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7 steps to building a business at Berkeley

Cover of the Spring 2017 Berkeley Engineer magazine, featuring Costas Spanos biking past the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

May 1, 2017 by Keith Mcaleer

This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Spring 2017

In January, with state bill AB-2664, the State of California awarded Berkeley $2.2 million to boost innovation and entrepreneurship on campus.

According to a 2016 report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, companies affiliated with the University of California have created more than 38,000 jobs and added over $20 billion in value to California’s economy. At Berkeley alone, 536 students have launched 468 companies since 2010 — by far the most of any public university and second overall.

So what is Berkeley’s secret? For starters, the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship out of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, Silicon Valley industry challenges, alumni mentorship, SkyDeck and CITRIS Foundry acceleration and incubation, access to world-class faculty and students and labs such as the CITRIS Invention Lab and the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation — all have helped aspiring inventors leverage Berkeley’s startup ecosystem while their ideas gain traction.

While there is no one way to launch a startup at Berkeley — every entrepreneur’s journey is different — there are common steps, as Oski demonstrates.