Thanks to all who attended our Startup School Reception on Saturday! The event drew a large crowd of hackers, entrepreneurs, and students from all over. If you missed the reception, check back soon for updated information on upcoming events this semester. Thanks again to law firm Dorsey & Witney for sponsoring the event.

Be sure to make the ST@B after party at Haas (5-7:30). We are going to be broadcasting the after party with the original Justin.tv hat cam, so tune in if you can’t make it.

The registration for the event has closed, but ST@B is hosting an after-mixer at the Bank of America Forum in the Haas School. That is open to all ST@Bers who can register here.We hope you can make it for food, beer, and fun! Thank you to Dorsey & Witney for sponsoring the event!

Mobile Match
The team created a mobile application that connect conference goers. Users that download the application take a quick survey about their interests, career, and reasons for attending the conference. Based on these results, users are given recommendations of other conference attendees that they are most likely to “connect” with and alerted of their location.

Prize Parking
The team seeks to solve the recurring pain (especially in Berkeley) of finding parking spots in busy urban areas. Prize Parking aims to be an “EBay for parking” by connecting individuals with unused spots with drivers in need of a place to park. The team has built a mobile app for finding spots based on a user’s current location and a website for long-term parking needs.

OddJobbr
The team seeks to create a mobile platform for outsourcing small, repeatable tasks such as completing surveys or proofreading essays. The concept is similar to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, but is designed primarily for smart phones.

IHouse
Connects students in the US seeking to learn Mandarin with teachers in China, via Skype. The team cited a lack of affordable language education and an underutilization of internet-based learning as their primary motivation in pursuing this venture.

OmeTest
Provides mail-in STD testing services. Seeks to provide a level of privacy and convenience not provided by current STD testing options, which include free clinics, health centers, and personal physicians. STD testing kits are mailed home, require a urine sample, and are 99.7 percent accurate.

Entrepreneurs Create Their Own Job Market

By CHRISTINE CHEN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Thursday, May 14, 2009

Jason Stauth wanted to find work after graduate school that would challenge him to think outside the box. He found a source for his creativity when he joined start-up GreenLight Energy, where, besides making solar panels, he says he gets to create something that he truly values.

Stauth, a UC Berkeley alumnus, joined the scores of graduates who, facing stagnant job opportunities, are now considering starting their own companies or joining those of friends, a trend being fostered by a developing entrepreneurial network on campus.

Students have taken their own initiative in forming groups, like Startup @ Berkeley, where budding entrepreneurs meet at the offices of various Berkeley start-ups to throw around innovative ideas and form new partnerships, said UC Berkeley junior Eli Chait. A business major and student representative of venture capital firm Alsop Louie Partners, Chait helps run the biweekly meetings.

Other business and technology programs on campus, which provide students with a taste of what it is like to start a company, have also grown significantly over the past four years.

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, for example, has seen an increase in class enrollment from 80 students at the start of the program to approximately 800 this past year. The center provides a curriculum for both business and engineering majors that introduces the main concepts of entrepreneurship.

The increase in enrollment is due to greater interest among students in finding out what it takes to self-start a company, said the center’s executive director Burghardt Tenderich, who added that the program’s profile has risen thanks to word-of-mouth exposure.

“The goal is for people to get the entrepreneurship idea, in the same way engineering school provides students with skills that they can use now or later,” Tenderich said.

The center’s Venture Lab holds competitions for students to present their business idea to venture capitalists and other business entrepreneurs. The prize is $10,000 dollars for each of the four groups and-starting this past year-office space in the Bechtel Engineering Center-housed Venture Lab. The joint office space has brought about great productivity through brainstorming, said Ikhlaq Sidhu, director of the center.

Sixty-five teams competed in this year’s competition, a considerable increase from 15 teams four years ago. To compete, student teams give five-minute “business spiels.”

One of this year’s winners, Modista, is a Web-based product designed to enhance Internet shopping. Cofounder Arlo Faria said that while Stanford University is at the center of Silicon Valley and is established as a start-up hot spot, UC Berkeley has also been developing its own start-up culture in recent years. Most recently, the engineering school has been developing its own incubator for companies focused specifically on high-tech ventures.

“This is a major effort through the College of Engineering,” Faria said. “While there was a business school incubator, now there’s a sort of engineering incubator.”

