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Startup Acceleration Group Studies An Intuitive Foundation Impact Report

PHASE 1: INNOVATING THROUGH CRISIS CHALLENGE LAB, SPRING 2021

PHASE 2: SUMMER INCUBATION, 2021

PHASE 3: STARTUP ACCELERATION, FALL 2021

Multidisciplinary Academic Makeup

We learned this class is a gap and opportunity for SCET with the goal to include this curriculum in future semesters.

We expected to do heavy recruiting to gain 12 teams. Instead, the application process garnered 40 teams. We also included our global partners and programs, Startup Semester and Le Bridge. The class ended up accepting 14 teams and allowing two teams to audit.

Of the 16 teams:

  • 3 teams included students who participated in the Innovating Through Crisis Challenge Lab taught by Chief Learning Officer, Ken Singer
  • 2 teams were from Spain as part of Startup Semester (Glissandoo & Chinchon)
  • 2 teams were from DTU as part of Startup Semester (Innolidix and AgroPrint)
  • Veriply was started during SCET’s Technology Entrepreneurship class and included students from Cal and SCET’s global program
  • 2 teams were co-founded by Haas School undergrad majors (Veripy and Poppin)
  • 2 teams were co-founded by Haas School MBA students (MedBytes & Firstly)
  • 1 team had only formed four days before the course started, during BMoE Bootcamp (Anvio)
  • 3 Teams (Veriply, AgroPrint, Innolidix) were all admitted to SkyLab Incubator/Accelerator in Denmark
  • 1 team (Veriply) also received a grant from Denmark government
  • Glissandoo secured 50k€ investment
  • Glissandoo named one of Top 15 Music Startups in Spain by El Referente (comparison would be the Spanish TechCrunch)
  • Glissandoo launched on the App Store
“It was very worthwhile in helping my team realize what we wanted to do with our startup. There was a lot to learn from all the different startups’ journeys.”

Student Learnings and Accomplishments

  • Veriply team earned 2nd place in the SCET Collider
  • Out of 10 teams pitching, five of the presentations were delivered in whole or in part by students from this class, including both 2nd and 3rd place. The class prepared students to present their companies concisely and effectively in all facets. NOTE: Students were taking more than one SCET class during the semester.
  • 2 teams (Firstly and Poppin) won Haas Seed Fund grants
  • Poppin approved and launched on the App Store
  • My Favorite Run launched in January 2022 and is live with increasing community engagement.
  • At least three teams decided now is not the best time for them to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.
  • The teams’ maturity ranged from Anvio, which had just come together around the project within the week of the semester starting, to Glissandoo, which had already launched in Spain and had a handful of paying customers before coming to Berkeley.

Course Evaluation:

On a scale of 1 to 7 (7 being the most worthwhile), how worthwhile was this course in comparison to others you have taken at this university?

“This course is definitely in the top 3 of all classes I’ve taken at Berkeley.”
“This was a really interesting and eye-opening course for me. I was able to see amazing people do amazing things week by week. I got to really learn about some interesting ideas being executed as well as see the process of developing a startup at a closer level.”

What did students say they learned from their journey in the Startup Acceleration Group Studies?

  • A mindset to be open to change
  • Entrepreneurship is really the development of leadership
  • A new sense of authentic confidence
  • Trusting intuition
  • To be comfortable with the unknown
  • To be comfortable with their own thoughts and ideas
  • Embracing personal passions/interests
  • Recognizing future personal challenges

Thank you for supporting and advancing our students' extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit!