Berkeley StEP is finally here
Berkeley StEP, the 10 week experiential program that connects UC Berkeley engineering, computer science, business, design, and law students to help them start their company and get ready for accelerators/VC’s, is finally here!
We created this program to nurture UC Berkeley’s startup ecosystem, to bridge the withstanding gap between academia and selected incubator programs that push new entrepreneurs into the real world market. (If you didn’t catch our first article, read it now!).
With StEP, we will guide students through the process of ideation and startup creation, making them ready to apply to an Accelerator our to receive their first round of funding.
Berkeley StEP, Batch 0, in numbers
- 188 applications
- 74 accepted
- 25 teams formed
Class Profile
- Undergraduate 32%
- Graduate 16%
- MBA 31%
- PhD 5%
- Alumnus 5%
- Other 8%
- 45% Business/law/design
- 45% Technical fields (computer and data science, mechanical engineering)
- 10% Technical & Business
How does StEP work?
StEP meets once a week but the program is all-enveloping. This means that teams are expected to be on the ground building and tweaking their start-up throughout the rest of the week. To nudge them along, we have set clear milestones they will hit each week and overarching goals they should be moving towards, including:
👤 Run (at least 30) customer interviews
🛠 Create MVP mockups
🙋 Put mockups in the hands of 20 potential customers to grab feedback
🎯 Identify your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
📈 Define your growth hacking roadmap
🎁 Finalize your MVP
💰 Understand your unit economics
📣 Define your go-to market strategy
🗒 Build your pitch deck
🗣 Practice your pitch
After they have completed the checklist of milestones, our teams will have the opportunity to present to investors and accelerators in a grand Showcase in early May.
So far, companies and VCs that will be involved in supporting these startups include Foundation Capital, GSV Labs, SkyDeck, The House, Bee Partners, Ironfire Ventures, and more. (You can find the full list on our StEP website)
What happened during Week 1?
Our weekly meetings will feature one to two guest speakers who will share their expertise on start-up building. This past week, we heard from Errol Arkillic, the former and founding program director of I-Corps, as well as the founder of M34 Capital, and Jeff Eyet, who performs strategic consulting for companies through a human-centered approach.
Following these talks is a breakout session, during which teams will meet with their coaches to field questions and discuss their progress. During Week 1, teams were instructed to conduct at least thirty customer interviews, to ensure they were building their product with an effective feedback loop
What happened during Week 2?
We heard from Caroline Winnet, the Executive Director at UC Berkeley SkyDeck and Rhonda Shrader, the Executive Director of the Berkeley-Haas Entrepreneurship Program. In our following breakout session, teams discussed their progress with their coaches and were instructed to begin defining their MVP.
Who runs StEP?
StEP connects the UC Berkeley community; initially born an an initiative of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association, the program now runs as a collective effort of BEA.
Stay tuned!
Looking forward, we are extremely excited to watch StEP ignite a wildfire of startup ideas at UC Berkeley. As the program moves forward, stay updated by:
📖 Subscribing to our Medium publication
👍 Liking and following us on Facebook and Instagram
🖥 And checking out the StEP website
If you are interested in supporting StEP, please reach out to us at berkeleystep@berkeley.edu 👣
