Join V1's 2021-2022 Core Team!
Last call for Contrary's Pitch Competition and deep dive on blockchain!
A message from the V1 Core Team ⚡
Hey everyone,
V1 started last year with the vision of empowering student builders to work on interesting side-projects and startups. Since then, it’s evolved into an ever-growing virtual community of some of the most ambitious students at the University of Michigan.
From hosting the Morning Brew CEO to Y Combinator to our amazing Maker Mondays (pop out to the one tonight!), we grew pretty damn quick (we have over 400 people reading this 🤯!), and we’re not stopping here. We have a lot of plans for the future, and we’re hoping you’d be interested in it.
We’re so excited to officially open up apps for our core team! Roles include Director, Head of Engineering, Head of Community, Head of Content and more ✨. Find out more information here. Hurry and get your apps in soon - deadline is this Sunday, the 18th, at 11:59 pm EST!
Building V1 is perhaps one of the most meaningful things you can do during your college career, partly because nothing of its kind has ever existed before: it’s the community for ambitious student builders at the University of Michigan.
If the idea of empowering students excites you, then you’re in the right place. V1 isn’t going anywhere but the moon, and we’d love to take you along for the journey. 🚀
— V1 Core Team (Samay, Dheera, Sean, Dar, Ellie, Varun)
V1 Has A New Look 🎤
Speaking of transitions, our website also has a new look! We’ve updated our website with the current leadership team plus did away with the dark mode. Light mode is back in fashion. 😈
Last Call to Pitch your startup to Contrary on Friday, April 23rd!
Don’t forget that on April 23rd from 6-8 pm, Contrary at Michigan is hosting the Midwest Startup Pitch Competition with UIUC, WashU, Purdue + more schools 🤩. Student-founders will be presenting to a panel of judges, investors, and leaders of some of the most cutting-edge start-ups in the tech world, including Turner Novak (Gelt VC).
If you want a chance to pitch and win up to $1k, get your apps in tonight!
Not pitching but still want to show support for your fellow Wolverines〽️? Register to attend here!
Member Spotlight: Samay Shamdasani
The man, the myth, the legend. Time to meet the brain behind V1 🧠
Samay is the guy pulling the strings behind the entrepreneurship ecosystem at Michigan. He's killing it as one of the co-presidents of MProduct, one of the creators of V1, running his own company (Enlight), and a VP at (Contrary). He also likes to run, and make videos (SMASH that subscribe button).
You can always count on Samay to be sending some dope links in the discord, or find him offering to help with anything related to building. He's a source of constant positive energy and also the source of some awesome fireside speakers like Alex Lieberman 👀
Send some love to Samay on Discord today ❤️
Beneath the Hype: Blockchain
If you haven’t heard of Bitcoin yet, it’s safe to assume you live under a rock. But for those of you who are enamored, excited, and curious about the future of digital currency, we will be beginning our crypto-journey, and our first stop is Blockchain, the record-keeping technology behind Bitcoin!
For starters, Blockchain is a special type of database in which data is stored in blocks, which are chained to each other. In our everyday lives, when we want to transfer money over to someone, there are middlemen involved (like banks) that we trust. However, blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger system in which no single entity has control over our finances. This peer-to-peer (P2P) nature ensures all users have control, thereby enhancing safety, security, trustworthiness, and speed of transactions.
A block, which is the building component of the Blockchain has three components: the data, the hash, and the hash of the previous block (which makes it a chain!). The type of data that the block stores depends on the type of the blockchain. For example, a Bitcoin blockchain would store transaction details about the sender, receiver, and number of coins.
While Blockchain is most known for Bitcoin, there are several other use-cases of this nascent, yet promising technology. Some examples include recording smart contracts, storing medical records, and collecting taxes.
We hope this primer on Blockchain gave you a high-level understanding about the topic. Next week, we’ll dive deeper into Bitcoin and the role of peer-to-peer networks!
What We're Reading 🧠
this week's best reads sourced directly from the V1 Community
Elad Gil's High Growth Handbook
Jonathan Haidt on What Makes Someone Republican or Democrat - while this one isn't directly related to entrepreneurship, it talks a great deal about the future of capitalism, and the psychology of societies.
That’s all for today’s newsletter but if you have any specific requests of what you’d like to see in future editions, any ideas for the V1 Community, want to contribute to the newsletter, or any thoughts at all please reach out to us via email or DM us on Twitter!
And if you’ve read all this and still aren’t in the Discord community, what’s holding you back? Join here!