GS students participate in the 3 Day Startup Global Round Up Conference
Feature Highlight
By Eminah Quintyne, Feature Writer
Statesboro- Georgia Southern graduate Tyler Fulwood participated in the 3 Day Startup (3DS) global roundup held in Austin, Texas, where the aspiring entrepreneurial 3DS community across six continents came together to network, hear speakers, attend workshops and information sessions, and engage in activities.
Conference participants included university students, 3DS program facilitators, organizers, panelist, and the general public who capitalized on the opportunity to network with like-minded people, meet co-founders, make friends, and take advantage of resources that may take startups to the next level.
Fulwood participated in the 3DS business idea development competition at the University earlier this year, and says the experience made him want to attend the 3DS Global Roundup.
” Attending the conference was a very inspirational trip, and was the fuel I needed to launch my business this year,” said Fulwood. “One thing conference entrepreneurs had in common is they just did it. Fear holds so many people back from turning their dreams into reality. I encourage all aspiring entrepreneurs to participate in 3DS. It is definitely a great stepping stone and you will gain so much from it.”
Conference speakers included dynamic young people like Cam Doody, co-founder of Bellhops, who was a college student with a business idea that now runs as a thriving startup with over $20 million in revenue raised.
Lunch was served over the three-day conference period, and at each dining opportunity attendees had the option to participate in virtual reality gaming stations. Options like these came as a nice surprise to participants. Two virtual reality games were ongoing, Tilt Brush (a 3D painting game) and Job Simulator (a virtual reality world where you game to cause chaos to a work place).
A team of coders for application development from Austin Coding Academy facilitated an app pitch competition. The winner of the competition had the luxury of seeing their vision come life. The code team built a functional draft version of the winning submission, and featured it in a session during the conference.
Information sessions offered professional panelists who spoke on topics like finding product market fit, knowing what it costs to generate new customers, why founders should think about the culture of their startup, how to hire the right employees in an early stage company, how to have a conversation about equity with your cofounder, engineers turned entrepreneurs, when startups fail, equity crowdfunding, and more. Considering the global connection and impact of 3DS, conference organizers provided an information session on immigration options for entrepreneurs working in the U.S. as a non-citizen. Here session topics ranged from obtaining a visa, hiring overseas employees on a visa, and expanding business into overseas markets.
Workshops allowed for a hands-on approach to business accounting for startups, and using it to impact growth. Other workshops included, search engine optimization related to best outcomes for a business’s web presence, and 3DS program facilitators were presented with tips and best practices for delivery of an excellent 3DS programs.
“Global Roundup was an amazing experience,” said Fulwood. “It was a weekend full of CEOs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Participants affiliated with 3DS from all over the world are gathered together and instilled with knowledge and jewels from a professional variety of mentors and CEOs of startup companies.”
3DS is a proven entrepreneurship education program model that originated within the 3DS student organization at the University of Texas (UT). The mission behind the 3DS program models is to unlock and activate entrepreneurial potential in students of all kinds by defining a clear set of directions on how to get started.
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