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We have two great events planned this week! The founders of TrueBill (among other companies) and UMD alums are coming to Startup Shell tomorrow at 6pm! The Mokhtarzada brothers are serial entrepreneurs who have created almost a billion dollars in company value and will be hosting a fireside chat for students interested in entrepreneurship tomorrow at Shell. Come through and ask some questions! We are also having a venture capital and board game night on Thursday!
I just learned about Startup Shell, unfortunately in my senior year. I'd love to try to join!
Edit: Please let me know if this isn't the right place to ask this. Thanks!
Edit: Please let me know if this isn't the right place to ask this. Thanks!
Excited to announce our first event for the semester! We will be holding a discussion/hacking session/showcase focused on cryptocurrency, web3, and NFTs. I'll personally be experimenting with programming smart contracts in Solidity 😀
Tuesday September 7th at 7pm in the Shell space!
Tuesday September 7th at 7pm in the Shell space!
Hey everyone, hope you all have a great start of the semester. I am a Co-Founder of a startup and now that we are back in person I would like to find out if there is a dedicated space, time or event to hang out with fellow entrepreneurs on campus? I second Matanya, does the Startup Shell accepting applicants? Or do you need volunteers to restart the engines? Thanks, Kris
Managing a community is tough, especially without the typical physicality and tactility of in-person events. Over the past year, we've let in batches that haven't yet experienced the dynamic of a late-night Grind Night, a Shell Retreat, or just kickin' it on a bean bag.
How we got here
Regardless, a dashboard for Shellers, our partners, aspiring shellers, and alumni was needed, pandemic or not. Some of you may know and even had used tin.umd.edu, my vision of an interconnected campus, focused on innovation rather than one-upping. And if you haven't, don't worry, it didn't work out. I pitched it to every organization on campus and every center for innovation, seeking their buy in to use the platform and engage together. Many people liked it, some people loved it, but ultimately the plan was too ambitious and conflicted with more institutional plans for community building.
A few years ago, my.startupshell.org was formed to solved this issue, running on Wordpress. That was my first experience after joining Shell and was easy and welcoming, but the solution required a lot of maintenance and hacky solutions to adopt everything we needed. The dashboard needed to:
A few years ago, my.startupshell.org was formed to solved this issue, running on Wordpress. That was my first experience after joining Shell and was easy and welcoming, but the solution required a lot of maintenance and hacky solutions to adopt everything we needed. The dashboard needed to:
- Be a source of truth for Shellers - Members needed a reliable place to find and be notified of events, announcements, connect with members, etc.
- Allow for a preferred sign in - Although having a @startupshell.org email is great, it was not necessarily convenient, especially after graduation. We saw a lot of requests for flexibility to use a personal email.
- Facilitate conversation - Shell's community is in a lot of places: Facebook, GroupMe, Slack... GroupMe works well for current students and immediate updates, but many people, especially newer batches, just don't have a Facebook (or deleted theirs). It's been around forever and probably won't be going away, but just doesn't offer the same customizability. Slack is awesome for the Directors.
- Searchability - Having a super search bar for everything Startup Shell is super useful, and this platform has it. Find members, events, and resources all in the search bar above.
The Platform
That brings us to this, a consolidated solution focused on Startup Shell rather than connecting the campus. Moving forward, this will be home for:
- Mentorship - If you're an alumni, partner, or want to give back by helping rising doers, click here to sign up as a mentor.
- Events - Events hosted by us and by others around campus will be posted here and on our website. Join the space to get notified.
- Discussions & Opportunities - The Discussions tab is public, so anyone can view and post there. For conversations with just Shellers, we have a secret section 🤫. Share all your opportunities in Opportunities.
- Resources - resources.startupshell.org will be deprecated and redirected here. Some are public, but most are private, for Shellers only. We also built a Startup Guide at UMD for easy access to campus resources
- Member Directory - Replacing a Coda document, find everyone involved with the Startup Shell community. Shellers get their own tags by batch, if they are a founder/fellow, and if they are an alumni. Click on Map to see a map of everyone across the globe. This works dynamically based on your profile, so enter City, State under Location to show yours. (In the works, just squashing some bugs)
Just the beginning
It's just getting started, but I'm sure there are things to improve and add. Questions and comments, just reply below. Let's build this thing together.
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Do you have plans for Summer 2021? Apply for the Dingman Center's Terp Startup Accelerator program! You'll spend eight weeks over the summer making substantial progress on your startup venture and you'll also receive up to a $5,000 stipend!
Apply Now! go.umd.edu/TerpStartupAccelerator
🌎 Predictions for Environmental focused Ventures
💸 Economic impacts of climate change
👨⚖️ ESG from a Data driven angle
🚜 Modernizing the next generation of farms
Not on iOS?
Join us at startupshell.org/space to listen in and even contribute to the conversation.
https://lu.ma/event/evt-7TGPJpK8Crj69hU
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📈 Pandemic Investing trends & opportunities
⚒ Building a startup during covid
👋 Clubhouse
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Join us for a talk with Y Combinator partner Aaron Epstein and Zentail Founder Dan Sugarman. https://ycombinator.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEtcu6oqzkqH9UF5RQJwsy6wYQgRltOTJ9u
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