conference to provide the student body with exposure to the startup community at UT. The event will consist of two panels, a student startup showcase and free lunch thanks to the Austin Small Business Development Program. We have recruited the best faculty, staff and private sector startup experts to share opportunities available to undergraduate and graduate students on-campus and around Austin. Click on the link for more information about the panelist and to RSVP. Yours truly will be there to assist the hosting organizations and find potential NCIIA grantees.

– Isaac Daniel Sanchez

UTexas – Talking Startups with Michael Dell

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It has been an exciting month at the University of Texas.  Just in time for National Entrepreneurship Week,  I hosted Michael Dell at an interactive event discussing his experiences beginning a startup in college and becoming the youngest CEO of a fortune 500 company.  It was a full house!  477 excited students, faculty, and community members crowded in to hear Mr. Dell be interviewed by Dr. Bob Metcalfe, inventor of ethernet, founder of 3Com Corp., former partner at Polaris Ventures, and current professor of innovation at UT-Austin.  After a lively 45 minute interview, the floor was opened up to students for questions.  Afterwards, Mr. Dell joined students at the reception for more intimate interaction.  He was an engaging, genuine speaker and excited to interact with young budding entrepreneurs.  Read further coverage of the story here.

Dr. Bob Metcalfe interviews Michael Dell

Dell talks to students

Pitching the upcoming NCIIA Social Innovation Bootcamp on UT Austin Campus

Another very exciting development is the joint hosting of a VentureLab on UT-Austin’s campus.  The Dell Social Innovation Competition (DSCIC) has been a part of the UT campus for a few years.  Last year they had over 1400 applicants from all over the world.  The winner of the competition receives $50K to accelerate work on their venture.  Last year, Dell donated $5M to support the initiative and keep the program running.  This year, the NCIIA has teamed up with the DSIC to host the Social Innovation Bootcamp January 12-16.

On Tuesday Nov. 29th, the first ever Made In Austin career fair was put on by the folks at Campus2Careers and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.  The job fair brought together 350 students and 93 of central Texas’ fastest growing startups.   The event was the first focused entirely on connecting talent with startups.

Thursday Dec. 1 was the 1 Semester Startup Demo Day – the culmination of the work the 72 Longhornpreneurs have been doing on their 20 startups in the 1 Semester Startup class.  The teams pitched to a room of about 200 attendees – investors, media, follow classmates, and instructors.  Read more coverage by the Silicon Hill News and The Daily Texan.

Great end to a great year.  Hook ’em!

1SS Showcased on the jumbotron while UT Longhorns practice

University of Texas – Austin: Longhornpreneurs and the 1 Semester Startup Course

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Over the past month and a half, I have had the pleasure of being a part of the brand new 1 Semester Startup class.  The class is one aspect of the entrepreneurship initiative that has been driving activities and programs here at UT.  1 Semester Startup is a multidisciplinary group of students, instructors, and mentors who are coming together with the sole purpose of starting companies.  There are 3 instructors, 22 mentors, and 77 students forming 20 startups this semseter.  The ideas and technologies driving these startups run the gamut: from data mining software, a social fashion app, a car company, and my personal favorite: a novel isotope separation technology ( but I’m biased, that one is my company).  These are my fellow Longhornpreneurs.  A new species of entrepreneur bred out of the UT student community and  nurtured by the university and community as a whole.

The instructors for the course, Joshua Baer (Computer Science), Johnny Butler (Business), and Bob Metcalfe (Electrical Engineering), have curated a stellar speaker list to educate a diverse group of students working on even more diverse companies on starting a startup.  Last week we had Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean, give a presentation on Lean Startup Methodology.   We also hosted Frank Moss, former CEO of Austin’s Tivoli and former director of the MIT Media Lab.  Michael Dell will be coming to speak in November, a public event meant to generate excitement about entrepreneurship in the UT/Austin ecosystem.

Frank Moss speaking to TES and 1SS

The 1 Semester Startup class is just one of the e’ship initiatives being implemented on campus.  Tomorrow there is going to be a leadership meetup between the student e’ship organizations, the involved faculty across all disciplines, UT programs like the Dell Social Innovation Competition, and community e’ship accelerators such as the Austin Technology Incubator.  We will be discussing ways in which we can better work together to promote and support each other’s initiatives.  Collaboration is the key to success!

University of Texas at Austin — Marketing by Bridging Gaps

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This is my first experience being involved in planning events on campus. So generally, “butts in seats” is not my concern. However, with several big events in the works, it’s high time I started making it my concern. My first event isn’t until September 22, so I began by employing some of the tips provided by Mr. Joe McMahon in his recent post.   In the past, the various entrepreneurship clubs across campus have been disjointed and insular.  We all have similar goals.  We all have a passion for entrepreneurship and spreading the message of “yes, you can — and we will help”.  What we don’t share is the same constituent base.  So I’m reaching out to the leadership of these groups, trying to make a super-network of the who’s who of  UT’s entrepreneurial minded crowd.  By connecting the connectors and leveraging each other’s networks, we can have a much more effective (and efficient) marketing outlet than the typical methods.

In an effort to start the trend, I offered to help market the weekly Technology Entrepreneurship Seminar Series hosted by the Chair of Free Enterprise that was kicked off yesterday.  I marketed that event to death.  Shout outs in class (I’m a sweaty palms public speaker), posts to my org’s facebook wall and page, tweets, word of mouth, and fliers.  And…success!  It was a full house.  There was actually a small crowd standing in the back.  Not bad for a Friday afternoon!  In a quick turn around of my paying it forward experiment, the host of the event invited me up to give a shout out for NCIIA and the upcoming Technology Entrepreneurship Society events.

Building the network, one link at a time.

Technology Entrepreneurship Across the Nation!

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Welcome!

Congratulations to each of the thirteen new NCIIA Student Ambassadors from across the nation for the 2011 – 2012 school year.  These Student Ambassadors will serve as advocates  for NCIIA, driving the mission of the organization.  For more information on NCIIA, view the website at www.nciia.org.

This blog will serve as an opportunity for Student Ambassadors to highlight entrepreneurial activities on campuses and provide insight to resources that students can leverage.  Increased collaboration between campuses will lead to a greater impact in furthering the NCIIA mission.