Twenty undergraduate student startups from The University of Texas at Austin will present five-minute investor pitches to the Austin entrepreneurial community Thursday, Dec. 1. The startups are part of 1 Semester Startup (1SS), a class at the university that supports undergraduates who are starting companies.
Event: 1 Semester Startup Demo Day at The University of Texas at Austin
When: Thursday, Dec. 1, 5-9 p.m., open to the public
Where: Red McCombs End Zone Club, Gate 16, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
The event is open to the public and interested attendees should RSVP online.
1SS, which has 75 enrolled students, allows undergraduates to experience entrepreneurship first-hand while learning from some of the most successful entrepreneurs in Austin.
"The motto of The University of Texas at Austin is 'What Starts Here Changes The World' – we are in the changes-the-world business of our university," said Bob Metcalfe, one of the three instructors for 1SS and professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering. "We are focused on entrepreneurial, technological innovation at scale, in particular, startups."
Students from across disciplines, including computer science, engineering and business, advanced their startup companies during 1SS and were assisted with a semester-long program of startup acceleration. Students had to find co-founders, develop an elevator pitch and talk to customers. They also heard from local entrepreneurs including: Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc.; Jason Cohen, founder of WPEngine; Ash Maurya, founder of Spark59; and Frank Moss, former director of MIT's Media Lab and former CEO of Tivoli System.
1SS is taught by Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, founder of 3Com and the Cockrell School's Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise, as well as Joshua Baer of Capital Factory and the Department of Computer Science, and Johnny Butler of IC2 and the McCombs School of Business.
Agenda: (subject to change)
5 p.m. – Investor-startup reception
6 p.m. – Introduction
6:15 p.m. – 10 startup pitches
7:15 p.m. – Half time
7:45 p.m. – 10 more startup pitches
8:45 p.m. – Investor-startup reception
