An Immersive Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program

The “Learn2Launch” Entrepreneurship Program @ UC Berkeley is an integrated program that provides students with an intensive, immersive and hands-on approach to the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, and startups. By the end of this semester-long program, students will have gained a deep understanding of the processes and activities entrepreneurs undertake to launch a startup, having formed teams and gone through the steps to actually launch their own startups.

The program involves in-class instruction from top UC Berkeley faculty, guest speakers that include entrepreneurs, investors, executives, designers and attorneys from the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, visits to companies and events in Silicon Valley, and a rigorous curriculum which includes class lectures, discussions, projects, student presentations, and regular hands-on workshops where students form startup teams, undertake the major activities needed to launch a new venture, and actively work to evolve and improve their concepts and ventures.

This program incorporates:

• Classroom education in the form of lectures, case studies and exercises from top faculty in entrepreneurship, innovation and related disciplines, drawing upon expertise in business, technology, design, leadership, finance, and law;
• Numerous guest lectures and speakers - including entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists, attorneys, investment bankers, marketers and branding experts, social media experts, and more - who bring their entrepreneurship, innovation and startup–building expertise and networks into the classroom to demonstrate and teach "how it is done" in launching and growing innovative, high-growth and high-value ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley;
• Deep immersion into the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley ecosystem with numerous visits to workplaces of companies ranging from early stage startups and accelerators to large enterprises, many of which have redefined the way much of the world interacts with and does business in the 21st century;
• A core "new venture startup project" where students form small startup teams and undertake the critical steps necessary to create and launch a new venture. These startup projects serve as customized case studies for the teams and each of the participants to enable them to experience the process and issues relating to launching a company in real-time. And, not surprisingly, some of these projects evolve into real companies that the founding teams continue to build after the conclusion of the Learn2Launch program.

Depending on the student and their course of study, the curriculum outlined in this syllabus will serve as a standalone innovation and entrepreneurship program, or it may be augmented with additional courses and other supervised study programs in technical disciplines or additional complementary courses of study. Based on the needs, types of ventures launched, and direction of the cohort – and the observations of faculty – the order and content of sessions may be adjusted, and additional curriculum or topics may also be added and incorporated.

Please find more details on the 2020 Syllabus here.

Students Projects

Venture Project

Students have to converge on team and venture project, before going to Berkeley. Usual rules are : 4 students per project, 1 location.

Scientific Project - Scientific Modules

Along with the venture project, you will also be working while at Berkeley on a scientific project, that should be related to your venture project. Therefore, before going to Berkeley, within your team, you should start thinking about/discussing a research topic that could add value to the venture.

Step-by-step

1) The Berkeley Administration will find you a sponsor. This sponsor will send you 3 emails. The first one with which you should answer by sending the required documents. The second one contains a VSPA form that you must fill. And the third one is necessary to establish the DS-2019.

2) Once you received your DS-2019, you will need to fill up online the DS-160 using the SEVIS ID (e.g., N0123456789) and your Progam Number (e.g., P-1-12345) inscribed and your DS-2019. Don’t forget to download you DS160 confirmation page in PDF: https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/

3) Then, thanks to your DS-160 number (e.g. AA009LOMSV) you will need to take an appointment with the US embassy in Paris on this website and pay a **MRV fee** of 152€. In France, you can only do it in Paris, and not in another French city. https://ais.usvisa-info.com/fr-fr/niv/information/niv_questions

4) Before the appointment, you must pay the $220 I-901 Fee: https://www.fmjfee.com/i901fee/index.html

5) During the appointment, you have to leave your passport to the embassy and they will send it you back with your Visa inside, to the address you mentioned at step 2). It takes up to 10 working days.

/!\ Please note :

a) The meeting takes only a few minutes, but you will have to stand in line about 45 minutes in the embassy. Just come normally at your time slot: you will be called by time of appointment.

b) You cannot bring a computer not food into the embassy. A phone is ok but you will have to keep it at the entrance at take it back at the end.

c) There is a photomaton inside the embassy: you can pay by card 2 pictures for 4€.