Resources for Entrepreneurs

Gathered here are resources both on the UC Berkeley campus and in the general San Francisco Bay area for entrepreneurs and those who are considering an entrepreneurial career. They range from seminars to governmental organizations to the names of good books that allow you to build your own “course” in entrepreneurship.

The Lester Center has teamed with the Haas School's Center for Executive Development to create programs that introduce our concepts of entrepreneurship and venture capital to the business community.

The Venture Capital Executive Program is a one week course designed for investment professionals, economic policy advisors, and entrepreneurs striving to gain advanced, results-oriented training in the venture capital process.

The Lester Center has collaborated with the Center for Open Innovation to create a one week course on Open Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship that is presented through the Center for Executive Development.

The Lester Center sponsors two speaker series open to members of the community as well as students, faculty and staff at UC Berkeley:

The UC Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum is a monthly presentation during the academic year that features a networking hour followed by a presentation on a topic of interest to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and members of supporting professional organizations. There is a fee for this program, and annual memberships are available. (Selected presentations are available for on-line viewing 6-8 weeks after the original event.. See the Video Library.)

The Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series has been designed to help entrants to the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition and the Global Social Venture Competition develop their business plan. However, its highly practical sessions are also open to the general public at no cost. There are no reservations and seats are on a first come, first seated basis.

The Lester Center makes selected videos of sponsored events available for on-line viewing through its Video Library.

The Lester Center also works with the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Laboratory to create a nuturing atmosphere for start-up companies created by current and recent UC Berkeley students.

On the General Resources page, you’ll find contact information for the local Small Business Development Centers, “incubators” that house special services for start-up companies, and the Lester Center’s Recommended Reading List. We’re also starting a list of relevant on-line columns and blogs. If you have a candidate that is kept timely, let us know.

The following events are organized by student clubs at the Haas School and are open to the general public. The Lester Center is proud to be a sponsor of these fine groups.

The second annual UC Berkeley BioEntrepreneurship Round Table (BERT), organized by the BioBusiness Association of the Haas School of Business, will be held on November 29th from 6pm to 9pm in South San Francisco. This event attracts 200 people, mainly top level entrepreneurs, VCs, and lawyers, along with graduate students from across UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley Labs. Our keynote speaker will be Don Jones, Vice President of Business Development at Qualcomm and he will be followed by a panel discussion, focused on the convergence of medical technologies. The dinner table discussion will be a time for all participants to share stories and ideas. For more information, please visit the BioBusiness Association Website.

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