Hindsight : CAMPUS 1871

Showing posts with label CAMPUS 1871. Show all posts

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Tech Talk for Campus 1871

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN THIRD ANNUAL CAMPUS 1871 STARTUP WEEKEND IN CHICAGO

Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 15:50

AMELIA SALTER

ECONOMIC OUTREACH COORDINATOR

In early April, Chicago technology incubator, 1871, brought more than 90 talented students together from across Illinois to develop and pitch real startup companies at the third annual Campus 1871 event. Twenty-one students hailed from our Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield campuses and included a diverse group of students from the Colleges of Engineering, Business, and Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the School of Public Health. Others came from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, IIT, Loyola, and DeVry.

I had the pleasure of helping event organizers with the weekend long startup competition, which included a keynote from 1871 CEO Howard Tullman, a Q&A with a panel of successful founders from 1871, and sessions on how to build a business plan, perfect your pitch, and design the ideal user experience. Several U of I staff and alumni were also on hand to offer up mentorship and guidance to the student teams at Campus 1871. Stephanie Larson, Assistant Director of Student Programs & Marketing at the UIUC Technology Entrepreneurship Center (@TECenter) and Joey Mak, OVPR’s Director of Economic Development, provided input on each team’s business plan, while UIUC alumnus Marty Malone (@martymal1) helped students practice their pitching.

Students self-selected into 12 teams and spent the weekend developing their business idea. The weekend culminated with each team pitching their idea to a panel of judges.

This year’s competition was fierce and several of the teams presented creative and well-thought-out business ideas. Two teams tied for third place: EquipMe, an online platform connect people with disabilities to the medical equipment they need, and AnySpace, a platform that allows users to rent out their extra space for social events. Second place went to dating app, ChiDates, which is leveraging video capabilities to create new user connections. Each of the teams received a 3-month membership to 1871.

UIC industrial engineering student Maria Mckiever had the winning idea. Grapevine, a startup that connects users with stylists in the black hair care community, is based on Mckiever’s personal experience of having to find stylists through the grapevine. The Grapevine team, which included students from Northwestern, University of Chicago, and IIT, received a 6-month membership to 1871.

“Campus 1871 was an incredible experience because it allowed students from all different universities and perspectives to come together to build out an idea,” says Mckiever. “Our team is so excited to continue working on making Grapevine a reality.” Read the ChicagoInno article about the team here.

Overall, the weekend was packed full of entrepreneurship, innovation, and inspiration. It was wonderful to watch students from different schools, majors, and backgrounds come together. Congrats to all the students who participated and big thanks to the entire 1871 staff (@1871Chicago) for a wonderful event!

Photo by 1871.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN OPENS CAMPUS 1871 2016 WITH TECH TALK

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Final Demos at Campus 1871 Hackathon Begin

Thursday, January 07, 2016

1871 LAUNCHES APPLICATIONS FOR THIRD ANNUAL CAMPUS 1871

1871 LAUNCHES APPLICATIONS FOR THIRD ANNUAL CAMPUS 1871

Applications Now Open For Weekend-Long Startup Event; Students From 1871’s University Partners Encouraged To Apply; Event To Take Place April 8-10

CHICAGO (JANUARY 7, 2016) – 1871 today announced the opening of applications for Campus 1871, a weekend-long startup event held each spring for local university students. In its third year, Campus 1871 draws a diverse set of students from each of 1871’s university partners to brainstorm business ideas, learn about entrepreneurship, develop business plans, and pitch their businesses to a panel of judges. 1871’s university partners include Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Loyola University Chicago, DeVry University, and Illinois Institute of Technology.

“Campus 1871 is the ideal opportunity to introduce students to the entrepreneurial and tech community in Chicago,” said 1871 CEO Howard A. Tullman. “The programming throughout the weekend leaves students excited and inspired to pursue their entrepreneurial passions. Our goal is to retain talent in the city by showing them why Chicago is the best place to start and build a business and to have an impactful career with a wonderful quality of life.”

During Campus 1871, students divide themselves into teams (with each team including hipsters, hackers, hustlers and dreamers) and spend the weekend building out their business ideas. After joining a team and deciding on an idea for their new business, students spend their time creating their business plans, building prototypes, and developing their business pitches. The program concludes with pitches from each of the teams, with winners chosen by a panel of judges. Throughout the weekend, students have the opportunity to hear speeches and receive mentorship from leaders in Chicago’s entrepreneurial community.

“Campus 1871 is a wonderful opportunity for students to collaborate on creative business ideas while also learning the various aspects of entrepreneurship,” said University of Illinois President Tim Killeen. “The event engages students from all academic backgrounds and shows them how building a business, especially in Chicago, is an exciting and fulfilling career path.”