David McIntosh, cofounder of start-up Redux, said that after gaining experience from launching his own start-ups, he wanted to help develop a stronger entrepreneurship network within Berkeley.

Redux, an online social network based on University Avenue, actively seeks out UC Berkeley students for summer internships and jobs, giving students a taste of what it is like to work in a start-up. For younger start-ups, the key to success is often how well team members work together.

That is why it is essential for students aspiring to start their own companies to make contacts right now, while they are still in college, said Jerome Engel, executive director of the campus’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

Senior Stephen Liu, a business major and cofounder of 5-week-old Campusmunch.com, said he always threw around ideas with other students who also expressed interest in starting their own businesses, and met his business partners, who include mass communications and economics majors, in this way.

Such diverse partnerships are not unusual in forming a start-up. This year’s Bears Breaking Boundaries competition, which funds student groups with original research ideas, saw increased participation from students in majors outside of science and business, said Annie Yeh, program development officer for Big Ideas @ Berkeley.

Yeh said there were many multidisciplinary teams that participated this year, with backgrounds in majors such as music and ethnic studies.

Starting a business can be especially difficult in the current economic downturn, however. While some entrepreneurs say fewer people are investing in companies right now, they also add that now is the best time to acquire employees for your company.

“If you can find a cofounder, then there are a lot of people to hire,” Chait said. “It can be a good time to start a company-it’s just more difficult to get financing.”

The problem of finding investors for start-ups is a prevalent one for small businesses nationwide. According to the National Federation of Independent Business’ April survey, 63 percent of small businesses nationwide reported falling profits.

This is partially due to most small business owners using credit cards or home equity loans to fund their start-ups, said Bank of America spokesperson James Pierpoint. Such loans are now falling through.

Yet most students involved in start-ups maintain that they intend to stick with their ventures and weather through the tough economy by being cautious with funds.

UC Berkeley alumnus John Graham, chief operating officer of Wolfire Games, said his company will focus on one or two projects before expanding to gain more funding. In the current economic climate, he said, there is much more responsibility involved in maintaining a company.

“It’s both relieving and stressful to have to be your own boss,” Graham said.

IEOR 190A- Engineering Entrepreneurship- 5/6 and 5/11, 3:30-5PM (150 GSPP)

CS 169- Software engineering- May 15, 2-5PM (306 Soda)

CS 160-User Interface Design and Development- Games with a purpose- May 6, 10-12 (306 Soda)

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).

Powerpoint slides: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfsvsrv7_72fx4k72w5

Video (warning: several expletives): http://qik.com/video/1564639, http://qik.com/video/1564668

Join us tomorrow, Tuesday April 28th @ HP Auditorium, 306 Soda – for Bootstrapathon Part 2!

I want to comprise a list of all Berkeley student entrepreneurs who have blogs and are on twitter. I think this list will be a good way for all of us to connect on different networks besides the standard facebook.

Please submit your URLs as comments to this post! I’ll start with mine:

Entrepreneurship Organizations

Haas Entrepreneurs Association
ST@B works with a number of other campus organizations both formally and informally to help our beloved entreprenurs. Haas Entrepreus Association (a.k.a Haas EA) is the largest entrepreneurship group on campus with over 300 members. It is an MBA focused group whose mission is to “to create and foster a dynamic entrepreneurial environment for its members by providing innovative opportunities, meeting forums, and resources.” This year they are expanding the club to include the larger Berkeley community, meaning undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni in business, engineering, and all disciplines. I am a member of the Haas EA planning committee and we regularly host Haas EA leaders at our ST@B events and leadership meetings. You can find membership information here. It costs $25 to join their mailing list and have discounted access to several annual events.

Haas Venture Fellows
The Haas Venture Fellows is a “select group of Haas MBA students who receive hands-on experience in the venture capital industry by undertaking project work for prominent Bay Area venture capital firms.” More relevant to you entrepreneurs out there, they run the HVF Pitch Lab which “provides entrepreneurs from the greater UC Berkeley community with the opportunity to practice their pitches and receive truly objective feedback on their ideas.” Entrepreneurs can book a 45 minute time slot where they pitch an experienced group of MBA students. While HVF is only open to a select few MBA students, the pitch lab is open to all Berkeley students. You can setup an appointment by e-mailing Craig Klemp or Kaan Ersu with “HVF Pitch Lab” in the subject line.

Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology
The Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology “equips engineers and scientists with the skills to lead, innovate, and commercialize technology in the global economy.” They offer an entrepreneurship certificate to undergraduate students and run a series of entrepreneurship focused courses in the industrial engineering department. They also host an annual Venture Lab competition. Every entrepreneur should also check out their weekly office hours with experienced venture capitalists, lawyers, and entrepreneurs.

Lester Center
The Lester Center, despite being located at the Haas School of Business, hosts a number of entrepreneurship events for the larger Berkeley community as well as supporting particular student groups like the Haas EA, Venture Fellows, B-Plan Competition, GSVC, etc. Their events include the Entrepreneurs forum and Best Practice Series, both discussed below. Like CET, they also host regular office hours with relevant experts.

Startup Incubators

Entrepreneurship Lab (Lester Center)
Located in the basement of the Bancroft Hotel, the Lab provides “provides an intense educational and operating environment where real companies formed by Berkeley students, alumni, faculty and researchers can rapidly work through their experimental phase, form and flourish. “ The lab provides office space and a general environment helpful to entrepreneurs. Most companies are winners or participants in one of the business plan competitions listed below. We wrote about one E-Lab company a few months ago. If you are interested in getting more information about the Lab or applying to receive space, please contact David Charron.

Venture Lab (CET)
The CET Venture Lab is a space in the Bechtel Engineering Center reserved for winners of the Venture Lab Prize, an annual contest held in the Fall Semester of each year. Not only do teams receive office space and a $12,000 grants, but also access to the CET network including venture capitalists, experienced entrepreneurs, and lawyers. If you are interested in joining the Venture Lab, you will have to wait until the next competition in Fall 2009

Below is a list of competitions, regular events, and entrepreneurship courses that are worth exploring.

Business Plan Competition

Berkeley Business Plan Competition
Global Social Venture Competition
Venture Lab Competition

Regularly Hosted Events

Entrepreneur Best Practice Series
Held twice a month by the Lester Center at Haas or Stanley Hall, these 2-hour seminars offer help to entrepreneurs searching for advice in fundraising, marketing, building a team, and numerous other topics.

Entrepreneurship Forum
Once a month, the Lester Center organizes a panel of experts on such topics as investing, current economic issues, and Prediction markets. The next event will held February 26th in Andersen Auditorium at Haas and is titled Earth, Wind & Fire: The Clean Tech Opportunity Today. Registration, although required, is free to students and faculty, and $25 for community members.

Entrepreneurship Round Table
This annual event held by the Entrepreneurs Association is an opportunity for students and practicing entrepreneurs to come together in an informal setting. It provides an excellent opportunity for students to meet fellow entrepreneurs who have had to face the common strategic, operational, and financial challenges that start-ups face. Details for the 2009 event can be found here.

Startup Mixers (ST@B)
ST@Bers get together about twice a semester in the basement of Blake’s on Telegraph with an experienced entrepreneur. There is always an excellent mix of students (both technical and not), experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers, and randoms. 

Startup Wednesday
ST@B also holds semi-weekly meetups with students and entrepreneurs to talk through common issues and stay abreast on current activities. 

Hackathon (ST@B and CSUA)
The annual ST@B, CSUA hackathon is a 24-hour hacking celebration where teams of 4 techies hack without breaks or food! This year’s event was held February 13th-14th.

Courses

Engineering 198/298- Life as an Entrepreneur
IEOR 190A- Engineering Entrepreneurship
IEOR 190C- Web 2.0
L&S 5- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
CS 194- Ruby on Rails
CS 169- Software Engineering
CS 160- User Interfaces

You can find the scheduling information for these classes here.

Expert Advice

Personal help on your startup can be invaluable, especially when it comes from experienced MBAs or industry experts. In addition to the Haas Venture Fellows Pitch Lab, Berkeley entrepreneurs can spend 15-30 minutes with experienced entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and lawyers at office hours hosted by the Lester Center and the CET Venture Lab.

If I left anything off please feel free to leave a comment below or send me an e-mail.