Startup Weekend spurs innovation, grows leaders
December 16, 2019
In November, four UAF students planned, organized and executed Fairbanks Startup Weekend.
Computer science undergraduate students Malvika Shriwas and Theng Yang and mechanical engineering undergraduate students Daniel Luna-Sanchez and Gerald Montuya were responsible for a 54-hour event, which hosted more than 20 participants. The event taught participants how to take an idea, validate it, prototype it and pitch to the community.
Startup Weekend is a global program from Techstars that has taken place in over 160 countries around the world to help foster a startup mindset within every community. This was the seventh Startup Weekend in Fairbanks.
“Organizing Startup Weekend for the community of Fairbanks has been nothing short of an unforgettable experience. At the beginning of it, we were a bit in over our heads. Realistically, the weekend is planned three months ahead of time. Being four optimistic students, the short timeframe (one month) couldn’t scare us,” said Montuya.
The students were able to do this with support from the community both inside and outside the university.
The Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research provided the students with the opportunity to travel to Columbia Startup Weekend in Missouri before hosting the Fairbanks Startup Weekend. The UAF College of Engineering and Mines and the UAF School of Management helped to advertise and send students to the event, while numerous businesses throughout the Fairbanks community, such as Bettisworth North and Mt. McKinley Bank, offered support through sponsorship, donations and mentorship to participants during the weekend.
The event is entirely led by volunteers, with financial support from the community. Montuya and his team started with no sponsorship dollars in their coffers; their goal was to secure $5,000.
“Unfortunately, asking for money wasn’t really a skill any of us really had developed,” said Montuya.
With patience, practice and doing more than just e-mails and calls, they were able to chip away at the $5,000 goal. Just three days before the event, they secured their largest donation from Bettisworth North in Fairbanks and reached their goal.
“It was undeniably worrisome, but everything seemed to come together at just the right time,” Montuya said.
The Alaska Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship provided the students with support, mentorship and office space throughout their organizing campaign.
“The event organizational skills we learned are things we can apply to any aspect of our lives," Montuya said. "We learned the importance of reaching out to the community in person and being genuine. We helped foster the spirit of entrepreneurship within the Fairbanks community.”