Bootstrapathon Part 2 today was a great success! Thanks all for coming!
For the first hour, Eric Snell from IndieGoGo, Christina Pearson from Pillsbury Winthrop, and Olga Grigoryeva from Plug and Play talkeded about how to bootstrap and reveal available services for entrepreneurs, followed by elevator pitches from student groups and startups (at different stages). Dave Charron of the Lester Center was kind enough to moderate this event. Check out the video of the first hour. The second hour (or more) was followed by networking.
Bootstrapathon was co-hosted by the Berkeley Business Plan Competition, Computer Science Undergraduate Association, Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honor Society), Global Social Venture Competition, Haas Entrepreneurship Association, Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Plug and Play Technology Center, and Startups at Berkeley (ST@B).
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This was my first St@b event and I was in complete awe of how the community entrepreneurs just here on the Berkeley campus are motivated to learn about business venturing and development. One would think that the recession and general conservative attitudes from venture capitalists over the last 2-4 years would be enough to deter or at least intimidate future businessmen and women. But the Bootstrapathon proved me wrong and showed me that even the most devastating economic downturns can be seen as a promising business opportunity for others. The diversity of the business plans, the ages of the entrepreneurs, the differing business backgrounds all showed me how innovative this campus really is. I was nothing short of impressed. As a future yerba mate entrepreneur, I found the meeting both informative and rejuvenating. I came out of the meeting scribbling ideas down and making sure I could read the list of emails and websites I got during the networking portion. What is unfortunate to me is the lack of exposure these types of groups and events get on the campus as a whole, I think if it were better advertised, more Berkeley students would consider and follow through with their pitches and you would see more Berkeley student run businesses out there in the world.
Paula,
Thanks a lot for your comments and insights!
The problem you identify (the lack of exposure on campus) is exactly the problem we at ST@B and sister organizations are trying to solve. We’re introducing more events (and different types of events, and we’re trying to reach out to more people. So far, most of our events have been focused on those who are already strongly interested in entrepreneurship – we’re trying to broaden our scope by reaching out to more people and introducing more (and different types) of events.
As for Berkeley students running businesses out there in the world, there are an impressive number started and run by Berkeley alums (or students!). But given the vibrancy of the campus and the intellect and energy of the people here, there is definitely room to improve! Stanford arguably creates the best environment in the world to churn out the best entepreneurs and companies; there is no reason Berkeley cannot be like this.
(If you want to talk more offline, my email address is sushant (dot) shankar (at) gmail.com)
Sushi
Interesting….
I honestly don’t think VC funding is a ‘driver’ in startups. Due to the recession, less qualified and intelligent people are occupied with work. I think having free time, qualifications, clusters of ‘jobless’ friends (so enough to divy up the workload and bring in extra resources in the form of favors or friends of friends), and no option for employment forces people to be more resourceful and more ‘risk taking’.
I think necessity and the internal drive for ’self realization’ are stronger drivers towards innovation and starting up. Funding is more of a byproduct.
There’s a lot of research that can be done (given enough data) on employment’s correlation with startups … (which came first unemployment –> Startups, Startups grow and need to hire –> increased employment).
Check out this report from Sweden (especially figure 10 on page 24) which shows that high tech startups usually ‘give’ back to the unemployment rate after a 4+ year lag.
I think economic recession is exactly the right time for this type of thing to grow.