UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, September 10, 2020
4:00 PM – 6:30 PM
The FRAXA Biotech Games, hosted by Biocom, will bring together the biotech community to network in a friendly setting and form new relationships while supporting a great cause. Proceeds benefit the FRAXA Research Foundation, which supports research projects on Fragile X, the most common inherited cause of autism and intellectual disabilities around the world.
Register your team for the competition here.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Named by Forbes as one of the top five university accelerators, Berkeley SkyDeck will hold its Fall 2020 Virtual Demo Day on Sept. 15 on YouTube Live. The event will feature 21 cutting-edge startups pitching their innovative ideas and is open to accredited investors, industry partners, and members of the SkyDeck Community.
Apply here to receive an invitation to attend if you are an accredited investor. (If you have previously attended, there is no need to apply again.)
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
UC Berkeley's Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership is hosting a seminar regarding equity fluent leadership with the First Gender Editor of The New York Times, Jessica Bennett, and the Founder and Executive Director of EGAL, Kellie McElhaney. Together they will openly discuss the effort to elevate the stories of women across major media, the complicated dynamics of consent, and Overlooked, a project to provide obituaries to women who never received them.
Register here.
RESOURCES & DEADLINES
Info session tonight: Tuesday, September 8th from 7:00 PM -8:30 PM
Applications close this Friday, September 11, 2020
Free Ventures is a student-run pre-seed startup accelerator for UC Berkeley students. Each startup undergoes a semester-long curriculum and receives equity-free funding and mentorship.
Learn more about the recruiting timeline and frequently asked questions.
Letter of Intent due TODAY Tuesday, September 8, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy has recently issued its first Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) subject to Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations. The Phase I Release 1 FOA includes approximately $30 million in available funding for small businesses to establish the technical feasibility of innovations that advance the mission of the Office of Science. The Offices of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Services, Biological and Environmental Research, and Nuclear Physics are all participating in this FOA.
Submit a Letter of Intent here.
Applications due this Friday, September 11, 2020
The Berkeley Angel Network (BAN) is accepting applications for its Fall 2020 (October 6) meeting. BAN is a group of angel investors who are alumni, faculty and former faculty of UC Berkeley. Startups should commit to reserving a minimum of $100,000 for BAN investors, and commit to a due diligence process during which BAN members will determine whether they wish to make an investment in your company.
Learn more about the application process and guidelines here.
Applications due Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Are you commercializing a technology in the biotech or pharma space? QB3, the University of California’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science, wants to hear from you. The QB3 Pitch Summit introduces accredited life science investors to startups who are looking for funding from early-stage through Series A.
Apply here.
Proposals due Thursday, September 17, 2020
The CITRIS Core Seed Funding Program invites Principal Investigators across UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Davis Health, UC Merced, and UC Santa Cruz to apply for seed funding that advances CITRIS and the Banatao Institute's research thrusts, strengthens UC campus connections, and drives novel technology applications. CITRIS is offering $40,000-$60,000 per 12-month project through six proposal categories for impact through innovation.
Submit a proposal here.
DealEngine is partnering with its sister company, Silicon Valley in Your Pocket, a
virtual startup acceleration platform, to host a cohort of 10 under-represented founders, with no fees nor equity dilution. Companies accepted to the program can expect access to the 90 day Silicon Valley in Your Pocket virtual accelerator, easy-to-use tools that automatically generate
investor-ready pitch decks and executive summaries, and ongoing systematic evaluation of company traction and business models over time.
Learn more and apply here.
Application deadline: Friday, September 18, 2020
Online classes are Oct 5, 7, 12 @ 6-9pm
The Bay Area Regional I-Corps Node offers a one-week course based on Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad (Business Model Canvas + Customer Discovery). The three evening sessions will teach you to identify and refine your Value Propositions and Customer Segments, which are essential to de-risking your idea and achieving product-market fit. Outside of class, you'll do at least 15 interviews with potential customers as part of the customer discovery process. Teams that complete this course with instructor endorsement may qualify for the National I-Corps program which includes a $30k or $50k grant for customer discovery.
Apply before Sept.18. You'll be contacted two weeks before the first day of class to schedule a team interview call with the I-Corps instructor. If you have any questions, contact Annam Quraishi.
The Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has recently launched “Mitigating Bias in Artificial Intelligence: An Equity Fluent Leadership Playbook.” Artificial intelligence has created one of the largest economic opportunities of our lifetime by reducing human subjectivity in decision making. But it is not without its flaws, such as inadvertently embedding bias, producing discriminatory outcomes at scale, and posing immense business risks. The Playbook works to address the gap between knowledge and action for business leaders through explanations on why bias exists in AI systems and gives strategies to mitigate bias.
Explore the Playbook.
Looking to incorporate your business-- for free? The Startup Law Initiative (SLI) at Berkeley Law can help you in Fall 2020, with support provided by UC Berkeley Law students and attorneys from top Silicon Valley law firms.
Berkeley Law's New Business Community Law Clinic can help entrepreneurs who can't afford an attorney to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apply here for pro bono incorporation and here for other COVID-19 legal support.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently established a COVID-19 Technical Assistance Program (CTAP), which allows national laboratories like the Berkeley Lab to offer short-term, limited assistance to U.S.-based entities dealing with particularly challenging technical hurdles in fighting COVID-19. The funds will support limited-duration and -scope (up to 40 hours) of technical services, analysis, testing, and consulting; they are not intended to be R&D intensive. Berkeley Lab experts with COVID-19-related work include scientists who are examining viruses in droplets, working on algorithms that can help diagnose COVID-19 from CT scans, researching airborne virus transmission in buildings, working on a cellular delivery system/anti-viral agent for potential COVID-19 therapeutics, and applying machine-learning methods to study COVID-19 seasonal cycles. Berkeley Lab is accepting and considering proposals on a rolling basis, however, funding is finite, so the sooner proposals are submitted, the better; funds must be used by Sept. 2021.
Interested parties can visit the COVID-19 Innovation Portal to explore experts, user facilities, and technologies related to their need. Submit proposals here. Questions can be directed to Ruby Barcklay.
Keep in Touch
To submit information or questions about Berkeley Startup Cluster contact: oedmailbox@cityofberkeley.info
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