James Hong
MBA99


10over100

Priya Haji &
Siddarth Sanghvi
MBA03

World of Good

Sarah Takesh
MBA 03

Tarsian & Blinkley

Kristen Richmond & Kirsten Tobey
MBA 06

Revolution Foods

Danae Ringelmann
& Eric Schell
MBA 08

IndieGoGo

Jeff Denby & Jason Kibbey
MBA 08

PACT

Nikhil Arora & Alejandro Velez
BS 09

BTTR Ventures

Mimi Frusha
EWMBA10

Renewable Funding

Claire Kinlaw
EWMBA 10

Astia

Kelly Karns
UCB Bioengineering

AutoTB

Patrick Awuah and Nina Marini, both MBA 99, created Ashesi University in Ghana, one of the most intriguing startups by Haas MBA graduates. Ashesi is a private university offering undergraduate degrees in business and computer science that had its business beginnings as a student project at Haas. Awuah had enrolled at Haas because he realized that a top-notch business education would help his enterprise become successful and self-sustaining. Now president of Ashesi University, he still recalls the enthusiasm when he arrived at Haas. “Every time I told someone about my idea, they said ‘That’s awesome!’ There was just this sense that it could be done,” says Awuah. When his project was accepted for the International Business Development course, it so captivated fellow student Marini that she jumped on board. On Nov. 5, 2009, Awuah was awarded the Aspen Institute's second annual John P. McNulty Prize, which recognizes extraordinary young leaders who are making creative, effective, and lasting contributions to their communities. Awuah was awarded the $100,000 prize in New York by a jury that included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Bill Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Awuah was selected among a pool of five finalists.

James Hong, MBA 99, created the popular meeting website HOTorNOT, which has registered over seven million individuals as users of the site. Its success enabled him to create a philanthropy website, http://www.10over100.org, which encourages people to donate at least 10 percent of anything they earn over $100,000 annually.

Priya Haji and Siddarth Sanghvi, both MBA 03, shared a vision: change the world by building ethical shopping experiences with mainstream retail partners that would channel funds to artisans and craftworkers in over 70 countries. They co-founded
World of Good, a company that distributes a retail line of globally sourced fair trade gifts and accessories. The World of Good won first place at the Global Social Venture Business Plan Competition in 2005 and also took 2nd place at the Berkeley Business Plan Competition. Since its launch in 2004, World of Good has built a diverse leadership team that includes MBAs, seasoned social entrepreneurs, retail industry veterans, engineers, musicians and Peace Corps alumni. They recently opened a worldwide shopping platform partnership with eBay and were featured on PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

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Sarah Takesh, MBA 03, drawing on her previous experience in production and design with apparel startups in New York, developed a business plan for Tarsian & Blinkley with several of her Haas classmates They entered their plan in the National Social Venture Competition in 2003 and took first place. Takesh pays local women above-market wages to sew, embroider, and bead the "European minimalist" women's clothing she designs using fabrics gathered from all over Asia. Currently, Tarsian & Blinkley designs are available via the Internet and select boutiques.

Kirsten Tobey and Kristen Richmond-Groos, both MBA 06, recently co-founded
Revolution Foods, which won the grand prize at the Global Social Venture Business Plan Competition in 2006. The mission of Revolution Foods is as simple as it is essential: “Building healthy bodies and minds, one healthy meal at a time.” They cooked up their idea for healthy lunches for school kids after meeting at Haas. During graduate school, the pair interviewed teachers, students, families and school leaders from over 40 Bay Area schools. They built a key partnership with Whole Foods, who believed in their mission of getting as much fresh, healthy food as they could to as many students as possible. From their original launch in three schools three years ago, their venture now serves over 100 education programs.

Danae Ringelmann (pictured) and Eric Schell, both MBA 08, are building IndieGoGo, an internet based platform connecting filmmakers and fans to streamline the making of independent films. The platform provides filmmakers the tools for project funding, recruiting, and promotion, while enabling the audience to discover and connect directly with filmmakers and the causes they support.

PACT, the brainchild of Jeff Denby (pictured) 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.   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 announces its launch on August 17, 2009 and is exclusively available at wearPACT.com.

