By Andrew Morin
Pulse Staff Reporter
Palo Alto’s the home of many innovative ideas. Through such innovation, a free 6-week Startup (Entrepreneur) Boot Camp for students and faculty was born.
The Boot Camp for this quarter is taking place from March 23, 2018, to May 6, 2018. The Learning Company, based out of the Alamo Colleges’ wing, handled all the Startup Boot Camp scheduling.
The idea for the program came from both Chancellor Bruce H. Leslie and a group out of The University of Texas at Austin named IC2 Institute a “think and do tank” for all facets of creating “entrepreneurial wealth”.
Aside from a co-sign from board members and outside academic organizations, the Boot Camp receives a considerable amount of outside funding, which keeps this course free for its enrollees. Lunch and parking are provided, too!
The program also receives resources in the form of donated work/time, such as advice from lawyers, graphic designers and app developers at a reduced cost. These donated hours prove to be priceless to the students in the program.
“You can’t just throw money at a problem. Sometimes you got to throw some hard work at it,” said Hitish Nathani, the program director and chief innovator at The Learning Company.
Those with an entrepreneur mindset will find comfort in a thriving environment. Those who merely have business ideas will have an opportunity to make their proposal a reality. The business-owning guide is broken down into easily digestible parts, such as forming the idea, marketing it, financing it and more.
“This is as hands-on as it gets,” said Jorge Latore, a second-year Palo Alto College Business Administration major.
Latore, who served 10 plus years in the military, has always had the leadership mindset and was attracted to the Boot Camp for the opportunity to network with individuals who share the same entrepreneurial mindset.
Kayla Garcia, a Nursing major and a returning student in the startup program, is operating her own live performance booking platform. The program and its resources helped lead her to someone to establish her LLC and set up her business bank account.
“They offer a lot and for it all to be free… is pretty awesome,” said Garcia.
All ideas are conceived by the students and developed with the help of the instructors/peers. However, the student’s idea is their own, and they aren’t owned by Palo Alto or the Alamo Colleges.
With this Startup Boot Camp coming to an end, students may register for the next session. The current students meet every Friday during the six weeks.
Future schedules for the Startup Boot Camp will be released before the Fall 2018 semester, so be sure to keep an eye peeled for registration deadlines and times.
For more information on The Learning Company, email them at dst-innovation@alamo.edu.
For a face-to-face visit, their offices are located at 110 E Houston St. at Geekdom on the eighth floor.
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