On the first day of 3 Day Startup RetailMeNot, students voted on several ideas to pursue, and broke into groups and started working.

Students armed with insider market data and support from RetailMeNot mentors aimed to create startups that could ultimately partner with or be acquired by the industry giant. Students focused their efforts on creating new types of offers, new distribution and redemption channels and better services for RetailMeNot’s merchant partners.

Matt Howitt, Senior Vice President of Engineering at RetailMeNot, said that the company wanted to engage student entrepreneurs from 3 Day Startup because RetailMeNot is committed to innovation, “We are excited to get new ears, eyes and brains chewing on the next big opportunities in this space.”

Over the course of the weekend, students built prototypes and validated their ideas by talking to potential customers. On Sunday evening, 30 university students piled into the company’s board room to pitch their startups to RetailMeNot executives, including CEO and Founder, Cotter Cunningham.

Students hit the streets to talk to customers and validate their ideas. For UT student, Kaoru Fujita, this meant taking an extra step to dress up in costume.

Kaoru Fujita, MBA student at The University of Texas, pitched Abuelita, a budgeting app for groceries powered by SMS. In his pitch, Fujita noted that low income families are four times less likely to use coupons than affluent families. “We want to increase the buying power of low income families and create a solution using technology that is accessible to this segment,” he said.

Other pitches and demos focused on big industry trends in commerce, such as hyperlocal, as well as new distribution platforms for coupons and deals.

Cam Houser, CEO of 3 Day Startup, said the weekend at RetailMeNot was the second program hosted inside of a company. Last year, 3 Day Startup partnered with HomeAway, the industry leader in vacation rentals. 3DS is planning a corporate-focused program once a semester, and is in talks with future partners.

The model of collaboration between big company and young entrepreneurs has been successful. After 3 Day Startup’s first corporate-focused program at HomeAway, alumnus company Compare Metrics, raised $775,000 in early stage investment.

To date, 3 Day Startup alumni have started 39 companies that have collectively raised over $10 million in funding, and 21 companies and alumni have been accepted to tech accelerators including Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups and Capital Factory.

Students and mentor Dave Mawhinney

There is an electricity to rapid progress, an excitement to purposeful work, and an awe that surrounds the experience of drastic, yet positive change. The people of Qatar know this intensity better than most: A fishing village as capitol in the 50s, British protectorate until the 70s, and then a recent decade of natural resource wealth turned into a long-term commitment to establish top-notch universities, museums, and the many other foundations of human capital. What follows is a recap of several days working at the intersection of Qatar’s hopes to turn into the innovation, diplomacy, and culture capital of the Middle East.

At 3DS, we have long fostered the notion that the university is the ideal center for an ecosystem’s entrepreneurial activity. After all, where else is there such an intense concentration of talent, intellectual capital, diversity, resources, and most importantly, time to invest in projects that are both innovative and commercially viable?

So you can imagine our pleasure when the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Qatar asked us to bring our 3 Day Startup program to Education City in Doha, Qatar. For those that aren’t familiar, Education City is a 14 square kilometer (5.5 sq. miles) development housing the Middle East campuses of Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University, and several others. We were excited about the opportunity to help students from these campuses (and from Qatar University and the College of North-Atlantic) start real technology companies.

Rich with Opportunity

There’s nothing like a good joke about economic growth. “Do you know what the national bird of Qatar is?” asked Tom Emerson, one of our colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University-Qatar. Cam and I looked quizzically at each other. “It’s the crane. Look at that skyline!” Maybe it was the eighteen hour flight or the jet-lag, but it took a moment for us to realize that not only was this an impressive skyline but one that was rapidly under construction. Indeed, the population has more than doubled in the last decade, from 608,000 people in 2001 to over 1.9 million people as of 2011. With the native Qatari population at around 300,000 , this means over a million immigrants coming to the country to live, work, and of course, play.

In the first two hours of the 3DS Doha program, we were able to see precisely what the students in Qatar thought of the massive opportunities presented by the ever-present growth. One of the very first pitches of Friday night was directed towards Doha but will sound familiar to anyone that has spent time in most cities in the Middle East. “I give you Qatari Maps, a landmark-based navigation system to be built on top of Google Maps. After all, what does this street sign even mean,” said one participant pointing at a picture of the rare street sign in Doha. It immediately struck a chord with the other participants and mentors–here they were tapping away on iPhones, shopping at Carrefour, and walking past Ferrari dealerships, but the primary way of giving directions was still “take a left after the third park but before the fourth roundabout.”

