Posts Tagged ‘3 day startup’

Ravel Acquired by W2O Group

Friday, April 20th, 2012

ATI member company Ravel, founded in 2010, is an enterprise-grade solutions company that derives hidden insights from big data. Yesterday, Ravel announced that it has been acquired by W2O Group, an independent network of complementary marketing, communications, and research and development firms. The purchase price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

W2O Group is acquiring Ravel’s big data analytics technology and pending patents, as well its founding team. Steve Blackmon, Ravel co-founder and VP Engineering, will be appointed as the new Director of Data Sciences at W2O Group. Zach Richardson, Ravel co-founder and VP Product, joins The Daily Dot, the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web, as its first CTO. The entire Ravel development team will join W2O Group as full-time employees.

Blackmon and Richardson, with support from W2O Group and The Daily Dot, will continue to develop Ravel’s GoldenOrb, as directors of a not-for-profit to which all GoldenOrb intellectual property will be donated. GoldenOrb is a cloud-based open source project for massive-scale graph analysis, built upon best-of-breed software from the Apache Hadoop project modeled after Google’s Pregel architecture.

Ravel co-founder Bart Bohn was ATI’s information technology and wireless director from 2007 to 2011. He was also a founding mentor and board member of 3 Day Startup, MobileMondayAustin and Semantic Web Austin.

Ravel is the latest ATI software company to be acquired by a large competitor, joining other successful ATI alumni exits, such as IBM’s acquisition of Lombardi Software and BMC’s acquisition of Phurnace.

Read the full release at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9419258.htm.

 

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3 Day Startup Call for Spring 2012 Applicants

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

3 Day Start Up liberates students from the classroom, and creates an environment where budding entrepreneurs can learn by doing. Over the course of a weekend, students pitch their business ideas, vote on the projects they find the most compelling, and ultimately self-organize into project teams to create a prototype, perform market research, and formulate a business strategy. Participating students hail from myriad backgrounds including computer science, engineering, business, law and design, to create the skill set necessary to jumpstart a company. The weekend event is hosted by the Austin Technology Incubator.

3 Day Startup (3DS) is currently accepting applications for its spring event, Friday, March 30 at 2pm until Sunday, April 1 at 10pm.

Application deadline: March 1st. Rolling Admissions

Info sessions will be held on February 6 & 16th at 5:00pm in JGB 2.216. If you have any questions contact Rishi Shah at rishi09@gmail.com.

There will be sponsors, mentors, press coverage, and of course, the invited participants don’t pay for anything. The culmination of the event is when students pitch their start-ups to a wide array of Austin entrepreneurs. Past mentors include:

  • Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation, Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin;
  • Gary Forni, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN);
  • Josh Baer, Capital Factory & OtherInbox;
  • Zaz Floreani, Austin Ventures

Companies that have emerged from previous 3 Day Start Up events include: Famigo (famigogames.com), Hurricane Party (hurricaneparty.com), and HootMe (hoot.me). 3 Day Start Up was started by students and is run by students.

When asked about the influence of 3 Day Start up on their academic and professional careers, previous participants have said the following:

“3DS takes all kinds of people from their respective little boxes and encourages them to bring their talents together to make something great.” – Jeff Zhao, BBA Finance, 3DS Spring ’11

“3DS has been by far the best experience I’ve had thus far as a graduate student. The weekend is intense and sometimes grueling but it’s also just a lot of fun. “- Rene Pinnell, MS Design, 3DS Fall ’09

“At 3 Day Startup, we learned by doing. Instead of sitting in an auditorium, I worked with forty like-minded people to go through the process of launching something great. The next time I go to a seminar on entrepreneurship, I’m going to sit in the middle of the front row, watch the PowerPoint presentation, and think to myself, ‘I’ve done that.’” – Rishi Shah, Plan II Honors, 3DS Fall ’10

If you’re interested, apply at http://austin.3daystartup.org/apply/. Check out our website at http://austin.3daystartup.org or our Facebook Page or Twitter. Questions? Email austin@3daystartup.org.

