A comprehensive list of resources available for undergraduate entrepreneurs at Cal

When I came to Cal, I was excited by the campus’s spirit of innovation and knew I wanted to start my own company. However, despite the ample opportunities available, the decentralized nature of our large campus made it difficult for me to find the resources I needed. It took me a good part of the past three years to become acquainted. Through this guide, I hope to make it easier for current and aspiring student founders to navigate the Berkeley startup ecosystem and take advantage of the fantastic opportunities listed below.

Quick Notes:

  1. This guide was made with undergraduates in mind, however ~60% of these resources are accessible by graduate students and alumni as well. For a broad overview of all resources available at Cal, regardless of class status, check out Berkeley Gateway to Innovation.
  2. Because the previous version was so popular (over 7,000+ reads!!!), I updated this post in May 2018 to include relevant information for the 2018–2019 school year.

Table of Contents:

I. Undergraduate Courses

II. Funding (VC & Competitions)

III. Incubators & Accelerators

IV. Student Organizations

V. Events

VI. Misc.

I. Undergraduate Courses

Most undergraduate classes on technology entrepreneurship are taught by the Sutardja Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship (SCET), a program within The College of Engineering under Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR). Undergraduates are eligible to receive a Certificate for Technology and Entrepreneurship through the SCET upon completion of the A. Richard Newton Lecture Series, plus 5 additional units (more info here).

You can find SCET course descriptions, class numbers, and units count here

Across the street from the SCET building in Memorial Stadium is the Haas School of Business, and the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program (BHEP). The BHEP, like the SCET, offers undergraduate courses on technology startups, but provides no certificate of its own.

You can find BHEP course descriptions, class numbers, and units count here

Besides the SCET and BHEP, other departments at Berkeley also offer classes that students may find useful. These include:

You can find course descriptions, class numbers, and units count on BerkeleyTime.com

UC Berkeley also offers a summer study abroad program known as Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe. Through a partnership with the European Innovation Academy, Berkeley students will spend a month in Europe (Portugal in 2018, Italy in 2017, France in 2016) to learn from famous motivational speakers, leaders in industry, and serial entrepreneurs and apply the teachings to launch their own company.

II. Funding (VC & Funding Competitions)

One of the amazing things about Berkeley is the abundant on-campus funding available for student projects. Here is a list of Berkeley affiliated funding opportunities I have come across:

Besides approaching these opportunities directly, founders can also try reaching out to Student deal scouts. Deal scouts are students who are well-integrated within the school’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and selected by venture funds to serve as their eyes and ears on campus. At Berkeley we have scouts from CRV (me!), Pear, Sequoia Capital, NEA, and more, all of whom are willing and able to provide feedback and connect you with someone on the investment team if he/she thinks there is a good fit. I aggregated a list of all the Berkeley deal scouts in the past, but this list is likely somewhat outdated. A simple LinkedIn search for “Deal Scout” or something similar and filtering by UC Berkeley should yield a more up-to-date list.

BHEP’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Map. Some of these programs are exclusive to Haas-MBA students and are not mentioned in this post.

III. Incubators & Accelerators

Beyond VC and competitions, students also have access to numerous student-run incubators and accelerators to receive funding and guidance for their companies.

Launch 2018 Demo Day drive.google.com

There are also non-UC Berkeley affiliated accelerators & incubators in the area, including The Batchery and Berkeley Ventures, that are worth checking out.

IV. Student Organizations

On-campus clubs and independent student organizations are great places for founders to expand their network, find co-founders, and discuss ideas. Here are some good places to look:

Click here to see all student organizations at Berkeley.

V. Events

There are soooo many tech/startup events at Berkeley, so instead of listing them individually, here are some channels to subscribe to to stay up-to-date:

VI. MISC

And finally, here is an assortment of useful links that doesn’t quite fit anywhere else:

  1. Accelerated: weekly newsletter ran by Justine & Olivia Moore, investors at CRV, covering trends, news, and internship and full-time job openings in technology.
  2. AVC: daily musings from USV’s Fred Wilson, a prolific investor in the NYC ecosystem
  3. Crunchbase Daily: daily newsletter on general technology news
  4. Hacker Newsletter: Weekly newsletter containing the best of Y Combinator’s blog Hack News. Full of interesting articles and links.
  5. Token Economy: Weekly opinionated recap of the most interesting news in blockchain.

I hope you found this post helpful in turning the ideas gnawing at the back of your head into reality. Feel free to email me at dtao114@berkeley with feedback, and best of luck to you going forward! :D

About the Author:

David Tao is a Senior studying Economics at UC Berkeley. He is passionate about working with startups, and is involved in Berkeley’s entrepreneurship ecosystem through the LAUNCH accelerator, CRV’s Deal Scout program, and blogging. He interned at Anthos Capital, a Santa Monica based venture and growth equity firm, during Summer 2018 and will return as a full-time investor upon graduation.