But the problems and solutions we heard these students identify weren’t limited to navigation. “There are 750,000 construction workers in Doha. At 55 degrees Celsius in the summer, that is a lot of hospital visits for heat exhaustion. We’ve developed a clothing technology that can keep them cool during these unbearably hot summers,” said Yousef. This clothing technology took only 3-4 off-the-shelf ingredients but combined them with purposeful attention to the physics of each material. By day three of the 3DS program, this team would perfect this technology to the point where the heat from a hair dryer pointed directly at clothing worn wouldn’t penetrate to the skin.

Designing the University Startup Ecosystem in Qatar and Beyond

Like many countries in which 3DS operates, Qatar has no shortage of traditional entrepreneurship education opportunities. For the interested student, there were opportunities to hear lectures on retail marketing, how to be a CEO, economic growth in the BRIC economies, and so much more. But activities for “actively-learned” entrepreneurship, i.e. learning by doing were harder to come by.

Experience serving students on thirty university campuses has taught us that certain disciplines–especially entrepreneurship–demand a hands-on learning approach. Lab sessions are nothing strange to chemistry students. Nor are machine shops odd to mechanical engineering students. But most universities don’t have such applied learning opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. Our mission at 3DS is to change that–it is to create learning by putting students through the process of real companies, to combine the crucially important theoretical educational function that universities already provide. Almost forty companies founded by our alums later, we’re still working on this model to add the “extra reps,” as it were, on turning education about startups into real technology companies.

As with past programs, our students found that passive exposure to retail marketing is quite different from actively experiencing what it means to start a company targeting retail customers. “Gift giving is a big part of Arab culture, and because we give so many gifts, it means we are always giving and receiving duplicate gifts,” explained Lina. “We want to introduce you to Tidalal, the universal gift registry that blends online and offline shopping. Over the past three days, we’ve spoken to over a hundred potential customers about their shopping habits. Over 50% have received a duplicate gift, and a little over half told us they have no problem posting their public gift registry on Facebook, or other social networks.”

Evolution in startups is perfectly natural. But evolution of problems identified and customers discovered doesn’t happen in a vacuum or a controlled environment. In other words, the very skills a technology entrepreneur must master are very difficult to teach through rote lecture, test-taking, or problem-solving during class. The opportunity for us was to use this time period of three short days to allow for the active learning that is critical for an entrepreneur to shift.

The polish of Lina’s pitch shadowed the tremendous amount her team had learned over the past three days. True to our belief in “lean startup” and learning from customers, we lit fire under this crop of forty students and convinced them to get out of their comfort zones and into public spaces where they could talk to customers. While the first conversations had been tough, Lina and her team very quickly adapted. After two hours in one of the largest malls in the Middle East, the glee on their faces was almost gluttonous. Coy students had become fearless. For Lina, the initial idea of a gift registry had been somewhat validated but substantially changed due to the discovery that enough potential customers weren’t willing to make their gift requests public.

An International Team of Mentors

The zeal of the students was matched by the encouragement of the mentors that Tom Emerson and his team at CMU lined up. We were privileged to work with seasoned entrepreneurs like George White, Peter Moore, Maher Hakim, Khalifa Al-Misnad, and many others. While several of our mentors were professors, our 3DS program gave them the opportunity to teach students in a way that was impossible in their classes. They told us that at 3DS the feedback loop was tighter–guidance given at 5pm could be implemented by 7pm and receive additional feedback just a few minutes later. Two of our mentors, Dave Mawhinney and Milton Coffield, literally flew in from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh for the weekend. These two warriors of entrepreneurship education landed the night before and left the morning after. But they fit right in!

Empowering Women through Entrepreneurship

“Baytk Baytk will be a marketplace to connect these women who work at home with Qataris that need meals prepared and crafts made,” proclaimed Aisha, one of our younger participants. She was flanked by Omar and Mohamed, two of her team members on their journey to provide basic internet marketing services to the thousands of women in Qatar who tried to make a living working from home.

Our Heartfelt Thanks

We learn from every event. But rarely is what we learn so important as how to appropriately express our heartfelt thanks. For that, there is no replacement for the heartfelt words from mentor and CMU-Qatar Professor George White:

However, I want to add my own special thanks to Cam, Ruchit, Eleanore and Tom. Cam for energy, organizational initiative and sensitivity; Ruchit for his megaphone voice, coaching skills, and general enthusiasm; Eleanore for amazingly thorough attendance to detail and overall organizational talent; and finally Tom for taking care of everybody and everything, and especially the graceful introduction to the Ambassador during the closing ceremony.

We can all be proud of the outcome. The ideas generated were unusually good; presentations were more polished and appropriate than I could’ve imagined for a weekend course, and I think indeed, there may be some real businesses started because of this weekend event.

