A week ago I got an email about an upcoming 3 Day Startup (3DS) intensive.
3DS is a 72-hour learning-by-doing workshop that comes to your campus to teach entrepreneurial skills to university students in an ‘extreme hands-on’ environment. In doing so, this program helps university students develop and translate their research into a start a company over the course of one weekend. Intense!
So as part of the Advance Queensland program, 3DS offered their program exclusively for Griffith University Higher Degree by Research candidates. The Advance Queensland program has an extensive suite of services, events and programs under its Entrepreneurs and Start-up banner, with a strong focus on supporting academic research and industry collaborations.
So I applied.
And today I got word that I have been accepted to attend next week’s 3DS intensive!
3DS – An unsettling space for me to be in
I am intrigued to explore possibilities of how I can commercialize my research. Taking an entrepreneurial approach to layer over my predominately community-based, NGO grassroots practice will be a very interesting exercise in reframing my current conceptual, ethical and professional perspectives. This is the main aspect I am most interested in having challenged during the 3DS intensive: scaling up and operationalising my bicycle research (and programs) for profit.
This is a very uncomfortable space for me to consider as all my previous ventures have been staunchly community-driven and non-commercialised – as evidenced by this blog, and IG, my research and myself being completely ad-free, unsponsored/unfunded, and non-monterised.
So what happens at 3DS?
During the event, participants work with peers from different backgrounds and get mentorship from some leading entrepreneurs.
One the first day, participants form teams, develop an idea, conduct market research, talk to customers, create a prototype, and pitch to real investors by Sunday night.
Participating in 3DS means getting connect with talented people, exploring ways that your research topics can be commercialised, create something collaborate from the ground up, and learn about what it takes to establish a company.
The 3 Day Startup (3DS) program
Image Source: 3DS Website
Bootcamp (1 week before program date): Participants meet, get introduced to key entrepreneurship principles, and learn best practices for maximising the 3 Day Startup program experience.
Day 1: Participants arrive – with or without startup ideas – and a facilitator leads the group through dedicated brainstorming, preliminary pitches/feedback, and team selection modules. Some teams work late into the night, and others prefer to rest up in preparation for day 2.
Day 2: Customer Discovery (teams exit the building, hit the phones or social media, and talk to potential customers), structured mentorship, intermediate pitches and feedback sessions. Day 2 places heavy emphasis on business model generation.
Day 3: Continued execution (including pitch workshops) leading into final pitches/demos to an esteemed panel of mentors and investors.
Phew!! Sounds super useful and super concentrated!
I’ve also been checking out some of the material and online content 3DS provides through their blog. I’m feeling inspired already!
So what might eventuate?
I don’t know yet!!! But, I am keen to be challenged and ready to get inspired.
I’m also very interested to see what ideas might develop and explore ways to operationalise my research.
I wonder what opportunities this experience may present and what direction this could take me…. some unique possibilities I hope!
I’ll let you know!
See the 1’48” video below for an overview of 3DS.