The first Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week organized by Startup@Berkeley, an interdisciplinary club on campus, will bring nearly two dozen entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from such companies as Evernote and Sequoia Capital to campus Nov. 18 to Nov. 22 to inspire students to pursue entrepreneurial careers.
Startup@Berkeley partnered with Alsop Louie Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Y-Combinator to create speaker panels every day of the week from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., concluding with a demo date Friday with Berkeley-affiliated startups. Two Haas alumni will participate in the inaugural Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week: Danae Ringelmann, MBA 08, co-founder of Indiegogo, and Nikita Bier, BS 12, CEO of Outline.
All events are free, although registration is required. (For registration links visit berkeleyeweek.com or click on links below for each event.) Students are invited to submit their resumes on the event website for opportunities to work at speaker and sponsor companies.
"We noticed there weren’t any campus groups at Berkeley that unified all the campus initiatives centered on entrepreneurship. We wanted to create this event to bring everyone together," says Startup@Berkeley Co-president Rachel Tsao, BA 15, who is double-majoring in statistics and cognitive science. "We chose panels whose topics were broad enough that a computer science major or a business student will be inspired by these stories."
The series of events was timed to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week, started in 2008 to create a global movement to inspire people everywhere to unleash their ideas and take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey.
In addition to events organized by Startup@Berkeley, the Haas School's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship will be hosting three events during Berkeley Entrepreneurship Week. Following is a schedule for the week:
Monday, Nov. 18
Founder Panel
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School
Keynote speaker Quinn Slack of Sourcegraph; panelists Alon Salant of Good Eggs, Matt DeBergalis of Meteor, Adam Ely of Bluebox, Josh Buckley of Minomonsters, and Anson Tusi of Spoonrocket.
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Technology Leadership Panel
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Speakers: Dave Engberg, CTO, Evernote; Brandon Golm, senior director engineering, Eventbrite; and Jeff Burton, executive director, SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup accelerator.
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum/Peterson Series: The Sharing Economy
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School
Co-hosted by the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for Responsible Business
Wednesday, Nov. 20
Bplan Competition Presents: Hacking Startups
5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Bank of America Forum, Haas School of Business
Wednesday, Nov. 20
Social and Networks Panel
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall
Speakers: Danae Ringelmann of Indiegogo, Aman Khanna of Collegefeed, Andrew Mager of Spotify, Daniel Brusilovsky of Ribbon, Sharran Deora of Mounza, and Eric Chen of Uj Ventures.
Thursday, Nov. 21
Venture Capital Panel
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
10 Evans Hall
Speakers: Michael Berolzheimer of Bee Partners; representatives from Google Capital, Alsop Louie Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners (tentatively confirmed).
Thursday, Nov. 21
Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series: Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Wells Fargo Room, Haas School
Friday, Nov. 22
Demo Day 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall
Keynote Speaker: Kevin Hale, a partner at Y-Combinator and founder of Wufoo
Campus startups: Outline; Dropsense; and Eko Devices.