iStartup Lab

Community Events

The iStartup Lab hosts events to help iSchool students learn about entrepreneurship and meet other entrepreneurially-minded students and alumni from the iSchool community.

Upcoming events

How to come up with startup ideas – or take your existing concept to the next level

Friday, October 25, 2024
10:30 am-12 pm pacific time
Format: In-person workshop
Location: UW Seattle campus
RSVP for this event

Past events

How to come up with startup ideas and identify a problem worth solving

Friday, May 17, 2024
10:30 am-12 pm pacific time
Format: In-person workshop
Location: UW Seattle campus

Mentors

Amy Hutchins / Founder, Unearth
Amy Swanson / Co-founder, Ultropia
Brian Cao / Founder, Amethyst
Jake Harper / Founder, Napkin
Nick Whiting / Co-founder, kumikai
Shankar Sundaram / Former executive at Indix, Amperity, and Snowflake

Summary of takeaways

  • When selecting a problem space to focus on, consider what you’re passionate about and the audiences you already have access to. You’ll be spending a lot of time talking to users as you plan, build, and iterate your product, so try to find a segment of people or organizations that you’ll genuinely enjoy learning from and solving problems for.
  • Beware of Tarpit Ideas, which are startup ideas that are deceptively attractive, but can trap founders in time-consuming companies that are difficult or impossible to scale. As YC’s Paul Graham suggests, if others have tried the concept you have in mind before and failed, try to go deeper and figure out why the problem is harder to solve than it looks.
  • Don’t be afraid of problems that seem to be off-limits or intractable. Despite having limited resources compared to big organizations, startups have the key advantage of being able to adopt a laser focus on a specific problem and user persona. That focus makes it easier to show meaningful progress, unlocking opportunities to extend the solution to adjacent problems and larger audiences.
  • If there’s a large tarpit of failed companies associated with your problem space, make sure to articulate to yourself (and to customers and employees and partners and investors) why you have a unique insight into the problem and solution that will help you succeed where others have failed.
  • Once you start building, surround yourself with a supportive network of mentors, teammates, and partners, and embrace the inevitable challenges as an opportunity for growth and learning.

How to find a co-founder for your student startup

Friday, April 12, 2024
10:30-11:30 am pacific time
Format: Panel discussion plus virtual networking activity
Location: Zoom

Panelists

Brian Cao / Founder, Amethyst
Jake Harper / Founder, Napkin
Raiham Malik / Founder, mAlIk software

Summary of takeaways

  • If you’re currently a solo founder, try to validate as many aspects of the business as possible (customer need, solution scope, pricing model, etc.) before adding a co-founder. That way, you’ll have a better sense of where the company is heading and which skills and experiences to prioritize when evaluating potential co-founders.
  • While it can be appealing to bring on a friend as a co-founder, it’s hard to maintain both a friendship and a working relationship through the inevitable ups and downs of running a startup. Optimize for fit in terms of skill set, work style, values, and motivations, and if a friend is still your top choice, make sure you’re OK with prioritizing the work relationship over the friendship.
  • The logistics of adding a co-founder to your team can be a bit daunting, both from a legal/contractual perspective and when it comes to figuring out the interpersonal dynamics. When engaging with a potential co-founder, try to start with a short-term test project to confirm that you work well together. Then, if you decide to move forward with adding them to the founding team, make sure to put all the necessary contracts in place — including a vesting schedule for the new co-founder’s shares or options — so you’re protected if they decide to leave the company early on. And be sure to get everything in writing, so there aren’t any disputes later.

How to find funding for your student startup

Friday, March 8, 2024
12:00-1:00 pm pacific time
Format: Panel discussion
Location: Zoom

Recording of event

How to turn your class project or hackathon concept into a startup

Friday, January 19, 2024
12:00-1:00 pm pacific time
Format: In-person workshop
Location: UW Seattle campus