3. Welcome Letter
Dear 3DS Participant,
Welcome to the 5th annual 3 Day Startup Event at the
Brandeis International Business School!
The 3DS program aims to create a living entrepreneur-
ship laboratory on university campuses by bringing to-
gether students ranging from freshmen to freshly-minted
PhDs, with diverse backgrounds. Participants will gain
experience in cross-disciplinary collaboration, brain-
storming and ideation, and group productivity, includ-
ing ad-hoc leadership under severe time constraints.
You will be the proud partner of a startup, ready to be
launched at the end of the event. In addition, you will get
a tremendous opportunity to network with mentors who
are leaders in the field of entrepreneurship.
Katherine Ling, Student Organizer
Started at the University of Texas, Austin, 3DS has been organized at various universities
throughout the world. Past 3DS participants have launched over 16 technology based companies
that have collectively raised over $4 million in investment capital. Brandeis University is the pio-
neer to organize such an event on a university campus in the New England area.
This year, Brandeis 3DS started a new workshop series initiative, open to all students across
the university. The workshops ran during the month prior to the challenge and covered a variety
of topics ranging from Marketing to Financing for startups. The goal was to equip students with
essential knowledge that they must have if they are interested in joining in competing in the 3Ds
challenge and joining the startup world.
We are firmly committed in cultivating tomorrow’s future entrepreneurs, and are excited to share
this experience with you. We strongly believe that this weekend spent at 3DS will provide you
with an invaluable experience that will be immensely helpful in your professional life.
Good luck!
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4. A Letter from our Sponsor:
Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center
Welcome and congratulations on being a Brandeis Innovator!
The Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center was established to support the many innovative
activities thriving on campus and we are thrilled to be a part of the Brandeis International
Business School (IBS)’s 3 Day Start-up Challenge. This annual event will provide you with a
tangible, immersive experience in innovation and entrepreneurship.
The center is a partnership between Brandeis IBS and the Brandeis Office of Technology Li-
censing and is committed to supporting events like this, which foster a community of collabo-
ration across our campus. We promote new programs and initiatives that will continue to offer
you opportunities and resources so your great ideas can have a meaningful impact.
Interested in learning more about innovation at Brandeis? Visit http://www.brandeis.edu/otl/
hfic.html to keep up on news about HFIC and other ways to be a part of the innovation mo-
mentum on campus.
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5. A Letter from our Sponsor: The Asper
Center for Global Entrepreneurship
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The Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship at the Brandeis International Business School
supports the study and practice of entrepreneurship across cultures and borders. The center
is dedicated to preparing Brandeis IBS students to understand opportunities and strategies for
entrepreneurial endeavors worldwide, promoting practical research on global entrepreneur-
ship, and actively engaging entrepreneurs in the local community on issues of international
growth and innovation.
The Center was established by Leonard J. Asper ‘86, the current CEO of Anthem Media
Group and the former president of CanWest Global Communications, Canada’s largest media
conglomerate. He led efforts in 2004 to create the Asper Entrepreneurship Forum and the As-
per Awards for Global Entrepreneurship. The annual awards are presented to entrepreneurs
who achieve outstanding success in the global marketplace through creative marketing and
business strategies, as well as demonstrated exemplary citizenship and innovation.
The Asper Entrepreneurial Forum brings in global entrepreneurs to speak to both Brandeis
IBS and interested Brandeis students as part of the foundational courses offered at Brandeis
IBS in Entrepreneurship. For more information, please visit the Asper Center’s web site: http://
www.brandeis.edu/global/asper/
We are honored to serve as a co-sponsor of the 2016 3DS event and wish all the teams the
best of luck!
6. Event Schedule
Friday, April 1, 2016
2:30 - 3:00 PM Registration, Meet & Greet
3:00 - 3:30 PM Welcome & Program Orientation
3:30 - 4:15 PM “Start-Ups from A to Z” with Professor Charles Reed
4:15 - 5:30 PM “Idea Creation & Business Plan Development” with Professor Aldo Musacchio
5:30 - 6:30 PM Brainstorming Session
6:30 - 7:00 PM Pitch & Idea Shortlisting, Team Selection
7:00 - 8:00 PM Dinner
Saturday, April 2, 2016
8:30 - 9:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 - 12:00 PM Team Planning: Market Validation, Business Plan, Product Design, etc.
