3 Day Startup

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What is it like to participate?
What is your rate of success?
Can I organize a 3 Day Startup in my city?
How can universities get involved?
Can we have a 3 Day Startup at my company?
Are you looking for investors?
I’m looking for employees. Can I use 3DS to find students to hire?
Can you explain the 3DS Legal Structure?

What is it like to participate?

What happens at 3DS?

You and 39 other students will start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, invite 40 students with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food, drinks, snacks, and coffee, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.

If I participate, what do I get out of the weekend?

The worst case scenario is that you will work with brilliant people from numerous disciplines toward the common goal of building real companies and products. Great connections happen at 3 Day Startup: cofounders meet, complimentary skill sets collide, and friends are made. The best case scenario is that you will be a cofounder of a wildly successful new tech startup.

Will my startup get any cool stuff?

Accepted participants can head on over to our Participants page to sign up for the awesome services listed below.
Free cloud hosting from Rackspace for one year (up to $1000/month of usage).
Free access to Microsoft BizSpark.
A legal services package from DLA Piper designed for startups incorporated in the United States. The package will be available at reduced rates, combined with a flat fee or deferred fee arrangement. 3 Day Startup companies will have full access to DLA Piper’s comprehensive benefits and legal services designed to position new companies for future growth and success. Please contact Justin Bowes to find out more.

How do you get good ideas for startups?

We can point you toward a few resources:

Spreadsheet with hundreds of startup ideas by many different folks
Y Combinator’s list of ideas they’d like to fund
Paul Graham’s article on startup ideas
Seth Godin’s Six Month MBA class 999 ideas

Any pointers on selecting a startup idea?

That’s a tough question with a long answer. Even some of the best venture capitalists in the business have trouble answering that question. Just check out BVP’s anti-portfolio. Probably the best advice we can give you is to check out what some of the smartest people in the business have written. Two of the first people you might check out are Steve Blank and Ash Maurya. Both of those guys also have books. One of the biggest takeaways is just to talk to customers. We can also try to give some very brief pointers on startup ideas:

Good ideas do not need to be:

Unique
Complex
Clever
First to market
High-technology
Free of competitors
Based on a patent
Something you thought of yourself

Good ideas probably should:

Address a real, observable market pain
Be something that you are knowledgeable about
Have a large, potential or existing market
Have possible revenue streams

I’m a student majoring in X. Should I even consider applying?

The short answer is: yes. Our past participants have spanned everything from a freshman in psychology to a freshly minted PhD in Neuroscience. If you’re at all passionate about startups and technology, it is likely that you will be a valuable participant.

Can I apply even though I am not a student?

Absolutely. While the majority will be students, we are definitely open to having some (very strong) non student participants.

What kind of ideas are allowed?

Ideas with scalable business models are strongly preferred. We also optimize the event for ideas that will require a strong software base.

Our selection criteria for ideas are (1) your amount of passion and (2) the amount of research on your own idea that you perform before your interview.

How are ideas picked?

Ideas will go though two stages of selection. The first selection is the interview that all participants go through to get accepted into a 3 Day Startup event. During the interview, we are looking for a combination of skills in your area, passion, and a well-researched startup idea.

The final idea selection is during the event. It begins with the 40 people forming 8 groups of 5 people each. The small groups brainstorm and pick their favorite ideas. Then each group pitches their top idea to the seven other groups. At the end, all participants vote on the top one, two, or three ideas.

How many people from each discipline do you invite into the event?

We typically interview around 200 applicants, and then choose the 40 participants from that group. The participant break down is about 20 from computer science, 7 from business, 3 law students, 3 graphic designers, and 7 wild cards.

How much can you really accomplish in 3 days?

A whole lot. The finished product of the weekend isn’t a full-fledged revenue-generating company–it’s a team with an idea that has enough momentum to become a real company.

What about food? Sleep?

3DS caters all meals, drinks, and in-between snacks. Sleep is optional. Participants can bring a sleeping bag, or they can go home to rest.

What happens at the end of the weekend?

At 7 p.m. on Sunday, the participants pitch their startups to a panel of local venture capitalists, angel investors, tech entrepreneurs, professors, and the press. After that, they start making plans about how to take their companies forward.

What does the weekend schedule look like?

A typical weekend might look like this:

Friday

2pm: meet & greet, split up into brainstorming groups
7pm: dinner & pitch ideas
Decide on best idea(s), start work!

