Georgia Tech: Startup Semester

As someone who started a startup during undergrad at Georgia Tech, and received some funding from the university, it's nice to see these kinds of efforts.<p>But the shocker was when I saw "weekends". This initially sounded like a full-time thing, which would be amazing. And why not have some more hard deliverables and have it count as a 3-4 hour elective credit?<p>As for "You do have a chance but you would need to find a technical founder yourself."<p>Harsh. Georgia Tech has a ton of great minds on campus. Setup a site with the CoC allowing students to create a simple profile and express interest in potentially pairing with others for Startup Semester. Like the "I'm looking for a job" checkbox on github.<p>(For those reading this, Georgia Tech also has an incubator called Flashpoint <a href="http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/" rel="nofollow">http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/</a> )

It's great to see my school doing this, but looking at it doesn't seem very different from the senior design/capstone projects that many of the technical majors have already. I assume the big difference is not taking other classes along with this program and you don't have a customer lined up before starting?<p>For perspective my senior design project was a semester long "class" that met once every week or two for milestone updates from the groups, and occasional lectures/instruction from industry folks. My groups project was 4 of us designing and implementing a group management system for social orgs. Basic stuff like shared calendars, sub groups, email&#60;-&#62;forum integration, permissions/views for officers and such. Obviously not the most ambitious project, but the kind of thing that a few college kids could feasibly do in a semester on top of a full course load.

I may have been slower than others, but my weekend time at GaTech was spent on laundry, groceries, and lots of CS homework.<p>Just give them some money and the summer term to focus. Being clever just makes this harder.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. From one point of view, I think this is an awesome idea, get energetic, smart students down the entrepreneurship path early. Then my experience of running an actual startup, the ups-and-downs, the intricacies of building a viable _business_, etc come to mind and I think this is a bad idea. It doesn't matter how much mentoring one has - unless you've been in the trenches of a real world business, you have no foundation upon which to base your own. Not everyone can be Zuckerberg (hell, even Facebook isn't profitable yet). I would much prefer an apprenticeship type of setup - or even better offer this course to alums, or be part of the executive MBA program - those in an executive MBA program have industry experience, come with ideas on how they can improve the vertical(s) they worked in, and understand the real world better than a student who has zero experience. Don't get me wrong - if I were a GATECH student right now, I would love to be part of this program!

University of Michigan already has a course that does something similar. Also, they introduced a 'Master in Entrepreneurship' focusing on all the aspects of Entrepreneurship. They are getting into it in a big way. I bet all the big universities already have courses, clubs or incubators serving similar purpose.

An innovative college needs to make this a four year concentration!<p>It will offer the students skills in design, development, online and regular marketing, PR, public speaking, team building, as well as internships at VC firms, other startups and more.<p>I graduated with a degree in the Recording Industry from a school in and around Nashville, which offered internships at labels and other industry focused businesses.<p>I'm surprised there isn't a web start-up concentration offered at any colleges similar to the Recording Industry concentration I studied. There should be!

I'm glad to see this spreading. A lot of people here are too young to know. Just a few years back, the zeitgeist in the CS/Engineering community was not about startups, which was a real shame. I bitched/ranted about schools not doing more to promote technical people to start companies. pg stated that over time it would invade from the ground up, which seems to be happening: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37850" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37850</a><p>[EDIT: Grammar, wording]

A little context: this appears to be an attempt to emulate UT Austin's 1SemesterStartup at Georgia Tech.<p>[ <a href="http://techdrawl.com/content/put-me-home" rel="nofollow">http://techdrawl.com/content/put-me-home</a> ]

The University of Texas at Austin has had a similar class for a few semesters now. Glad to see the idea spreading.<p><a href="http://www.1semesterstartup.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.1semesterstartup.com/</a>

This is a good idea but why the limit of 30 or strict requirements? It's not like this program using up limited school resources like Flashpoint.

"make entrepreneurship much more accessible to undergraduates" = We'll focus on web startups because everyone can make websites (right?)<p>"We're dedicating an entire workspace just for teams to work, collaborate, and bounce ideas off each other." = We have a room with chairs and computers.<p>"Workshops on lean principles, peer teaching, individualized team deliverables" = We'll teach you what a to-do list and a convertible note is. It's not easy.<p>"Mentorship: Veterans entrepreneurs, business developers, specialists." = Unnamed people who don't know what they're doing tell you they know what they're doing.