12:00 - 1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 - 4:00 PM Mentor Panel
4:00 - 6:30 PM Team Planning: Incorporate Mentor Feedback
6:30 - 7:00 PM Dinner
7:00 - 8:00 PM Mid-point Pitches, Prototype Designs and Business Models
Sunday, April 3, 2016
8:30 - 9:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 - 11:00 PM Team Planning: Draft Pitch, Business Plan, Complete Prototypes and Graphic
Designs
11:00 - 12:30 PM Presentation to Mentors for Effective Pitches & Complete Packaging
12:30 - 1:30 PM Lunch
1:30 - 6:00 PM Team Planning: Finalize Pitches, Products and Prototyes
6:00 - 7:00 PM Dinner
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7. 3DS Moderator
Mike McKay
Michael McKay is an Adjunct Professor at Brandeis Interna-
tional Business School and an Advisory Partner at Bain &
Company. He will be this year's 3DS judging moderator. Mi-
chael specializes in Private Equity and Public Markets Invest-
ing. Previously he served as Chief Investment Officer at Port-
folio Logic LLC, a publicly held private investment fund. He
is the founding partner of Bain and Company Private Equity
Group and Results Capital Partners LLC (long-short hedge
fund).
3DS Judges
Rebecca Liebman
Rebecca has a passion for startups, education, and the amaz-
ing things that happen when they are combined. She loves
to work with dedicated, excited, and passionate people and
brings them together to make great things. She is often called
Director of MIH, which stands for Making it Happen. Rebecca
was on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for education and
has had many incredible experiences, especially for some-
one of her age. She founded two startups by the age of 20,
had the opportunity to live in Kenya, completed environmental research in Western Europe,
and worked for some amazing Boston-based startups that went through the MassChallenge
and Techstars programs. Rebecca loves public speaking, the word “plethora,” and motivating
people—especially on Mondays. She has a passion to learn as much as possible by being
a student of life and questioning almost everything. She loves kayaking and other types of
boats, but knows that the best ship is friendship!
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8. Karthik Krishnan
Dr. Karthik Krishnan is a tenured Associate Professor of Fi-
nance at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at North-
eastern University and works with student startups as an
advisor. He is also an angel investor and is a member of the
Launchpad Venture Group, which is one of the largest angel
group networks in the New England area. He has experience
with screening, initial due-diligence, and pitch analysis of
startup companies and has invested in the e-commerce area. Dr. Krishnan teaches a course
on entrepreneurial finance in which students learn about startup financing, receive opportu-
nities to make industry contacts, and come up with a business idea and a final pitch. He has
published many academic articles on entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, angel financing,
IPOs, corporate governance, banking, and financial intermediation. His work has been pub-
lished in top journals in business and he has presented papers at high level academic meet-
ings. Dr. Krishnan’s research has also been cited in media outlets such as Financial Times,
Bloomberg, and Dow Jones Newswires. Dr. Krishnan holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engi-
neering from Delhi University and a Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College.
Steve Ramsay
Steve Ramsay is the Director of Developer, Student and
Start-up Evangelism managing the Boston and New York
markets for Microsoft. Prior to this role he was Director
of the Microsoft Technology Center in Boston, the premier
showcase for Microsoft technologies, innovation and part-
nerships. Steve has also held senior level positions with
Capgemini and Fujitsu working in Canada, Germany, Japan,
United Kingdom and the United States. He is a former board member of the British Amer-
ican Business Council of New England and the non-profit organization, This I Believe Inc.
He holds a First Class BA(Hons) in Business Management and MA International Manage-
ment.
