Why Berkeley-Haas? UC Berkeley is one of the top 3 universities in the world, has more top graduate programs than Harvard or Stanford, and is located in the most innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world – the San Francisco Bay Area. More than 50% of U.S. and over 1/3 of global venture capital is invested here. Berkeley-Haas is ranked 4th in entrepreneurship according to Businessweek and 2nd in Social Entrepreneurship according to US News. According to a recent LinkedIn analysis of 120 million profiles, Berkeley-Haas has the 4th largest alumni network of founders and the majority of them are in the Bay Area. Berkeley-Haas was also recently ranked 2nd in Universities producing VC-backed entrepreneurs. From Google Earth to Bright Source Energy and Fair Trade products, Lester Center entrepreneurs realize the Berkeley-Haas mission to “Redefine how we do business.”
Overview of Programs
Want some expert advice on your business idea?
Spinning your wheels trying to choose the right business model?
Students and alumni have the opportunity to schedule 20-minute sessions with some of the Bay Area’s top entrepreneurs, VCs and attorneys through our Mentoring Hours program. We have over 50 mentors who generously donate their time to help students with their business ideas in person or via Skype.
The Dean’s Startup Seed Fund provides $5,000 grants to early stage start ups involving Haas students. The grants are intended for use in prototype development and customer discovery activities. These awards provide critical funding for high risk, high reward projects that best embody the Berkeley Haas Defining Principle to Question The Status Quo.
Berkeley-Haas faculty offer a wide range of entrepreneurship courses with an emphasis on Lean Launch methods and extending to specialized social impact and technical areas. Courses are geared both to students interested in an introduction to entrepreneurship and those who want in-depth immersion in the three phases of the entrepreneurial journey: ideation and team formation, customer discovery and validation, and startup acceleration.
The Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program supports premier global competitions at Berkeley-Haas:
- The Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) allows students to apply the art and science of venture investing. VCIC has an undergraduate and graduate track. The top teams selected to participate in the competition receive training at our workshops from the Bay Area’s top VC’s and Attorney’s. The winning team represents UC Berkeley at the regional and global rounds of the competition (Visit vcic.org for more information on the Global competition)
- UCB Hult Prize Competition. The Hult Prize challenges teams around the world to build viable enterprises that will impact the lives of 10M people in the next decade.
There are a wide variety of Student Clubs and Activities oriented to entrepreneurship, both at the Haas School and on campus. These clubs offer many special events and also provide leadership opportunities for students. Club activities are an excellent opportunity for networking and team building.
We are always looking for students to get involved with the VCIC Competition and the UC LAUNCH Startup Accelerator. Email us at [email protected].
UC LAUNCH is the University of California’s leading accelerator, designed to transform early-stage startups into fundable companies. From 100+ applications a year, our judges select ~20 of the most promising startups in the UC system. Teams are paired with serial-entrepreneurs and mentors with deep operational experience and are led through a rigorous Lean Startup-focused curriculum. The three-month-long accelerator helps UC startups quickly discover and develop scalable business models.
During LAUNCH, startups will refine their value propositions, protect IP, connect with industry experts, get minimum viable products into customers’ hands, prove their scalable business model, pitch to investors, and become fundable. The program ends in a Demo Day in which teams pitch to judges for cash prizes in front of a live audience.
The Northwest Region NSF I-Corps Hub at UC Berkeley trains early stage teams with a fundamental technology or engineering innovation to find a scalable business model through the customer discovery process.
During a free 10 day course with 3 remote evening sessions, you’ll learn from proven entrepreneurs how to conduct 20 customer feedback interviews, identify your top customer segment and value props, and find product market fit.
Visit our website for more information.
StEP (Student Entrepreneurship Program) is a 10-week startup incubator program that connects UC Berkeley community members with complementary skills and helps bring their ideas into the world.
Visit our website for more information.
Our faculty partner with UC Berkeley’s Center for Executive Education (CEE) to offer courses in entrepreneurship and venture capital. Learn from our world-class faculty including Toby Stuart, Andre Marquis, Jerry Engel, David Charron, Drew Isaacs and more.
Once you have an entrepreneurial idea, there are a wide variety of paths you can take. Whether you are passionate about consumer IT solutions, social ventures, biotech, venture capital, or energy, we have a place for you to explore and meet like-minded entrepreneurs.
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