Here's the venture team I sent to the finals at UC Berkeley's school of engineering entrepreneurship bootcamp
Coaching at Startup Grind Global Program 2018 Pitch Bootcamp
I'm excited to serve as a Pitch Coach later this month for the Startup Grind Global Program 2018 Pitch Bootcamp hosted/mc'd by TD Lowe and her team at 42Phi Ventures. The event at Fox Forum in Redwood City is sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.
TD Lowe is the founder and CEO of EnovationNation and 42Phi Partners are a diverse set of individuals devoted to fixing Venture's opportunity pipeline, inclusivity, and mentorship deficit.
The day precedes the launch of Startup Grind's Global Conference, where TD is the team member in charge of StartupGrind startup program which filters the best performing startups coming to the conference for the investor community.
My advice to entrepreneurship students: "don't let ego slow down your team"
Judging the all-star Collider Cup at UC Berkeley
Excited to be a pitch judge for this all-star event at UC Berkeley next week!!
The Collider Cup is Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology's all-star showcase of the best student teams from Fall 2017.
Teams pitch to panels of professors, investors and industry experts as they vie to win the grand prize, the Collider Cup!
Thanks to Gigi Wang for the invite.
"A practical, empathetic and effective mentor"
Thanks Jeff Abbott, VC and founder of the Global Scaling Academy, for this fab recommendation at LinkedIn!
"She’s a practical, empathetic and effective mentor whose broad experience and constructive feedback allow her teams go on to perform in the top tier, while also improving the overall program she is a part of."
Judging at the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Summer 2017
It was so much fun to mentor & judge the tech startups at Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMOE) at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. 120 global participants gathered at UC Berkeley for a one week immersive experience into entrepreneurship, team-building, mentorship, and more.
Here's the team I & my fellow judge chose as the winner of our 40-person cohort: BrainyT, an AI-for-manufacturing going to market in Brazil.
I also ran into familiar faces from last month's extreme accelerator in Europe, the European Innovation Academy #eia2017italy: participant & UCB student Bailey Farren, and fellow EIA chief mentors UCB faculty Stephen Torres and Pamela Day, who also was a judge at BMOE!
Looking forward to Harika Kalluri's upcoming interview with me and Pamela for the Berkeley Point Of View. We yakked Harika's ear off about tech investing, product building, and the empowering spirit of entrepreneurship.
A few snaps from some of the seven venture pitches my fellow judge Kal Deutsch (managing partner and founding investor of The Batchery, a Bay Area-based global incubator for seed stage startups) and I judged.
Good job to these teams from Berkeley, Denmark, Brazil & Hong Kong:
- BrainyT, the AI for small manufacturers
- SoWa the wireless professional speakers
- A Slice of Reality interactive media system
- the ed-tech play for lesson plans Athena
- CoffeeX, a connected coffee kiosk
- Candle Sense electric candle for memory boosting
- LedoAds, the marketplace for space ads
Thanks to UCBerkeley's entrepreneurship faculty Gigi Wang, the director of BMOE, for including me in her awesome program!
Photo: Gigi Wang
Congrats to BrainyT for making it into the top 3 startups at BMOE Summer 2017!
Thanks to Harika Kalluri for the interview! You can read it at the Sutardja Center site here.
Considering the Arab Innovation Academy in Doha, Qatar
I'm considering joining the Arab Innovation Academy (AIA). It's patterned on the European Innovation Academy, this new extreme accelerator for the Arab world is run by Maher Hakim, the managing director of the Qatar Science & Technology Park. I had the pleasure of working directly with Maher when he was the Chief of Chief Mentors at the European Innovation Academy in Nice in 2016! The AIA program will be delivered for the first time in Doha, Qatar in January 2018
In the Winner's Circle: 50% of my teams won the 2017 European Innovation Academy, Italy
(To my teams: you are all stars!!)
Giving my Day 7 keynote in Turin, on how to build revenue-producing and meaningful community. "Find why your first users are invested and then deliver on their motivations," was among my recommendations to the participants of Europe's largest extreme accelerator
It was my pleasure to be the chief mentor to six start up teams in the Gaming, Media & Entertainment sector at the European Innovation Academy last month in Turin, Italy.
For ten foundational days, I guided 30 participants through team and business building before additional specialist mentors joined us to take them to pitch their startups to Silicon Valley and global investors.
Out of 95 total teams, 4 of my teams progressed to the Pitching Carousel of 40 teams which presented to venture capitalists
- Sympha, a creative exchange for the indie music community
- aLive, a realtime nightlife promotion platform
- ARCatalogs, an augmented reality play for restaurants
- Kumpa, a gamification app that turns exercise into social workouts
3 of my teams then made it into the Top 10 winner's circle. You can read the Italian press on the winners.
- Kumpa
- the ranking app Totem (a last minute wild card entry, Totem also won the Nixon Peabody Trademark Scholarship)
- and ARCatalogs.
