2020' LaunchPad Startup Weekend California took place October 23-25th this year. This event is for students early in their journey with no prior training or existing venture. Over the weekend, students attend workshops, receive mentor feedback, and get to participate in a pitch competition against other teams honing in on their teamwork and company-building skills in just a few days.
One of the participants and budding entrepreneur Ankita Ahluwalia talks about her experience at the event. Ankita is the founder of POWAN(Power of Words and Numbers) Initiative which is a free high school tutoring service. She is currently a Freshman at UCR majoring in Computer Science with Business Applications.
During the Pitching competition, she teamed up with other students presenting their business idea. While hers didn't make it to the final two she still found fun and experience in working with the finalists. " Even though I was the only freshman there, I felt comfortable sharing my ideas and eventually made many new friends. Overall, I learned A LOT! Seriously, the things we accomplished in two days utterly surprised me. We came up with a logo, website, business proposal, value propositions, marketing techniques, and so much more!" She throughout the event relearned the power of words, on how wording can make or break a pitch. Your passion for whatever you do is essential to any project you want to make a reality. Once the event was over she had gained new members for her business' team and connections.
Another participant Jack Adams who is a business accounting student at UCR. He discovered the event through his business partner Ethan Castro who is the founder of Edge Sound and one of the 2020’s Launchpad Summer Fellowship teams. His own personal pursuit of making music through EOI Records still in the early stages of its buildup.
While his event pitch didn't win the competition, he took away a couple of skills from working with HydroCandy team. All which helped to contribute to his confidence in pursuing entrepreneurship. He learned how to use the business model Canvas (a strategic management template that helps to figure out how to start a startup), how to get the attention of customers, and how to pitch ideas to investors. When asked about his biggest takeaway from the event Jack answered “The importance of effective teamwork. When a team does not have a balance of organizational behavior, members of the team feel unmotivated and may either leave the team or perform less productively. A startup team simply cannot afford an ineffective team given the short amount of time that they have before pitching an idea.”
UCR's Office of Technology Partnerships, with The Blackstone Charitable Foundation and Techstars, delivers Launchpad at UCR to help students succeed in entrepreneurship and their careers. Whether you have an idea, have a startup, or just curious about entrepreneurship, LaunchPad @ UCR offers a variety of resources at all stages of idea and venture development. To learn more visit LaunchPad @ UCR or contact Mai Temraz (mai.temraz@ucr.edu).