Jumpstarting a Startup
Heidi Williams
On a spring weekend, when undergraduates and graduate students might have been catching up on sleep or homework, or binge watching the latest Netflix series, 75 intrepid entrepreneurs dove into SCU’s Startup Weekend, working nearly nonstop for 55 hours to help a handful of hopefuls get their ideas off the ground.
Patterned after a similar program at CalPoly, the cross-disciplinary event was created by the student organization BroncoDesign, in collaboration with other campus groups. “We had about 50/50 representation from engineering and business,” said engineering junior Will McMullen, University Innovation Fellow and BroncoDesign President. Professional mentoring from deep tech VC firm Propel(x) was available. Sponsors included Dolby, OneWorkplace (an SCU-founded company), Autodesk, KEEN (a network of faculty transforming engineering education together), and uBridge, an SCU-launched social networking app for entrepreneurial business and engineering students. Silicon Valley VC associates, product designers, and startup founders were recruited to serve as judges.
Beginning with 30-second idea pitches from budding entrepreneurs, the top 10 ideas were selected, and individuals rallied around the various projects. McMullen explained that to help guide the process, the organizers held “half-hour workshops interstitially throughout the weekend pertaining to the various aspects of starting a company—team formation, customer validation, rapid prototyping, and user experience—to get teams involved in learning while also doing.” On Day Two, teams ventured out to local restaurants, malls, and across campus to conduct interviews, gaining invaluable customer insight to improve their ideas.
Sunday morning began with a Pitch Workshop in preparation for later presentations before the judges. Awards were presented for most innovative, best business model, and best overall. Taking the best overall prize was Firetrack, a vital signs sensor designed to alert firefighters to dangerous stress levels that can affect coherent decision making. “Their challenge was figuring out the tech and packaging the sensors and communication devices at a competitive price point. They came up with a compact and elegant package—a Bluetooth earbud to fit with standard helmets,” said McMullen.
“There are so many great outcomes from the Startup Weekend,” he continued. “Two of the teams that pitched are still together, grinding it out to make their ideas reality. We plan to make this a regular thing at SCU, and BroncoDesign will hold a designathon in the fall, as well. It’s really cool to see what can happen when you pair the go-getter attitude of engineering students with the go-getters from the business school. It’s amazing how far that collaboration can go!”
Learn more about SCU Engineering's Innovation and Entrepreneurship programs: scu.edu/engineering/about/innovation-and-entrepreneurship