So, 5 of my 6 teams made it to the final rounds of the program. That means 83% of our cohort 'showed' in the final rounds of the program. This is a stupendous achievement, congratulations to all of you!
This is Kumpa, a sports gamification start-up that transforms your favorite games into fun and social workouts.
Shout out to these international mentors who also worked with my cohort on: marketing (Americans Jesse Leimgruber, PJ Leimgruber, and Italian Francesco Fiume), IT (Polish Bartek Jazwinski), and design (Estonian Tanel Eero), and, team dynamics (Italian Claudia Chiavarino). Also, thanks to Federico Mammano, my fellow chief mentor in the other Gaming, Media, and Entertainment cohort, for his pitching challenges and AR expertise!
This is ARCatalogs which makes augmented reality menus for restaurants.
This is aLive, a nightlife platform where users can see and share what's happening around them in real time, leveraging the power of influencers. aLive made it to the Pitching Carousel round.
Here's BidCar, my sixth team, which was building a blind auction for car sales. Chief Business Officer Miguel Valdez delivered a 1 minute story-based pitch on Day 6 in front of another gaming, media, entertainment cohort and our design and IT mentors watching, on the right:
For your accomplishments in team building and business building, congrats to the winners, the carousel pitchers, all the teams of the Gaming, Media, and Entertainment cohorts, and all the teams of EIA Turin 2017. It was fun mentoring you and I look forward to seeing what you do next!
Joining Silicon Valley Jumpstart Program As A Mentor
Excited to join JUMPSTART PROGRAM as a mentor in this startup event produced by the Silicon Valley Forum and Wasabi Ventures Global.
You may recall I've already had the pleasure of working with Wasabi principal Jeff Abbott as a chief mentor for two summers at the European Innovation Academy. I'm looking forward to contributing to his new intensive program.
Launching in fall of 2017, this 6-day hands-on experience is designed for international startups and scaleups seeking to enter the US market. It will address technology, organization, cultural differences, marketing & sales, financing, and more.
It's for you if:
- You want to develop and refine your scaling strategy
- You believe you’re ready to enter the US market
- You want to broaden your network of potential customers, mentors, partners and investors in the US
- You want to jumpstart your efforts and make 6 months of progress in one week
- You want to have a clear plan before investing time and precious resources in developing a US presence via unfocused experimentation
- You’re ready to have an intense, action-packed week in Silicon Valley and make friends for life with other founders facing similar challenges
September 5th is the last day to apply!
Love hanging with my fellow mentors, program leads, & university observers!
Fun dinner with chief mentors, VCs, university observers, life coaches & family from the European @innovationacademy in Turin!! Photos by Radha! #eiamoments #eia2017italy#eia2017turin #accelerator #startups#entrepreneurship #Torino #Turin
Joining ITUGate as a mentor
Happy to join the global mentors of Istanbul Technical University's International Start-Up Acceleration Program ITUGATE. During their six month stay in San Francisco this year, I'll be mentoring a set of technology-producing companies and entrepreneurs entering the US & international markets.
Read more about ITU ARI Teknokent's program to help companies to enter the US market and to provide access to Silicon Valley. It's based at Galvanize, one of the best startup centers in San Francisco.
Back at The Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp!
Great experience mentoring and judging the pitches of student entrepreneurs from around the world at this week's bootcamp on the UC Berkeley campus!
Here's the director of the program Gigi Wang laying out the goals of the bootcamp.
Congratulations to Acuity, the team I mentored and my cojudge Rick Rasmussen and I sent to the finals.
Watch the pitch battle here: https://www.facebook.com/UCBerkeleyCET/videos/1232326256848097/
The Berkeley Method Bootcamp: Mentor & Pitch Judge
This was one of the startups I judged at The Berkeley Method Bootcamp, Fall 2016, UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology -- and the team our room sent to the finals.
Featured in a video interview for BMOE, talking about the issues of early stage startups.
Takeaways from the European Innovation Academy
Enjoyed working with these fine fellow mentors, and the students and administration of EIA!
Click through to read Nine takeaways from keynotes at the European Innovation Academy in Nice, France this summer. All the presentations are linked there too.
Thanks to Dany Augustinho, an innovation specialist at Amadeus IT Group, for including mine!
Dany writes, "90% of startups fail. Every entrepreneur should bear this in mind. So, if you’ve been playing around with our APIs, and considering launching a startup in the near future, it is time to learn from the experts!
"For the third year in a row, Amadeus has sponsored the European Innovation Academy, a summer school that teaches students from the world’s most prestigious universities – and some selected Amadeus employees – how to innovate and launch a startup. Three weeks is all that it takes for them to find the right idea, draft a business model, prototype their product and learn how to fund their project."
Here's my keynote, which used Product Hunt as an example: "How Meaningful Community Can Grow Your Revenue"
A few slides...click through to Slideshare to view the full presentation.
And what a surprise appearance in the keynote of another mentor in the program, Gigi Wang's "Know Your Customer: Customer Persona & Customer Validation"!
