Bootcamp promotes tech-based business startups

When considering the term “boot camp,” usually the image of a strictly disciplined, gruelingly physical military workout comes to mind. Los Angeles’ General Assembly brings a different kind of boot camp to USC and UCLA students, though: one that provides the skills necessary to begin or work at a startup company.

“Basically our boot camp is designed for students who want to learn more about opportunities in technology and startups,” said Bita Shahian, a 2011 USC graduate who works for GA as a partnerships associate.

The event will bring together hundreds of students, as well as technology and startup company executives, for deep conversation and intense learning in only three hours. Shahian wants the event to help create conversation around startups and technology in ways that undergraduate majors don’t touch on.

“I hope that students come away with a sense of how to find meaningful careers for themselves, and they get excited about technology and design and all the elements we’ve made so much progress in,” Shahian said.

Founded in 2011 in New York, GA is an organization that helps Americans learn more about modern technology and techniques necessary to join higher tiers of America’s workforce.

“Our mission is to help people forge more meaningful and challenging career paths for themselves,” Shahian said.

GA works as a community to provide full-length classes in areas such as software development and design as well as more efficient ways to teach technical skills to those without graduate school background.

Its classes are focused specifically on people who have not received higher education degrees but hope to challenge themselves by entering higher-level jobs in technical fields.

Startup Bootcamp, the brainchild of Shahian, is GA’s way of reaching out to college students. The boot camp is tailored to students interested in technology and will focus on the development and marketing aspects of beginning or working for a technology-based startup.

“For a startup, [entrepreneurs] basically need five things; somebody to help with marketing and development, somebody to manage projects, someone to do web development, someone to design the actual product and someone to work with software,” Shahian said.

Shahian said she wanted to create a program that would be useful for college students as well as encourage students who live in Los Angeles to stay in the area and bring their technological skills here rather than going directly to the Bay Area.

“[Our goal is] to help students who are interested in entrepreneurship to break into startups with unique opportunities and training,” Shahian said.

Sasha Spala, an executive board member of USC’s Girls in Tech club, said that this is a unique opportunity for the girls in her organization as well as others interested in technology and startups.

“We really want to get girls and their friends involved,” Spala said.

Because the boot camp will bring students from USC and UCLA together in a way that connects their passions and interests, Spala also sees it as a good networking opportunity.

“I think it’s really cool that we have an opportunity to connect with students from our rival school who we otherwise never would [connect with],” Spala said.

The free, three-hour event will take place on Saturday at the GA’s headquarters in Santa Monica. It is open to undergraduate students from USC and UCLA, who can sign up by going to startupbootcamp1.eventbrite.com.

 

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