Bitcamp has always celebrated entrepreneurship, with keynote speakers such as Brendan Iribe (founder of Oculus), as well as student entrepreneurs from Startup Shell, Maryland’s student-run incubator. This year, we are taking our commitment to entrepreneurship to the next level with Bitcamp’s new Venture Trail! The goal of Venture Trail is to introduce entrepreneurship as a viable career path that is open to everyone.
What is the Venture Trail?
The Venture Trail will consist of a set of workshops, panels, and prizes designed to expose tech students to the bustling world of entrepreneurship. We at Bitcamp realize that technical knowledge alone is not enough to bring a new product to life. As a result, it’s important that students become involved, or at least expose themselves in the world of tech entrepreneurship.
Why is it important to get students involved in entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of our everyday lives, especially in the technology field. No breakthrough technology can come to life without a concrete business or marketing plan. The perspective of student entrepreneurs is invaluable when shaping new technology startups, ideas, and products. It takes the efforts of both engineers and entrepreneurs to focus on the design details of a product as well as the big-picture of where it is headed.
How do we make this happen?
The goal of the Venture Trail is to help facilitate students to getting started with entrepreneurship. We want students to realize that entrepreneurship is not just about launching a business, but a lifestyle of innovating and solving real-world problems. So what stops students from getting involved with entrepreneurship?
Risk: Jumping into a new idea is scary. It sounds like an incredible amount of time commitment, and you don’t believe you have the time to juggle both school and your startup, so you feel like your options are either to just focus on school or drop out.
While entrepreneurship is often associated with dropping out of school, there are many students who balance student and entrepreneurial lifestyles. Through the Venture Trail, we aim to expose hackers to life as a student entrepreneur. We will have a set of workshops , as well as a student panel for hackers to engage with student entrepreneurs working on diverse issues.
Lack of Exposure: The bustling world of entrepreneurship can be hard to navigate, especially if you do not know anyone in it. Through the Venture Trail, we will have opportunities for students to engage with key players in the space, such as Venture Capitalists. Venture Trail is open to anyone interested in entrepreneurship, regardless of whether they have worked on their own venture or not.
Lack of Diversity: People from underrepresented groups stay away from the startup space because they feel like they don’t belong, and their ideas don’t matter. In Venture Trail, we will be highlighting initiatives and groups that focus on inclusivity within the entrepreneurial space.
How can I get involved in Venture Trail?
To get involved with the Venture Trail, be sure to attend the Venture-marked events at Bitcamp! These events will be visible on our schedule, so be sure to follow us on social media for more information. To compete for the prize, you can select Venture Trail when submitting your project at Bitcamp (via Devpost)
