Kick off the year with Longhorn Startup as we begin this year's seminar lecture with none other than Joshua Baer himself. A short open pitch session will also take place so be sure to come with your great ideas and start the semester off strong!
How to Start Starting a Company
Are you passionate about entrepreneurship but still looking for inspiration? Do you know that you want to found the next great company but aren't sure where to begin? Attend this session to receive actionable suggestions from a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who has talked to more than 1,000 entrepreneurs. You'll walk away from this presentation with an idea of what you need to do next and a framework for how to evaluate your idea and decide if it's the right startup idea for you, backup up by real world examples from successful entrepreneurs. Naturally, this session will attract many aspiring entrepreneurs who need to find others to work with, partner with, or learn from. If you're ready to start your own company but haven't yet, attend this session and get the adrenaline shot you need to make it happen!
Find out:
How do I find inspiration for my great idea? I know I want to be an entrepreneur but I haven't found the perfect idea yet.
What should I be doing and how should I spend my time?
How do I evaluate whether or not an idea is a good one?
What criteria should I use to compare one idea to another?
How do I decide if this is an idea I should pursue?
What makes a good idea the right idea for me?
Why am I the right person to make this vision a reality and what are my competitive advantages?
The Longhorn Startup Seminar is a lecture-based course in the Fall semester that features prominent entrepreneurs telling the stories of how they founded their companies and answering questions from the students. Students get to pitch their idea to the class and participate in speed-dating events to meet potential co-founders and get advice from mentors. Any student from any college can register for either of these course numbers: CS178 ES177.
The Longhorn Startup Lab is an intensive project-based course in the Spring semester that identifies student entrepreneurs who are building scalable technology companies and gets them real course credit for working on their startups while still in school. These students receive weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions with successful entrepreneurs and free coworking memberships at Capital Factory. The semester culminates in a Demo Day where the students present their companies to the Austin community. Any student from any college can register for either of these course numbers: CS378 ES377E MAN337. You MUST ALSO fill out this application form for instructor approval.
2. Elevator Pitches
• You give a 90-second pitch (Sanchana is timing)
• Then I take a crack at it or give you feedback
• Should be targeted at a customer or investor
• Video recorded, Periscoped & posted to Facebook group
• Line up along the left wall
• 10 students will get to pitch each week
3. This Semester - Seminar
• Speakers - Joshua Baer, Ben Dyer, Bob Metcalfe, more…
• Office Hours
http://bit.ly/lshours
• Co-founder Speed Pitch
• Epic Office Hours
• ATX Startup Crawl - October 8
• Longhorn Startup Lab Interviews
http://bit.ly/lslapply
4. Next Semester - Lab
• For teams that have built a minimum viable product
• Mentor Speed Dating
• $5,000 credit at Amazon Web Services
• Free table at SXSW ATX Startup Crawl
• 2-3 Local Mentors per Team
• Guest Mentors each week
• Hackathon
• Demo Day - May 5, 2016
5. Class Rules
• Open to all UT students even if not registered yet
• Sign the sign-in sheet by 7:00pm to get credit
• Don’t leave until you are dismissed (latest 9:00pm)
• Let Instructors and Mentors give feedback first
• Let registered students pitch first
6. Grading
• Seminar is Pass/Fail
• Attend 10 out of 12 classes
• Create a Lean Canvas
http://leancanvas.com
Code: LONGHORNSTARTUP
• Email to leancanvas@longhornstartup.com
7. Contact
• Instructor - Joshua Baer josh@longhornstartup.com
• TA - Sanchana Vasikaran ta@longhornstartup.com
• Official announcements will come by email from Canvas
• Other announcements will be on the Facebook Group
http://facebook.com/groups/longhornstartup
8. Agenda - This Class
• Introductions
• Class overview
• This class / Next class
• (10) 90-second Elevator Pitches
• How to Start STARTING a Company
• Ask Me Anything
9. Agenda - Next Class
• Co-Founder Pitching
• Meet the students in the class with startup ideas
• Practice your personal elevator pitch
• We’ll run for 2 hours and get through as many as we can
• As a listener, your goal is to make one introduction to
someone you know who could help out
• Think of how powerful 120 introductions could be?
10. Agenda - Next Class
If you take this seriously,
we will start 10 companies next week.
11. Agenda - Next Class
1. Say your name, spell it
2. What’s your major, where are you from?
3. What are you famous for?
4. What are you passionate about? Why?
5. Who do you need to meet?
6. Say your name, spell it
24. Start your company
• Your advantage is time
• You have no life
• You have nothing to lose
• You will never be in a better situation to find co-founders
in college
25. Start your company
The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best day is today.
-Chinese Proverb
in college
38. Ask Me Anything
• How can bootstrapping be better than raising VC money?
• What is the best way to impress an Angel Investor?
• Who are some of the hottest startups in Austin right now?
• How can I learn more about the Austin Startup Scene?
• How can I convince amazing talent to join my startup?
• Why do you like email so much?