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9. Brahm Pillai
Brahm Pillai is a Director and Senior Product Manager at
SkyBridge Capital (SkyBridge). Based in the New York City
flagship office, Mr. Pillai is responsible for portfolio operations
and trade execution, as well as daily operational management
of SkyBridge fund of hedge fund and separate account prod-
ucts for retail and institutional clients. In addition to his product
management role, Mr. Pillai also chairs the SkyBridge Young
Leaders Circle (SYLC), which is an organization dedicated
to promoting financial and geopolitical leadership among
students and graduates. Also in partnership with SkyBridge, Mr. Pillai recently launched the
FinTech startup Alpha Quotient (AQ). AQ is a P2P crowdfunding platform focused on the
higher education financing market. Prior to joining SkyBridge in July 2010, Mr. Pillai was Vice
President and Senior Product Manager at the Hedge Fund Management Group (HFMG)
within Citigroup Alternative Investments LLC (CAI), where he was similarly responsible for all
product management activities pertaining to fund of hedge funds and separate accounts. Be-
fore joining CAI in October 2005, Mr. Pillai was a paralegal in the structured finance division of
Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP. Mr. Pillai received an M.B.A. from The Samuel Curtis Johnson
School of Business at Cornell University in May 2014, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in
Business & Media from the Gallatin School at New York University in September 2001.
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10. 3DS Mentors
Grace Zimmerman
Grace Zimmerman is a senior lecturer at Brandeis Internation-
al Business School and an experienced entrepreneur in both
the high tech and health care industries, with a long, success-
ful track record of launching new companies and products in
nascent, undeveloped markets requiring innovative marketing
and sales approaches.
Ben Gomes-Casseres
Ben Gomes-Casseres specializes in alliance strategy and
management, based on 25 years of research, teaching, and
consulting on the topic. As a professor at Brandeis Inter-
national Business School, he directs the Asper Center for
Entrepreneurship. His third book, REMIX STRATEGY: The
Three Laws of Business Combinations, was published by
Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Professor Gomes-
Casseres has also published work in the Harvard Business
Review, Financial Times, Strategy & Business, Sloan Management Review, and in academ-
ic journals, and has been cited in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and
Associated Press.
Pito Salas
Pito Salas teaches Software Engineering, Architecture and
Entrepreneurship in the Brandeis Computer Science Depart-
ment. Previously he was the co-founder of an Internet start-
up, eRoom Technology. He is also involved with Open Source
Software Development and providing consulting to technology
firms in the Boston area.
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11. Dan Bergstresser
Dan Bergstresser is an Associate Professor at Brandeis
International Business School. His research focuses on
municipal finance and on the impact of taxation, regulation,
and market structure on financial markets. This research
has been published in the Journal of Law and Economics,
the Journal of Financial Economics, The Quarterly Journal
of Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of
Public Economics, and has been widely cited in both the ac-
ademic and business press. He earned a PhD in Economics at MIT and earned an A.B. at
Stanford. In 2006 and 2007, he worked for the investment manager Barclays Global Inves-
tors, serving in London as Head of European Credit Research. Prior to graduate school, he
worked for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.
Enrique Levin
Entrepreneur by nature, Enrique can be described as a high-
ly creative and analytical thinker with 15+ years of experi-
ence in turning ideas into reality and a great track record for
building businesses that provide value adding products and
services to accurately targeted markets internationally.
His multidisciplinary hands-on background and unique per-
ception of the world give him an enhanced understanding
of complex dynamic systems and social behavior, allowing
him to add value to most business disciplines. His exceptional management skills maximize
the potential of any high-performance team. Enrique has successfully built and executed 6+
business models in the B2B and B2C realms in extremely diverse industries, always with
a frugal mindset, continually optimizing business models and operations for the right KPIs,
while keeping a work culture of quality, discipline and trust. He serves as VP of Product at
Zintro (www.zintro.com), a marketplace for highly specialized expertise, Chair of the Small
Tech Business Initiative at the MHTC (www.mhtc.org) and in the Board of Directors of AANE
(www.aane.org).
