Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011, before the event it announces took place in April 2011. Some supporting organisations have since changed name: Everis is now NTT DATA, and the Catalan agency ACC10 (officially ACC1O) is now ACCIO.
Hello! Comunicación has sent us this news: on 1, 2 and 3 April, 40 students will have the chance to create a technology company (a startup) in just three days.
3 Day Startup (3DS), an entrepreneurship initiative from Texas (USA), is coming to Spain, to the city of Barcelona.
The 40 selected participants will “lock themselves in” for the weekend at the La Salle Barcelona campus and prove their worth in business creation, leadership and teamwork, as well as their ability to work under pressure.
The initiative aims to show young entrepreneurs that Spain does offer opportunities to start your own business. Thanks to events like this, private funding is gaining importance as a way to finance new companies when banks refuse credit.
The companies that come out of the event will receive advice from the organizations backing 3DS:
- La Salle Technova Barcelona: will provide its facilities so the business idea can grow and develop.
- Rousaud Costas Durán: a law firm that will offer support on legal matters.
- Everis: a business development consultancy.
- ACC10 (the Catalan government’s business agency): entrepreneurial Catalonia.
Private investors and working business owners will also do their bit. After the three days, on the Sunday, the entrepreneurs will pitch their business ideas to the investors to round off the weekend and obtain the funding they need.
Initiatives like this are exactly what Spain needs, because they encourage young entrepreneurs to lose their fear of starting a business and make someone’s dream come true, creating the kind of forward-looking companies Spain needs to adapt to the new times. Well done, 3DS, well done, Catalonia, and I encourage the other regions to launch similar projects. Best of luck to these young people; I hope they get something productive out of the experience.
Featured image: La Salle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
