CSU first Colorado university to host 3 Day Startup

It has helped 8,640 students, raised $70 million and launched 90 companies. The 3 Day Startup program, an experiential entrepreneurship program, is coming to Colorado State University in February. CSU’s College of Business is the first in Colorado to host the highly successful program.

The 3 Day Startup is for students interested in entrepreneurship who want a quick program to show them the basics to get started on a path to developing a business. The program is held over three days. Similar to Start-Up Weekend, students come to the weekend with a variety of backgrounds and levels of entrepreneurial interest and experience, but everyone leaves with entrepreneurship essentials and time with an actual business. 3 Day Startups have been held at universities across the country and world, including Harvard, MIT and the University of Texas-Austin.

"The program runs over three days and teaches students the basics of early-stage entrepreneurial processes, basically the foundation of beginning a startup,” said James Cao, a sophomore Computer Science major at CSU and lead organizer of the program. “We are bringing in mentors from around the Fort Collins startup environment, like Dan Holt, chief executive officer of BillHero. I think this will be a great learning experience for anyone looking to pursue entrepreneurship.”

The program is free of charge, and an informational session is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in the Lory Student Center on campus, Room 308.

Applications are open from now until Feb. 3 and can be found at http://coloradostate.3daystartup.org/. The program will run Feb. 19-21. For more information and updates, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/3DSCSU.

About 3 Day Startup

Founded by a group of cross-disciplinary students frustrated with the unexpressed potential for startups in the university environment, the initial 3 Day Startup program took place at the University of Texas in 2008.

The student organization incorporated as a nonprofit in 2010 and began expansion to universities across the globe. While early programs focused on strictly technology- and web-enabled startups, demand has led the team to expand the program to function across broader entrepreneurial endeavors. Schools have hosted 3DS programs focused on themes such as social innovation, energy, culinary, hardware and more.

For more information, visit https://3daystartup.org/.

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