Doreen Bloch (BS 10) editor, publisher and founder of Bare Magazine, has proven that fashion consciousness does coexist with Berkeley's famous political consciousness. Bare - a word play on Cal's mascot - is a standout among the 20-or-so campus publications. Its fourth issue -- the first to be printed on Hewlett-Packard's new Web-based MagCloud self-publishing service - was featured in the New York Times in March. Bloch oversees an army of about 100 students to produce it. The full-color quarterly's slick photo spreads showcase a diverse array of student models posed in thrift-shop finds and local designers' creations. Features explore eco-friendly clothing, global fashion, and budget beauty tips. The Bare blog (blog.baremagazine.org/) attracted 11,000 unique readers last month, magazine readership has reached 3,000, and the May issue will double in size.

When Mimi Frusha (EWMBA 2010) met the founders of Renewable Funding in May 2008, they were two guys with an incredible idea that needed help with implementation. Mimi decided to join them on a temporary basis to help build their clean energy municipal financing concept, which essentially allows homeowners in participating cities to finance the cost of their clean energy project with municipal bonds and pay the debt back through property taxes over 20 years. While cities must sponsor the program, Renewable Funding plays a critical role by providing a turnkey solution that helps municipalities launch the program with minimal resources and staff. Following the initial collaboration, Mimi decided to stay with Renewable Funding to lead operations for the company’s first project BerkeleyFIRST (Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology). Since Berkeley launched its program in early November, the clean energy municipal financing concept – also known as CityFIRST - has gained momentum and is spreading across the state and nation. It has received significant press from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times. Other California cities have announced the launch of their own programs including San Diego, San Francisco, Solana Beach, Sonoma County and Santa Monica. In addition, over 10 other states have introduced enabling legislation that would allow them to sponsor clean energy municipal financing programs like Berkeley.

Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez (BS 2009) recently launched BTTR Ventures, a firm dedicated to turning coffee grounds into a gourmet edible: specialty mushrooms. Arora and Velez walked away from job offers in investment banking and consulting in order to focus on making an impact in their community. Their firm's name BTTR, pronounced “better,” stands for “back to the roots,” a phrase the pair chose to encompass their ideal of creating a company that stands for sustainability, progress, and social responsibility. BTTR Ventures won in the Partnerships for Social Innovation category of the UC Berkeley 2009 Bears Breaking Boundaries Social Venture Competition and has been using the $5,000 award money to help fund their initial operations. The firm launched in the Bay Area with offices and a mushroom growing facility in Emeryville, and already has begun laying the groundwork for expansion into the Los Angeles market. BTTR Ventures is the only US entry of 12 finalists in the World Challenge 09, at theworldchallenge.co.uk. The global competition seeks to identify and reward projects and businesses that bring economic, social, and environmental benefits to local communities through grass-roots solutions. BBC World News will profile each of the finalists, including BTTR Ventures on Oct. 10.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Astia’s mission is to foster the full participation and leadership of women in entrepreneurship and as accelerators of high growth businesses by providing innovative programs that ensure companies gain access to capital, achieve and sustain high-growth, and develop the executive leadership of the founding team. Claire Kinlaw, EWMBA 2010, and PhD scientist and management consultant first got the “bug” for entrepreneurship while volunteering with Astia in 2005. Since then, Claire has been active on the life science track of Astia’s programs, volunteering with the Life Sciences committee to organize events and programs for entrepreneurs that help them grow their business.  Her decision to come to Haas and pursue entrepreneurship was a direct result of the gratifying experience of working with entrepreneurs and investors through Astia.  In the summer of 2009, Claire joined a biotech startup with nucleic acid detection technologies that is pursuing disease organism detection applications for the food and health care industries.  “Being able to tap the Astia community for advice and resources continues to be invaluable for me as I work inside a startup.”

Kelly Karns and her team at AutoTB won first place in the 2009 Berkeley Business Plan Competition.  Founded in 2007, AutoTB is developing an innovative diagnostic test for tuberculosis for use in both developed and developing countries. More than one-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis, and AutoTB’s automated sputum microscopy device improves upon current procedures by decreasing analysis time, increasing sensitivity and eliminating the human error present in current procedures. AutoTB has been successful in raising funds in several international business plan competitions and is in the process of advancing product development, securing IP and forming initial customer contacts.   Kelly is also a graduate student in bioengineering at UC Berkeley where she is researching electrophoretic microfluidic systems that allow for rapid, analytical quantification of disease-specific biomarkers.  Prior to graduate school at Berkeley, Kelly completed an MPhil in bioscience enterprise from the University of Cambridge where AutoTB was conceived and incubated.