To George’s words, we must add a special thanks to Erica Chiusano from the State Department, whose herculean efforts made this program come into existence. We also should not forget to express our deep gratitude to U.S. Ambassador Susan Ziadeh for her strong support of 3DS and other programs that help create entrepreneurial communities in the Middle East. Madame Ambassador, we greatly appreciated your kind words and our students were thrilled that you took the time to attend their final pitches. As their companies blossom, they will always have the U.S. Embassy in Qatar to thank for being strong facilitators and supporters of students in Qatar.

Additional thanks are due to our mentors–Maher, Dave, Milton, Khalifa, Peter, and so many others who gave many of their hours to help these students start companies. Your dedication is an inspiration to us. Finally, many thanks to our participants. You showed that Qatar is ready to lead the Middle East in entrepreneurial efforts. We look forward to seeing where you go with your startup ideas. We have high hopes for you and can’t wait to help you along the way. We can’t wait to brag about you as our successful alumni come the next 3DS in Doha!

Tufts University recently hosted its first 3 Day Startup during the weekend of April 12th.  This program was unique in a couple of ways as it focused on innovation in the healthcare industry.  Additionally, a large percentage of participants were preparing for careers in the healthcare industry, not only as physicians, but as a range of other roles in the industry.

A wide variety of startups came out of the weekend – ones that addressed primary care delivery, logistics behind such delivery, and optimization of the allocation of healthcare resources.  Startups pitched during the program ranged from a device for diagnosing ocular diseases with a smartphone to travel aggregation services for medical tourism. It was exciting to see the numerous proposed healthcare innovations that are not always presented at usual 3DS weekends.

One thing that was particularly impressive was the recognition of market pain and inefficiencies that the participants attempted to address.  Many of the participants came into the weekend with a strong recognition of areas they would like to improve.  The innovation opportunities presented often came from their first-hand  experiences.  Healthcare has many complexities that are difficult to understand without direct experience.  Still, the participants overcame those challenges and found valid, addressable areas for improvement.

Healthcare comprises almost 18% of the overall economy in the U.S., and it represents about $2.6 trillion in annual spending.  This is too large of a segment to ignore as a target for disruptive innovation.  Additionally, with recent legislation, millions more will be receiving medical care, thus further straining resources.  There is a definite and growing need for innovation to help healthcare accommodate these changes.  Hopefully, more healthcare-themed 3DS programs will take place in the future, helping to bring about some of this much-needed innovation.

Contributed by Andy Zimbroff, 3DS Facilitator

Nis Frome and the Hublished team from Rutgers University

Nis Frome, a Marketing undergrad at Rutgers University, co-founded Hublished in 2012 with Ben Borodach and Yair Aviner.

Hublished is a discovery platform and social network where brands build followings by sharing expert content in the form of webinars, e-books and podcasts. Dubbed “convention in the cloud,” Hublished allows users to find and purchase various materials from experts in their field.

Frome’s team initially thought of the concept in 2011 and was immediately challenged with raising enough capital to pursue their idea. The following year, team members participated in a business competition class taught by Lawrence Lenihan in hopes to receive $12,500 in funding. Frome says, “Hublished did not win the competition initially, but 9 months later after seeing us progress, he [Lenihan] reversed his decision and awarded us first place.” Frome attributes the startup’s success to this initial capital along with networking opportunities provided by Meetup.com.

Frome stresses networking and escaping the “bubble” and encourages entrepreneurs to share their experiences with relevant communities and publications. He says, “You should be networking with relevant professionals, and you should be learning from customers and competitors. If you’re a technology company, you should be participating in hackathons and tech events.”

Hublished recently reached a milestone, as Rutgers University joined their platform as the first organization to host an upcoming webinar on the site. One of the startup’s ambitious goals for this upcoming year is to disrupt the marketing industry and its traditional advertising practices.

“We want organizations to realize that a value-driven marketing campaign can generate leads and customers without the need to advertise,” Frome says, “So while we want to have a ton of organizations and content on our site, our foremost goal is to have organizations actually generating business through content. If it’s a single webinar that generates leads and customers and causes an organization to stop advertising and instead create content, then we’ve done our job.”

About 3 Day Startup

3 Day Startup (3DS) teaches entrepreneurial skills to university students in an extreme hands-on environment. In addition to supporting budding entrepreneurs, 3DS programs cultivate entrepreneurial communities that contribute to the growth of entrepreneurship ecosystems in the regions surrounding these university programs. This proven program provides students the tools they need to start successful companies. To date, more than 39 companies have come out of 3DS to collectively raise $9.5 million in investor capital and more than a dozen have been accepted to prestigious incubators and accelerators such as Y Combinator and TechStars.