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3 Day Startup Starts Up Again…

Monday, October 17th, 2011

On October 21st, 40 student entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds will participate in the fifth iteration of 3 Day Start Up, a highly energetic, often sleepless, weekend where big ideas are turned into viable companies over the course of three days. 3 Day Start Up liberates students from the classroom, and creates an environment where budding entrepreneurs can learn by doing. Over the course of a weekend, students pitch their business ideas, vote on the projects they find the most compelling, and ultimately self organize into project teams to create a prototype, perform market research, and formulate a business strategy. Participating students hail from myriad backgrounds including computer science, engineering, business, law and design, to create the skill set necessary to jumpstart a company. The weekend event is hosted by Austin Technology Incubator.

 The culmination of the event is 7:00pm on Sunday October 23rd, when students pitch their start-ups to a wide array of Austin entrepreneurs including:

  • Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation, Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin;
  • Gary Forni, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN);
  • Josh Baer, Capital Factory & OtherInbox;
  • Zaz Floreani, Austin Ventures

When asked about the influence of 3 Day Start up on their academic and professional careers, previous participants have said the following:

“3DS takes all kinds of people from their respective little boxes and encourages them to bring their talents together to make something great.” – Jeff Zhao, BBA Finance, 3DS Spring ’11

“3DS has been by far the best experience I’ve had thus far as a graduate student. The weekend is intense and sometimes grueling but it’s also just a lot of fun. “- Rene Pinnell, MS Design, 3DS Fall ’09

“At 3 Day Startup, we learned by doing. Instead of sitting in an auditorium, I worked with forty like-minded people to go through the process of launching something great. The next time I go to a seminar on entrepreneurship, I’m going to sit in the middle of the front row, watch the PowerPoint presentation, and think to myself, ‘I’ve done that.’” – Rishi Shah, Plan II Honors, 3DS Fall ’10

3 Day Start Up began with a simple idea: start a technology company over the course of three days. Over the last three years it has evolved into a popular event campus-wide with a highly competitive selection process.  Companies that have emerged from previous 3 Day Start Up events include: Famigo (www.famigogames.com/), Hurricane Party (www.hurricaneparty.com), and HootMe (hoot.me).  3 Day Start Up was started by students and is run by students. For more information on 3 Day Start up, please visit our online media guide at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5rzbSUfJv8 or go to http://3daystartup.com/.

For information about the event happening at Austin Technology Incubator, October 21-23, please go to: http://austin.3daystartup.org/

Contact: Suzanne Burley                                                       

Phone: 201-759-1115

Email: sburley@ati.utexas.edu

 

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3 Day Startup Call for Applicants

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Can you start a tech company over the course of three days? 
 
Absolutely. The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: rent work space for a weekend, invite 40 entrepreneurs with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food, drinks, snacks, 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 and a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend. 
 
3 Day Startup (“3DS”) is currently accepting applications for its Fall event, October 21-23. 
 
We’re looking for a good spread of skills and talents. Here are the roles we strive to cover: 
 
* Software Engineer 
* Business (Finance, Marketing, Biz Dev) 
* Graphic Design (Web, Print) 
* Legal 
* Advertising, PR 
* Raw Passion 
 
What’s in it for you? An intense weekend and equal equity in the new company. If you have an idea for a tech startup, and you’ve been delaying to actually act on it for whatever reasons (“no time”, “no motivation”, “no co-founders”), this event could be the perfect vessel to have a team other people help your idea come to life. 
 
There will be sponsors, mentors, press coverage, and of course, the invited participants don’t pay for anything. 
 
If you’re interested, apply at http://austin.3daystartup.org/apply/.

Check out our website at http://austin.3daystartup.org or our Facebook Page.

Questions? Email austin@3daystartup.org.

 

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ATI Announces 2011 Summer SEAL Participants

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin, announced the kick-off of the 3rd annual Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch (SEAL) program today to follow-up on the successes with previous participating startups Mutual Mobile, Solavicta, Wibole, Ordoro and SpectraPhase. 

