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!
TBT, to "at-homes" in New York hotspots
TBT, TEDGlobal in Oxford, England
Ted.com director June Cohen speaking at the Sheldonian, a "secular cathedral" — at Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, England, 2009.
Harry Potter breakfast at TEDGlobal, Oxford — at Keble College.
TED reception at Natural History Museum — at Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Punting on the Cherwell, TED closing lunch — at Cherwell Boathouse.
Reception at Bodleian library exam hall — at Bodleian Libraries.
