Energy was buzzing at PLUGGED: Intro to the Dallas Startup Community at The DEC (Dallas Entrepreneur Center) on Wednesday night, where Co-founder Trey Bowles announced its latest programming ProjectEDU: An Educational Series for the North Texas Entrepreneur.
Bowles says the program is the first of its type he’s aware of. “It’s really about creating a practical and dynamic set of programming that is directly applicable to the entrepreneur’s business during the actual class,” Bowles said in a release.
“The entrepreneur will not leave empty handed.”
Trey Bowles
ProjectEDU is a nine-week course that begins July 21 and goes through Sept. 15. Local entrepreneurs, highly specialized professionals, and other experts from the DFW area will be teaching the nine interactive classes that will help anyone who’s looking to start, launch, or grow their business. The weekly, two-hour classes will alternate between The DEC and Addison TreeHouse.
The course is designed to allow attendees to take one, a few, or all of the classes. Each class can stand on its own, but taking the entire course will help entrepreneurs turn an idea and into a business. The cost is $20 per class or $150 for the entire course.
Each class starts with a short lecture and activity where the entrepreneurs get to engage in the subject matter in a way that actually moves their business forward, and then, finally, they will leave the class with some form of work product, Bowles said.
For instance, if a class is focused on financials, instructors will help the entrepreneurs develop a real-life P&L, while they’re in the classroom.
“The entrepreneur will not leave empty handed,” Bowles said. “They will leave with something that makes their business or idea better.”
THAT’S NOT ALL
The Plugged event kicked-off with a networking happy hour, followed by a history of the startup community, and then, one-by-one, a number of successful entrepreneurs took to the stage with Bowles, where they answered a few questions, shared tips, and recalled their (often comical) memories from their early startup days.
Some of our favorite moments (and some sage advice) from the stage
“You are more interconnected than most of my friends in Silicon Valley,” Alexander Muse, serial entrepreneur and partner at Sumo Ventures, told the packed house on why Dallas is a great place for startups.
It was a “frat house for startups,” said Co-founder of CoHabitat Blake Burris about an old house on Routh St., where he and some others housed their first co-working space in 2008. “It looked a lot like Animal House.”
“My first startup lost $65 million,” Trail Blazer Capital Managing Partner Joel Fontenot said as a one-up to Alexander Muse’s $35 million startup loss.
“Give before you get. Help people before you ask for help,” said Michael Sitarzewski of LaunchDFW. “It’s very simple. Do that.”
“If you get too high of a valuation during your friends and am round, it will hurt your series A round,” said Kevin Vela, Managing Partner at Vela Wood PC.
“The Dallas startup scene is alive, growing, and well. Data supports it,” said Debra Swersky, on “Why DFW?” Check out the data in the infographic.
“The community is growing up. We have to be OK with the challenges that come with it. We have more responsibility,” said Gabriella Draney, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Tech Wildcatters.
Check out the #getpluggedDFW photo gallery here.
Project EDU class schedule
July 21
Is Your Idea a Company? (Startups 101) at The DEC
July 28
Layman’s Law (Legal) at Addison TreeHouse
Aug 4
Master of Coin (Finance) at The DEC
Aug 11
All About People (HR/Building a team) at Addison TreeHouse
Aug 18
NTX MVP (Minimum Viable Product) at The DEC
Aug 25
How Not to Suck at Sales (Sales) at Addison TreeHouse
Sept 1
To Market (Marketing & PR) at The DEC
Sept 8
The Art of War and Fundraising (Fundraising) at Addison TreeHouse
Sept 15
Pitch Perfect (Pitching) at The DEC
For more information or to sign up for ProjectEDU, visit The DEC.
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