In both 2009 and 2010, five startups participated and several went on to be successful startups. Mutual Mobile has garnered millions of dollars of revenue, Solavicta won MOOT Corp 2010, Wibole and SpectraPhase are spinning out UT Austin IP and are members of ATI, and Ordoro is also a new member of ATI and has ramping revenue.

This summer’s SEAL program includes the following early-stage ventures:

Azotergon delivers a novel waste treatment process that generates high-value nitrogen compounds. MedMa has a SaaS solution to help nursing homes prevent medication errors.

The Body Browser offers a 3D body surface scanning technology initially targeted at fitness tracking in health clubs. Vectralux provides an optical transceiver vendor that enhances signal performance over multimode fiber. Virtegrity is a novel security software startup tackling the difficult virtualization market.

Kyle Cox, the new ATI – On Campus Assistant Director, said “this 2011 SEAL class is extraordinary in terms of their technical sophistication and focus on solving specific, well-defined problems with technology-based breakthroughs.”

Recently at UT Austin, there has been increased interest in entrepreneurship spurred on by several new programs like the Idea to Product Competition (I2P), the Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition, 3 Day Startup and the Hatchery Class. Courses, competitions, student organizations and UT departments serve students as they progress through the first three stages of a startup: develop innovation, light-touch market validation and business validity. However, as a student progresses through the entrepreneurial process, the last step of making the decision to significantly invest in the new business does not have institutional support at UT Austin, but ATI’s SEAL program does just that.

Each summer, ATI hosts the SEAL program, a two month accelerator for five select UT Austin student-led startups, sourced from other student entrepreneur programs at UT, to make the “Go / No-Go” decision. In order to determine whether their business can develop into a successful startup and to look at the possible roadblocks, the five SEAL teams participate in multiple strategy sessions, interview prospective customers and partners, create financial models, write a high-level pitch, and develop leadership and organizational skills along the way. At the end of the program, each team delivers their ‘Decision Day’ pitch to an audience of potential angel investors, venture capitalists, UT Austin faculty and members of the Austin startup community.

This year’s Decision Day is set for August 2, 2011 at ATI, located at the West Pickle Research (WPR) Building, 3925 West Braker Lane, Austin, Texas 78759. ATI is currently looking for mentors and sponsors for the event.

Bart Bohn, ATI IT/Wireless Director and Founding Director of the SEAL program said, “the continuing evolution of the SEAL program is critical to sustaining the momentum of student-led innovation and entrepreneurship.”

SEAL program partners include 3 Day Startup and the Hatchery Class.

For the full press release view:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/6/prweb8531048.htm

Contact:

Kyle Cox

ATI – On Campus

kcox@ati.utexas.edu

(512) 305-0011

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Austin Technology Incubator Recaps 3 Day Startup Successes as Sixth Event is Completed

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), in partnership with 3 Day Startup, recapped its recent success with the sixth 3 Day Startup (3DS) event at UT.  3DS was envisioned and created by UT students to bring together 40 aspiring entrepreneurs to collaborate, over 60 intense hours, and emerge with a few solid business ideas and beginnings of companies.  The 320 3DS alumni from six UT events to date over the last three years have started ten technology companies – such as Famigo, Odoro, Moodfish and Hurricane Party – that have collectively raised over $3 million in financing. 

It will be exciting to watch what comes from this latest 3DS, where 37 ideas brought to the table Friday night netted out to five companies presented Sunday night.  Running April 15-17, the most recent 3DS drew a few dozen UT students from over 150 applicants and 15+ different majors.  More notably, the caliber of business executives in the room, and through-out the 60 hours this round indicates the value of what’s going on with 3DS.  These highly seasoned, proven business executives serve as volunteer mentors through the weekend (and usually beyond) and included Ethernet inventor, new UT professor Bob Metcalfe; acclaimed tech VC, and former journalist, Stewart Alsop; C-suite executives from Rackspace, Microsoft, uShip and Homeaway; University of Texas leaders; and directors of the Austin Technology Incubator, as well as other incubators like Capital Factory.

