The Man Behind Pokémon Go: John Hanke, MBA 96
John Hanke, MBA 96 and CEO of Niantic Labs, is the driving force behind Pokémon Go, the hottest craze to hit smartphones—ever. Since its release just a week ago, the “augmented reality” game has sent millions of phone-toting players to the streets on the hunt for animated Japanese characters that pop up with the help of location services. Read more.
2016 LAUNCH Winners Announced
LAUNCH: The University of California’s Startup Accelerator held its Demo Day, Finals and Awards Ceremony at the Haas School on April 28. LiftEd was the Grand Prize winner.
Read more. See pictures. About LAUNCH.
Startup Seed Grants Awarded
The Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program has announced the next ten awards for the Dean’s Startup Seed Fund. Grantees represent 4 Haas programs (UG, FTMBA, EWMBA, EMBA)and 10 other UC schools from UG through PhD programs. Read more.
Hacking Lyme at Haas
On April 16 and 17, two Berkeley-Haas students, Faith Kirkpatrick and Shannon Herline, both EWMBA 18, won the first-ever hackathon to find innovative solutions to fight Lyme Disease. Read more.
Berkeley alum Fiance launches $6m Fund
Jeremy Fiance, a 2014 UC Berkeley graduate, is amplifying the campus startup culture by launching the $6 million House Fund, the first venture capital fund focused on campus student, alumni and faculty startups.
Read more.
Visit the House Fund website.
Berkeley-Haas Advances in the VCIC
A Berkeley-Haas team took 1st place in the Silicon Valley Round of the Venture Capital Investment Competition! Kangaroo Capital beat Stanford and 4 other schools in the regionals—now they’re aiming for the $10K grand prize at the VCIC Global Finals at UNC in April. Read more.
First 10 Berkeley-Haas Startups Receive Seed Funding
The $100,000 Dean’s Startup Seed Fund, created by Dean Rich Lyons and announced last October, provides grants to early-stage startups that include Berkeley-Haas students. The first ten $5,000 grants were awarded in December. Here are the stories of some of our student entrepreneurs. Read More.
Berkeley-Haas Ties to India Deepen
Berkeley-Haas ties to India grew stronger last month as Solomon Darwin, executive director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, (pictured), presented President Pranab Mukherjee with an award for “outstanding global leader” in open innovation. Read more.
Startup Marketplace Matches MBA Students & UCSF Scientists
Seven MBA students have participated in the newly launched Startup Marketplace, a pilot program that provides Berkeley MBA students with experience working with early-stage science startups. Qualified students express interest in the program and participate in a live online session—essentially a speed date—with UCSF faculty and scientists. The MBA students and scientists are then matched according to their expressed interests. Read more.
Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Lose
Entrepreneurs statistically fail more often than not, but new research suggests that the financial risk is not as great as previously thought, as failed entrepreneurs can return to the salaried workforce and recover their earnings quickly, according to research by Assoc. Prof. Gustavo Manso of the Finance Group at Berkeley-Haas. Read more.