Entrepreneurial Resources
What determines which technologies become the foundation for a new company? In essence, a technology must attract the necessary financing from venture capital or other sources. In order to do this, the technology must offer a fundamental improvement or the basis for a new product or service. Generally the improvement must be significant, as opposed to an incremental, with great potential for market impact.
It is also important that the technology enjoy a strong proprietary position. It must have, for example, an issued patent or a patent pending, with strong claims that separate it from competing technologies. The cutting-edge nature of research here at Berkeley Lab often results in technologies that meet these criteria. The Technology Transfer Department has relationships with many venture capital firms. Please contact us if you'd like to discuss being introduced to a firm that is interested in technologies related to your area of research.
LOCAL RESOURCES FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Bay Area Incubators Contact List. Possible office space, mentors and investment partners.
Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator, a startup accelerator and technology entrepreneurship center operated by the University of California, Berkeley.
Center for Commercialization & Entrepreneurial Training (CCET) is the education/training arm of Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC), in partnership with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Alameda County Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers classes, consulting services and business planning resources for new and small businesses throughout Alameda County.
The UCSF Center for BioEntrepreneurship offers classes, programs, and resources to assist entrepreneurs and leaders in the life science industry.
The UC Berkeley College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (CET) fosters high-tech venture creation. Classes, an annual competition, and programs serve engineers and scientists.
The Hass Business School's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is a primary locus at the University of California, Berkeley for the study and promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation in management and new enterprise development.
The UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship is a springboard for innovations developed in university research programs. Through a broad range of experiences and programs, the Center helps science and engineering undergrads, graduate students, researchers, post-doctoral researchers and faculty move their ideas out of the lab and into the world. Programs are open to researchers from national and international universities. http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu
SVASE, the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit association in Northern California dedicated exclusively to helping early stage entrepreneurs across all technology sectors build successful companies. http://www.svase.org
The Cleantech Group, formerly the Cleantech Venture Network, pioneered clean technology as an investment category in 2002. The company provides market-leading research and data, industry insight, access to innovation and deal flow, news coverage, sales leads, networking events, promotional/brand-building opportunities and custom advisory services to accelerate the development and market adoption of clean technologies.
The Berkeley Startup Cluster (BSC) is a collaboration of UC Berkeley, the City of Berkeley, the East Bay Green Corridor, the Downtown Berkeley Association and private sector companies to establish an area in downtown Berkeley as a thriving destination for technology-oriented startups, investors, entrepreneurs and establised tech companies. BSC promotes office space near the UC Berkeley campus that is conducive to R&D-oriented startups. The organization also orchestrates networking events to foster relationships and business opportunities.
ONLINE RESOURCES
The UC Berkeley Startup Competition, Bplan, website provides helpful resource links: http://bplan.berkeley.edu/compete/resources.html
EntreWorld is an online information resource for entrepreneurs and supporters of entrepreneurship. It provides information coded by stage of business development. EntreWorld is a collaborative project created and maintained by entrepreneurs and coordinated by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. http://www.entreworld.com
The Stanford University Technology Ventures Program provides a free online collection of entrepreneurship resources through their "Educator's Corner." You can watch videos and webcasts of talks by prominent venture capitalists and entrepreneurs giving advice about how to raise funding for a start-up, how to negotiate valuations, learning to take risks (Larry Page), common mistakes that entrepreneurs make, and other relevant topics. To see all the resources go to http://edcorner.stanford.edu/index.html
Resources for the entrepreneur from the MIT Sloan School of Management can be found at: http://web.mit.edu/e-club/hadzima/
Online rating and review of the funding sources including VCs: http://thefunded.com/
Information on the components of a good business plan can be found at: http://www.bplans.com/
Blogs on emerging technologies/products: http://venturebeat.com/
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) fosters, supports and promotes entrepreneurship for women. http://www.fwe.ca/
Software Development Forum (SDForum) sponsors Special Interest Groups (SIGs), monthly dinner meetings, free business clinics, seminars and electronic forums. http://www.sdforum.org/
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
"How to Start Your Own Business," an article from Laser Focus World
"Prepare Yourself to Become an Entrepreneur, " an article from Laser Focus World
"How to Get Help from Outside Professionals," an article from Laser Focus World.
"Revisiting the Term Sheet," a description of all the elements in a typical venture capital term sheet.
"Developing Your Business Plan," an article from Laser Focus World.
"Raising Money: Some Tips on Working with Venture Capitalists," is a white paper written by Onset Ventures General Partner, Darlene Mann.
"How to Find the Right Investors for Your Business," an article from Laser Focus World.
"How to Interview Potential Customers for Feedback," an article written by product manager Cindy Alvarez.
BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITIONS
Cleantech Open provides resources, education and support for clean tech entrepreneurs. Activities include the Annual Business Competition, Mentoring, Sustainability Workshops, a series of Public Symposia and Resource Directory.
The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Haas School of Business offers a variety of opportunities to work with MBA students to showcase innovative technologies in four premier business plan competitions.
FEDERAL PROGRAMS
For general information on starting a venture see the Small Business Administration website.
For information on the Small Business Administration's programs supporting research and development businesses see: http://www.sba.gov/sbir/
For funding opportunities for high risk, high payoff concepts - technologies promising true energy transformations, see DOE's ARPA-E website: http://www.arpa-e.energy.gov/
SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) provides a chance to win part of the more than $1 billion in funding available each year from Federal Government sources to small firms for R&D projects. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Small Business Administration. http://www.zyn.com/sbir
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN LICENSING
The Technology Transfer Department has a webpage covering Berkeley Lab Conflict of Interest in Licensing policies.
Other Technology Transfer Related Resources
• Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management Department work s closely with the Lab's Sponsored Projects Office on Lab research that is not funded by the Department of Energy (DOE).
• Berkeley Lab is operated by the University of California. Information about the University's technology transfer can be found at the UC Office of Technology Transfer .
• Association of University Technology Managers sponsors courses, conferences, and events on tech transfer; publishes sample standard agreements, lists patent, copyright, trademark, government/university TT resources available online.