“Obviously, I’ve been completely enamored with what 3DS makes happen, getting behind the idea from inception to make sure ATI helped bring 3DS to life at UT Austin,” said Bart Bohn, ATI IT and Wireless director and founding mentor of 3DS.  “All prior events have been beyond words.  But this one; to see Bob Metcalfe, Ross Burhdorf and the other mentors in the room; for upwards to 20 hours each, just collaborating hands-on with the students and wanting to be so active in the company formation process….that blew me away.  And proves we have created something very unique.”

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Four Companies Emerge from ATI-hosted 3 Day Startup

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The following blogpost was written by Melissa Rabeaux, ATI’s Marketing Communications Manager.

mrabeaux

Over the weekend, 42 students from a variety of disciplines participated in 3 Day Start Up Spring 2010, a sleep deprived, super-charged, idea-to-company-creation mini-camp. 9 brainstorming teams were formed with 12 ideas pitched internally to the group. 6 ideas emerged from the heap but 2 were killed during the wee hours. 4 “companies” were officially born on Sunday and were presented to an audience of corporate executives, angel investors and academic leadership.

The final four pitches included:

Clippy – short form video solution

Cinch – Meal recommender application

Inkvox – SaaS creativity platform

Shark – swimming analytics solution

When asked what she thought of the 3DS experience, Celeste Mejia, economics major and consumer of 6 Red Bull energy drinks, said, “Oh! I loved it. It is sort of like getting a mini-MBA in one weekend. It is incredible of what ideas the group came up with in three days. There are super creative people out there and all they need is the right environment, the right tools and right people. 3 Day Start Up provided all of those and more. It was a blast!”

The 3 Day Start Up Fall 2010 in the works. Student entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply. For more information and highlights from the weekend, visit www.3daystartup.com.

*3 Day Start Up Factoid: Over 24 cases of Red Bull energy drinks were consumed over the weekend.

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3 Day Startup Results in 4 New Companies

Monday, November 16th, 2009

As we mentioned this past Friday, 3 Day Startup was hosted here at ATI this past weekend.  It was such a great experience!  I (Aruni Gunasegaram, ATI Operations Director) came for a few hours on Saturday and for the final presentations on Sunday evening.  The energy level in the room and throughout the process was high and the ideas were flowing.

Bart Bohn, our Wireless/IT Director helped to coordinate, coach, and advise the teams and served as the main ATI point of contact throughout the process.

There was a wonderful mix of computer science, engineering, law, and business students all working together to come up with creative ideas.  The 4 ideas that made it to the end were around the following concepts:

  • greeting cards
  • educational gaming
  • mobile, location based services
  • new media for sports entertainment

Judges included Adam Dell, Charley Dean from Silverton Partners, Rob Neville from ATI member company Savara, Joshua Bauer from Other Inbox, Paul Hurdlow from DLA Piper, and a few others.

Check out the 3 Day Startup blog to learn more.  I’m glad I was able to make it and see all of the creativity in progress!  Stay tuned for the next one happening at ATI again in April 2009.

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ATI Hosts 3 Day Startup

Friday, November 13th, 2009

This is the second year ATI has hosted 3 Day Startup on site.  Bart Bohn, our Wireless/IT Director, has advised the teams all three years since its inception.

What it’s all about:

The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: 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.

Who participates:

Passionate students with an entrepreneurial drive, including Computer Science (PhD, MS, undergraduate), MBAs, JDs, graphic designers, PR, business undergraduates, etc. We are looking for strong candidates that can fill the following roles:

Software Engineer
Business (Finance, Marketing, Biz Dev)
Graphic Design (Web, Print)
Advertising, PR
Legal
Raw Passion

Check out the 3 Day Startup Blog to see how things progress over this weekend.  We can’t wait to see what great ideas come out of this weekend!

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