Brought to you by:

MakerSquare is a ten week, in-person, immersive web development training program. You’ll learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, TDD, common APIs, and more.  Learn more.

Co-Founder of ORIGAMI, Hirokazu Morita and team at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Hirokazu Morita, a MBA student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, co-founded ORIGAMI with Yuto Ezure in 2012.

ORIGAMI brings Japanese Art Shock to the world by connecting Japanese art to the global market, especially the online game industry. ORIGAMI offers character designs, animations, 3D arts, and other creative artworks through their online stock and direct sales services. Their mission is to bridge the huge gap between individual Japanese artists and the global market.

Morita attributes ORIGAMI’s success to the Polsky Accelerator Program and The New Venture Challenge, a class at Chicago Booth. He says, “Through the class and program, I received a lot of useful advice from mentors and professors, and acquired skills and knowledge required to develop the venture.” Participation in the accelerator allowed ORIGAMI to raise funding necessary to develop the beta service and operate the startup during the initial phases of the venture.

ORIGAMI is off to a running start: they have a large fan base on Facebook as well as an initial stockpile of art pieces. Morita says, “I have learned that one of the most important things for developing a venture is establishing a process to verify the assumptions for the success of the venture by looking at potential customer feedback and by running experiments. Then the venture must quickly adjust its model accordingly.”

ORIGAMI’s goal for this year is to launch a beta of its online stock service while continuing to obtain Facebook fans. When the beta goes live they hope to have 10 projects in their direct sales service.

Morita’s last piece of advice for student founders is, “A student can and should leverage their student position, ask for support, and receive a lot of advice from experts,” he says, “You should listen carefully to an expert’s advice and various opinions with modesty. However, it is nothing more than advice. You have to have your own foot in your venture and a passion for your business. You have to be responsible for your own decisions. I believe that this is the needed stance for a successful student startup.”

About 3 Day Startup

3 Day Startup (3DS) teaches entrepreneurial skills to university students in an extreme hands-on environment. In addition to supporting budding entrepreneurs, 3DS programs cultivate entrepreneurial communities that contribute to the growth of entrepreneurship ecosystems in the regions surrounding these university programs. This proven program provides students the tools they need to start successful companies. To date, more than 39 companies have come out of 3DS to collectively raise $9.5 million in investor capital and more than a dozen have been accepted to prestigious incubators and accelerators such as Y Combinator and TechStars.

Brought to you by:

The Lean Startup Lessons Learned series features Intuit leaders, including CEO Brad Smith, Founder Scott Cook and Vice President of Design Innovation Kaaren Hanson, who sit down with author Eric Ries to expand on some of the themes in his best-selling book “The Lean Startup.” Watch the complete series.

Organizers, participants, sponsors, and mentors from the U.S., Portugal, Chile, and Thailand meet up at SXSW

3 Day Startup hosted a SXSW meetup for our global community at the 3 Day Startup Lounge at Chicon Collective. Chicon Collective is a creative East Austin coworking space for designers, developers, photographers, and videographers founded by 3DS Austin alum Taylor Hou.

There are rare instances when our global community is in the same city, and SXSW is one of those, so this meetup was an opportunity for members of our tribe to meet each other and connect from far and wide. It was great connecting with 3Dsers from our programs at Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Texas A&M, University of Houston, Chile, Portugal, Thailand, and more.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by. See everyone at SXSW 2014!

Founded in 2009 as WhaleShark Media, the company is now the world’s leading online marketplace for coupon and consumer deals in North America, the UK, France and Germany.  The company purchased RetailMeNot in 2010, an Australian company that runs one of the top coupon sites in the world.

Following the rebrand, the 3 Day Startup WhaleShark Media program reflects this change and is now 3 Day Startup RetailMeNot. University students interested in building startups in the coupons and deals space can now apply at retailmenot.3daystartup.org.

3DS Cornell organizers, mentors, and panelists recap the 3DS weekend and give an overview of the entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus.

This was Cornell’s second student led 3 Day Startup program. In 2011, two companies emerged from the inaugural program, including Vantageous Video, which went on Dreamit Ventures.

Many of the teams from 2012 are still working on their ideas from the weekend. Check out some of these startups from 3DS Cornell Fall 2012:

• Rosie, an app that predicts household items before you run out and orders them from local grocers and online retailers.
• RedPencere, a college preparation service specifically designed for international students. RedPencere connects top international students who are interested in studying in the US to consultants and counselors.
• PartyHere, a simple way to find out where the nearest party is in your network.