By Innovate Pasadena Staff — December 29, 2015
3 Day Startup Pasadena launched at Pasadena City College in Fall 2015 with 40 passionate and entrepreneurial Pasadena-area problem solvers. The event involved so many of Innovate Pasadena's community partners, we decided to go behind the scenes with PCC student, Younghoo Kim, the organizer of the 3 Day Startup, to find out what it really takes to pull off a successful 72-hour event.
1) What is 3 Day Startup?
3 Day Startup (3DS) is a 72-hour long “learning by doing” campus entrepreneurship workshop guiding university-level students through the early stages of starting up a business.
Last November 6-8 at
Pasadena City College, a group of 40 students brainstormed startup ideas, delved into problems, validated ideas and found solutions. We then pitched our demos and mockups to local entrepreneurs, scholars, and investors including
Terry Kay, Chairman of the Board of
Pasadena Angels,
Kenneth Pickar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at
California Institute of Technology,
John Babcock, Venture Partner at
Rustic Canyon,
Dan Beldy, Founder/CEO at 11X, and
Donovan Janus, Founder/CEO at
17 Hats.
This amazing group of panelists gave feedback and advice for the road ahead.
2) Why did you decide to organize it?
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family so it’s part of my DNA to create new companies and technologies. I was looking for an opportunity to participate in a project like 3DS, to learn entrepreneurship by execution alongside other like-minded, top-notch students.
3 Day Startup (3DS) was looking for someone to organize a workshop in the Pasadena area. When I found the web posting, it was an “a-ha” moment for me. I applied to be a Lead Organizer and was accepted.
3) What was your experience of the program?
It was a nine month journey to organize, launch, and complete the 3-Day campus workshop during which I learned invaluable lessons and made some meaningful achievements.
The organizing team consisted of a group of passion-driven PCC students: John Llamas, Patrick Galoostian, Adrienne Austria, Grace Sun Park, and Jungyoon Lee. We worked hard to generate awareness about the 3DS program in the student community.
Dean Salomon Davila at PCC Economic and Workforce Development sponsored the 3-day event. Among other things, he provided us with the opportunity to present the program to PCC Career Pathways students who are delving into projects using the latest technology in media, 2D and 3D design software, scanning and printing, robotics and more.
We visited the
Caltech Entrepreneurship Club in October to present and introduce the 3DS event. Evgeny Mozgunov, a PhD student at Caltech and his startup team “Quantum Financing” joined the event.
We also exhibited 3 Day Startup Pasadena at the Hack for Health Innovation Expo during Innovate Pasadena’s Connect Week 2015.
I learned that to really make this event successful, a lot of connecting and collaborating was required.
4) So you see this as a community event, beyond PCC?
3 Day Startup Pasadena was made possible by the commitment of local entrepreneurs, organizations, and institutions with PCC as our main supporter. Amongst our supporters were Innovate Pasadena’s co-founder Andy Wilson, Open X’s Peter Escartin, and Salvatrice Cummo of the Small Business Development Center at PCC. The list goes on and on.
We also recruited some amazing mentors to help the teams during the event including: Mike Miller from Wild Horse Lab, Lawrence Ham and Nardo Manaloto from Hack for Health, Alex Maleki from Idealab, and Lilian Cheung from Pasadena City College.
Sugath Warnakulasuriya from Pasadena Angels delivered a lecture on the subject of “Lean Startup Essentials” on the first day of the event to all participants; it was a priceless 40 minute lesson that must be a great asset for the 3DS participants as they move forward their startup journeys.
Over one intense weekend, 3DS Pasadena 2015 participants learned entrepreneurship by doing with the great support from local community. Indeed, we all together have built an entrepreneurial community that is getting tighter and support one another as we start our companies and move forward. This is just the beginning….
3 Day Startup Pasadena 2015, Participating Teams and Judges
For more information about 3 Day Startup Pasadena 2015, watch this cool video of the final pitches.
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