Saturday

Customer interaction, coding, market validation, business plans, logos, etc.

Sunday

6pm: dinner & meet panelists
7pm: pitch startup(s) to panel
Launch prototype, elect board

What is your rate of success?

First of all, check out some of the companies that have been started by alumni of 3 Day Startup here.

Our main metric for success is how many of our alumni found companies that take investment, generate revenue or enter incubators. It is common to hear the word “startup” get thrown around. People sometimes refer to a slide deck or a landing page as a startup. When we say startup, we mean the real thing: teams who are making money or taking investment.

Per event, 3 Day Startup events result in more successful startups than any other weekend entrepreneurship event.

We have run 40+ events in the US and Europe, and those have given rise to 33 companies that have cumulatively received $8.5 million in funding. 16 companies from 3DS have been accepted to accelerators such as Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Capital Factory, Austin Technology Incubator and Dreamit Ventures.

On average, each 3 Day Startup event has generated more than one successful startup. This includes events in non-startup hubs like Aachen, Germany and San Antonio, Texas. The product of our events is not networking or slide decks, it is real startups.

Can I host a 3 Day Startup in my city?

Yes.

How can universities get involved?

Universities can hold 3 Day Startup events at their campuses. When we engage with a university, we do not do it with the intention of holding a single event on their campus. We aim to establish a continuing program that expands the entrepreneurial capability and culture of the university.

Can we have a 3 Day Startup at my company?

We do conduct a limited number of corporate events per year. The main focus of corporate events is developing an entrepreneurial mindset in executives.

Are you looking for investors?

Yes, we are looking for people to invest in the companies we help to start. The best way for an investor to do that is to attend or sponsor a 3 Day Startup event.

We are also interested in forming relationships with investors aligned with the social innovation goals of the 3 Day Startup non profit.

My company is seeking talented employees. Can I use 3DS to find students to hire?

Absolutely. One of the most useful things that we do for participants and companies is to help to scout for talent and to facilitate job placements. The best way for a company to meet our talented students is to attend or sponsor a 3 Day Startup event.

How do the legalities work? Do I need to sign any documents?

Besides participants and moderators signing a general photo/audio/video release, participants may also sign other documents depending on the event. 3DS has created a legal structure that is designed to protect founders and make it as easy as possible for companies to get funding later. Many of our alumni companies have taken angel or VC funding, which we think is the strongest proof that our legal structure is super sweet. Please read more about our legal structure here.

If the local event organizers opt to use the legal structure, every participant signs a technology assignment and confidentiality agreement at the start of the weekend. Copies of these documents are made available to the participants in advance of the event. We try to make them as simple as possible but they are legal documents and while we can answer general questions, we ask that specific questions be directed to one’s own lawyer.

As mentioned, our legal structure is slightly different in every country in which we operate. The organizers of local 3DSes will be able to provide all participants with more information and a copy of the legal documents two weeks before the event.

Why should I trust your legal and equity structure?

Our legal structure has been designed and implemented by an experienced law firm with a global presence. Many 3DS companies have been incubated and have taken investment after the weekend. Each of the investments have undergone legal scrutiny and due diligence. Additionally, we have received positive feedback from participants, inventors and founders.

I have a great idea or invention. I’m worried about it being stolen.

This is probably the most common concern for 3DS participants. Our legal structure is designed so that invited participants can freely share their ideas among each other in a protected environment without having to worry about things being stolen.

We believe firmly that ideas are cheap and execution is everything, which is why we focus most of our attention on action. But don’t just take it from us: there is broad consensus on that topic in the startup community. See here, here, here, and here for just a few examples. In short, we are in the business of making ideas happen, not stealing them.

How much equity does 3DS take?

The 3DS non profit takes 0.5% of dilutable equity in companies that are formed based around ideas that are presented during the final pitches. The purpose of this is to protect ideas and founders by establishing a clear chain of legal ownership for the ideas. The 3DS organizers never profit or make any money from any work you do.

Who is this non profit, anyway?

3 Day Startup, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. It has no shareholders, only a board of directors mainly composed of current and former University of Texas students. These are the people who created the original 3 Day Startup event in Spring of 2008. 3 Day Startup, Inc., is organized for the express purpose of promoting entrepreneurship on college campuses.

How does 3DS make money?

We are a not for profit entity, primarily funded through sponsorship.