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12. Charles Reed
Charles Reed’s early career was with Corning Inc., Johnson
and Johnson, and Dennison Manufacturing, with which he
held senior positions in sales management, manufacturing
management, strategic planning, business development,
research management and general management. Reed later
bought KYBE Corporation from Dennison Manufacturing in
a leveraged buyout. KYBE subsequently became the mar-
ket leader in its industry. He then merged KYBE with Computer Link Corporation and, after
consolidating these companies and paying down the debt, sold his business to Anacomp
Corporation. He has been the lead negotiator in seven company or division purchases or
divestitures, including forming the first (1975) joint-venture in post-WWII Hungary involving
an American company. Reed has taught Entrepreneurship at Brandeis since 1997. He has
developed courses in entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial finance, business plans
and venture business operations.
Bill Ellet
Bill Ellet teaches Management Communication, a required
MBA course at Brandeis University International Business
School, and the Critical Thinking, Writing, and Presenting
courses in the University of Miami Executive MBA Program
for Athletes and Artists. (Students in the program are pri-
marily active or retired National Football League players.)
Previously, he taught in a similar Executive MBA Program
at George Washington University. He facilitates Harvard Business Publishing Case Method
Training Seminars in the U.S. and Latin America, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Gua-
temala, and Mexico. He presents in the Harvard Business School MBA and Executive Ed-
ucation Programs and, for over 20 years, has served as an instructor, writing consultant,
and coach for the MBA Program. He teaches workshops on the case method for LASPAU,
a nonprofit offering programs to enhance university teaching in Central and South America,
and, as a solo consultant, gives workshops on the case method and case writing. He is an
active author and editor. Publications include an online course (Management Communi-
cation), a book (The Case Study Handbook), cases, and a video, all published by Harvard
Business School or Harvard Business Publishing.
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13. Workshops Program
Due to time constraints on the weekend of the event, the Brandeis 3DS team worked to de-
velop a series of workshops aimed to provide students with more in-depth training on a va-
riety of entrepreneurial topics. Through this new initiative, the 3DS team sought not only to
encourage more participation for the 3DS Challenge, but also to spread and grow the spirit of
entrepreneurship around campus.
We would like to thank the following people for holding the 3DS workshop sessions:
Grace Zimmerman: Marketing for Startups, see page 10
Charles Reed: Finance for Startups
Richard Cohns: Computer Science for Startups
Rachel Spekman & Dennis Abelleria: MassChallenge
Aldo Musacchio: Idea Creation & Business Plan Development
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14. Richard Cohn
Richard Cohn is a Principal Scientist at Adobe, where he’s
worked for 22 years, half those years in Boston and half in
Silicon Valley. As architect and technical lead for Acrobat
1.0, he designed the first version of PDF, as well as imple-
mented core pieces of Acrobat itself. He also led the team
that created the first viewer for SVG, the Scalable Vector
Graphics format for the web. Throughout his career, he has
obtained valuable experiences regarding entrepreneurship
through consulting for startups. Richard holds five patents, has a PhD in Computer Science
from Carnegie Mellon, and a BA and MSE in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins.
Aldo Musacchio
Aldo Musacchio holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and
is an associate professor of strategy at the International
Business School of Brandeis University. He is also a Fac-
ulty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic
Research (NBER). Before joining Brandeis, Prof. Musac-
chio was at the faculty of Harvard Business School for ten
years, where he taught courses on economics, strategy,
and entrepreneurship. At HBS he was the Director of the
Building Business in Emerging Markets executive program, Chair of the Latin America Ad-
visory Board, and was part of the faculty who designed the Global Immersion Experience
courses. Originally from Mexico City, Musacchio has also lived in Brazil and Colombia. He
has published two books on corporate governance (Experiments in Financial Democracy,
Cambridge University Press, 2009 and Reinventing State Capitalism, Harvard University
Press, 2014) and a variety of papers in top business journals. Professor Musacchio has
taught macroeconomics, strategy in emerging markets, and entrepreneurship courses in the
United States, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile, Iceland, and Colombia. Recently he began
designing and teaching online courses on entrepreneurship for TEC de Monterrey. Prof.
Musacchio is an advisor of Learn Launch, an EdTech entrepreneurship ecosystem, where
he is part of their consulting team and works on the development of learning management
systems for business schools.
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