Campus 1871 draws students from each of 1871’s university partners, including Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Loyola University Chicago, DeVry University and Illinois Institute of Technology. These universities all have dedicated spaces at 1871 where students and faculty come to work on their businesses and immerse themselves in Chicago’s entrepreneurial community. 1871 was recently ranked as the top university-affiliated business incubator in the United States by UBI Global due in large part to these relationships.

“During the course of a single weekend, Campus 1871 allowed me to collaborate with students from other schools to explore the various aspects of building a successful business,” said Jessica Chitkuer, member of 2015 Campus 1871 winning team LanguaLlama. “It was a great program that was especially valuable in showing me how my academic and professional experiences could help me pursue a more entrepreneurial career path.”

Applications for Campus 1871 are open through January 31, 2016. To learn more and apply, visit www.1871.com/Campus1871.

About 1871

1871 is the home of more than 350 early-stage, high-growth digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, this 120,000 square foot facility is also the headquarters of nationally recognized accelerators Techstars Chicago and the Good Food Business Accelerator; impact investing fund Impact Engine; half a dozen industry-specific incubators in key areas such as real estate, education technology, food and financial technology; several emerging tech talent schools (Flatiron, The Fullbridge Program, Designation and the Startup Institute), and the state's leading technology advocate, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. It is the second home to Chicago-based VCs, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, MATH Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures, OurCrowd and Chicago Ventures, as well as satellite offices for Northwestern University, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, and DeVry. 1871 has fast become recognized as the hub for the city’s entrepreneurial/technology ecosystem and has been featured in Inc. Magazine, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business among other top media. 1871 is the flagship project of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.

Monday, April 13, 2015

HAT Presentation at Campus 1871

CAMPUS 1871

Monday, April 07, 2014

INK FACTORY VISUALIZATIONS FROM CAMPUS 1871 EVENT

CAMPUS 1871: BRIGHT STUDENTS & INNOVATIVE IDEAS

This past weekend, over 60 talented students from the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Northwestern, and IIT participated in Campus 1871, where they built teams to develop and pitch real startup companies from scratch at 1871, Chicago’s premier technology co-working space. In addition to seeing some really great ideas come to life, it was refreshing to see students from many universities working together around a shared vision.

The University of Illinois was strongly represented. In total, 25 students from the Chicago and Urbana campuses were invited to join, 18 of whom participated. Jed Taylor (@jedtaylor) and his team from the Technology Entrepreneurship Center (@TECenter) in Urbana helped organize the event. Additionally, Dr. Darko Marinov, a Computer Science professor on the Urbana campus, attended and helped mentor the student teams. Marty Malone(@martymal1), B.S. Broadcast Journalism (’13) was also on-hand to help the students and 1871 staff with coordinating the event. Lastly, Hanna Cannell and Aaron Weiss from Urbana’s College of Media were present all weekend to help capture video footage of the weekend’s programming on behalf of 1871. Finally, I had the distinct privilege of serving as one of the judges, which was a very difficult job considering what an awesome job these student teams did.

There were nine companies in all, and UI had representation on all three teams that placed (see below for the winning companies and the UI students that were on those teams). The 1st-place winners received a year-long membership to 1871, and the 2nd- and 3rd-place winners received summer memberships.

Alpacu (1st Place) – A team that has collectively moved 51 times, pitches a web service that will take the “sucks” out of “moving sucks.” This team was extremely impressive and was able to prove feasibility, market validation (they talked to 9 different movers), and an impressive website. Alpacu (“Al - pack - you”) is one platform for sourcing all moving companies and pricing in Chicago.

· Braven Leung

FizzApp (2nd Place) – FizzApp helps take the bottlenecks out of bar operations (and no, they aren’t talking about the beers). Bars struggle to keep up with peak demand, and consumers are frustrated with unreasonable wait times at popular venues. FizzApp streamlines both the bartender and the consumer’s experience by optimizing drink prep, and taking care of the payment processing, thus, reducing wait times and increasing output.

· Kirthi Banothu

· Neville Jos

· Matt Lodes

YOUnify (3rd Place) – Helping you discover the connections you never knew you had, YOUnify scours your social and professional networks to develop a map of your professional connections. An aggregate picture of your strengths and weaknesses will help you get the referrals you need so you can land your dream job. This idea was originally pitched by former 1871 intern Connor Regan.

· Jay Bensal

· Mayank Jain

· Michal Krupa

· Brendan Ryan

Check out the Campus 1871 website for more information and a full recap of this weekend’s events. Big thanks to 1871 CEO Howard Tullman (@tullman) and staff members Mike Hufstetler (@HuffStetLer) and Jasmine Slivka (@JasmineSlivka) on curating a great program! And congrats again to all the students who participated!