ASU Techiepalooza gave students, founders and innovators an opportunity to find ideas, co-founders, friends and motivation.
According to Brent Sebold, the faculty director of Entrepreneurship + Innovation at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the event was a place to not just meet people, but to make genuine connections with potential colleagues.
“Techiepalooza is actually having legitimate startup founding teams form as a result of this event,” Sebold said.
Entrepreneurship + Innovation at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering hosted the event on Sept. 12. Student founders, mentors and industry partners met in a high-energy environment designed to spark ideas and build teams.
Sebold said their core entrepreneurial motto was to “just start.” Students at Techiepalooza were not required to have a polished pitch or perfect product, but were encouraged to have an idea or a prototype to start from so others in attendance could begin to work with them.
That mindset was echoed by the fashion startup Stiled.
“If you need to find a team, (Techiepalooza) is a great place to go and find people who can help you with your idea and your venture, but definitely have that idea — that is all you need,” William Hanson, ASU alum and CEO of Stiled, said.
Apoorv Singh, a chief product officer of Stiled and junior studying computer science, said the event is beneficial for students who don’t have a pitch idea. He also said students who are interested in entrepreneurship should “just show up.”
“Events like this, you have a plethora of ideas going around,” Singh said. “Even if you don’t (have an idea), you could always come next year and you already prepared what’s expected for you from here. You can just do anything.”
Sponsoring and coordinating the event were the Honeywell-ASU Innovation Hub and Hool Coury Law. Furthermore, in addition to Techiepalooza, students have access to other entrepreneurship opportunities like Venture Devils and SkySong.
“The reason they give the funding is because they want to help the next generation of entrepreneurs, and they know that a little bit of seed funding can help them experiment,” Sebold said.
Sebold said this spirit ties directly to ASU’s position as the nation’s No. 1 ranked university in innovation. The design of the University is unique, combining “access with excellence,” while also maintaining an expectation for students to perform at a high level, he said.
He also said the University operates like a startup itself: It is constantly testing new models for higher education.
“We want to encourage all of our students, faculty and staff to think like entrepreneurs as well, so this event is designed to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and action in the same way that our leadership of the University are thinking entrepreneurially about higher (education),” Sebold said.
Such commitment is key for the student founders attending Techiepalooza. In addition to funding, this event offered mentorship, alumni connections and guidance from entrepreneurs who have built successful companies.
“The alumni network is expansive,” Hanson said. “There’s a lot of people you can meet who have built stuff in the past, who you can go and talk to. Essentially, (they) can guide you in the process.”
Notably, Sebold said a large percentage of the students in attendance were engineers, which runs counter to ASU’s strong background in business entrepreneurship. Sebold, who has a background in business, saw that as an advantage.
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“You need the engineer, and you need the business-minded person,” Sebold said. “I’ve seen most of our engineering students figure out both. They can do the technical side, and they can figure out the business side.”
Sebold referenced successful University startups like AirGarage as examples of computer science, physics and business majors relying on their various skillsets.
Aadish Lele, a senior studying engineering, robotics and technology management, attended the event. Lele said he wanted to come back to the next Techiepalooza not necessarily as an entrepreneur, but as a “techie,” or a technology expert.
“I would say I am definitely interested in at least working with them at an early startup stage,” Lele said.
The connections students create and the inspiration students receive are key reasons the Entrepreneurship + Innovation faculty put the event together in the first place.
“Entrepreneurship is a team sport,” Sebold said. “It’s very rare that you can create impact at scale by yourself, so the learning outcome of Techiepalooza is, if you have a crazy idea, look around. You’re not alone.”
Edited by Kate Gore, George Headley and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at ngmohta@asu.edu.
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Nikhil Mohta is a sophomore studying B.S. in Finance and is currently a Business Community Leader for the W.P. Carey School of business. He is also an active member in various clubs on campus like PIERA.
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