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Headlines:
Join Us for the New Season of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum
2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Event Next Month
Change Starts With Your Underwear
Faculty Feature: Russ Holdstein
Find the Lester Center on Facebook
Upcoming Events:
Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum:
Innovating at Scale
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Join Us for the New Season of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum
We are excited to kick off the 2009-2010 season of the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum on Thursday, August 27th with a panel of innovators from Google. Please join us for Innovating at Scale: Google, featuring Haas alum John Hanke (MBA 96), VP of Product Management, Google Earth, Maps and Local.
John Hanke
Hanke will be joined by three top innovators at Google who will touch on their experiences developing and launching Google's "Geo" tools (Earth, Maps, etc.). The panelists will challenge common notions of what it takes to launch "early and often" --and successfully-- at a company like Google. Those with a computer science or engineering background will find the panel particularly relevant.
Pre-registration is available until Tuesday, August 27th at 5pm. After that time, all registrations must be completed on site. For more information and to register, visit the Forum website at http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/bef/.
Become a Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum member when you sign up for the entire season. Visit http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/bef/aug09forum.html#annual for information about member benefits.
2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Event Next Month
The Lester Center is honored to present the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Innovation to Vinod Khosla at a private reception at the Haas School of Business on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 followed by a presentation to Haas students, faculty, and staff at the Dean’s Speaker Series.
Vinod Khosla
Khosla has built a long and illustrious career in both the entrepreneurial and venture capital community. He co-founded electronic design automation company Daisy Systems, was founding Chief Executive Officer of Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors and helped start Juniper Networks. He became a full-time investor in 1986, joining John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures in 2004 to fund sometimes imprudent "science experiments," and to invest in both for profit and social ventures. Khosla Ventures is today one of the most visible investors in clean tech. The firm also invests in mobile technology, new markets or contrarian approaches to existing markets.
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The Power of our Network
There is nothing like the power of a network - particularly for entrepreneurs in search of funding, business partners, marketing opportunities, and legal advice. Click here to read about the 300+ speakers who participated in the Lester Center network during the 2008-2009 academic year.
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Change Starts With Your Underwear
PACT, the brainchild of Jeff Denby and Jason Kibbey (MBA 08) is an online apparel company offering responsibly manufactured, premium organic cotton underwear connected to powerful social and environmental causes. The purchase of PACT underwear is more than a transaction: it turns commerce into a social movement in support of the belief that everyday essentials communicate personal values. PACT’s motto is “Change Starts With Your Underwear.” PACT partners with nonprofits, including 826 Valencia, ForestEthics, and Oceana, and the mission of each partner organization inspires prints created by internationally recognized designers, led by internationally renowned designer Yves Behar of fuseproject.
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Jeff Denby |
Jason Kibbey |
Jeff and Jason met in their first semester at Haas. At the time, Jeff was looking to build on his background in design to start a socially responsible underwear business. Jason had been looking to start a company that could combine his passion for the environment with his experience working on new businesses.
In Dave Charron's “Workshop for Start-ups” course, the duo began experimenting with different business models that combined donations, innovative artwork, and the connections to social and environmental campaigns. John Danner, Senior Fellow at the Lester Center, not only advised the pair, but also connected them with a critical advisor and investor while talking about PACT with fellow attendees at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference.
At the start of their second year, the team created the first PACT prototypes while enrolled in “Managing New Product Development” cross listed with the California College of the Arts. At the final class presentation, designer and course judge Yves Behar was so impressed with the PACT concept that he offered to design the products and help build the brand for the company.
Both gifted and burdened with extreme tenacity, and despite the global recession, Jeff and Jason raised enough seed money to start PACT and spent the last year working with Yves Behar and his company, fuseproject to create the brand. PACT is excited to announce its launch on August 17, 2009 and will be exclusively available at wearPACT.com.
Faculty Feature: Russ Holdstein
In this month’s Faculty Feature, we are pleased to present Russ Holdstein, a valuable member of the Lester Center faculty. Russ will be teaching “Case Studies in Entrepreneurship” this fall, as he has done for the past 10 years.
Russ Holdstein
Russ is a strong believer in the practical rather than just the theoretical applications of entrepreneurship and emphasizes that in his teaching. “I focus on the practical, real world lessons that prepare students for the rigors of managing in a startup environment. I have the fortunate task of helping students leverage their actual entrepreneurial experiences, gained in a summer internship, into meaningful management takeaways. We skip the theory and get right into what works and what doesn't.”
When asked what he enjoys about teaching entrepreneurship at Haas, Russ comments, “The energy and inquisitiveness of the students inspires and energizes me and the chance to give back to the community is gratifying. The opportunity to have an impact on future entrepreneurs is a gift given to a fortunate few. I am very grateful to be in a position to make a difference in the careers of the outstanding students at Haas.”
As an angel investor and adviser, Russ helps young technology companies develop their management teams and maintain strategic focus as they grow. Founder and past CEO of Payday, one of the largest payroll software service bureaus in the U.S., he grew his company onto Inc. Magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing private companies in America and was named one to the Top Ten Entrepreneurs in San Francisco by the Chamber of Commerce.
Russ became the Chief Financial Officer of Rolling Stone Magazine after a stint as a CPA with Ernst and Young. A former Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Business, Russ holds an MBA degree from Indiana University. He is the author of The Operation Manual for Business Growth, has been quoted in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, published in Inc. magazine and featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. He has written a column on business growth for an online magazine.
Find the Lester Center on Facebook
You can now keep up with the Lester Center on Facebook! Click here to become a fan and get the latest news of entrepreneurship@Berkeley. We encourage you to invite your friends as well. Let’s keep those entrepreneurial ideas and networking coming!
The Fall 2009 Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum series begins with:
Innovating at Scale
Co-sponsored by the Haas School of Business Dean’s Speaker Series
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business
6:30-8:30pm
(more info and registration)
Join us at the next Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum for a special look at "Innovating at Scale within Google." John Hanke (Haas MBA ’96) will be joined by three top innovators at Google who will touch on their experiences developing and launching Google's "Geo" tools (Earth, Maps, etc.). Visit the August 2009 Forum page for more information.
Become a Forum member!
Enjoy one low price for the season, guest pass, and other benefits. Click here for details.
GET INVOLVED!
Get involved with Entrepreneurship and Innovation! The Lester Center's programs offer the inside track on entrepreneurship by bringing entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other industry leaders to the Haas School and provide opportunities for interaction and the development of entrepreneurial ideas. Please check out the The Lester Center's website to view the wide variety of opportunities.
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