News and Announcements
Upcoming Events
BPEP Idea to Funding workshop series
Title: "Transitioning from academia to startups: What is it like to work for a startup?"
March 17, 2022, 6.00-7.30 pm
Working for startups can be fun, attractive and even a life changing move. Not all start-ups have the ambience (or the budgets) of sexy tech companies that might put you on the fast-track to get rich (stock options). For many of you trying to join a startup as an employee, it could be a blackbox. This workshop is meant to demystify transitioning to startup from academia, as an employee. The speakers will talk about what it means to work for a startup and cover topics like: 1. Creating something new; 2. Need to be Comfortable With Change; 3. All hands on deck; 4. Financial (In)security/assessing risk; 5. Stocks, vesting, benefits; 6. Accelerating careers; 7. High expectations and less direction
Title: Idea Evaluation for researchers considering startups
February 17, 2022, 6.00-7.30 pm
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzU_FZ6hAT4&t=2415s
1. BPEP: Idea to Funding Fall 21 workshop series
Topic: "Psychology of deep tech startup founders: How to muster courage to launch a startup?"
Date: Thu, October 7, 2021 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM PDT
Startups are hard. Deep tech startups are even harder. It takes a substantial amount of courage, grit, persistence, hard work, time to market, funding, and sacrifices. The failure rate is very high. In spite of that, a number of scientists and engineers have dared to take the path of entrepreneurship to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. Many of the researchers wonder what it takes to embark on this journey. Come to this workshop to learn from the experiences and observations from a serial entrepreneur; a deep tech investor and ecosystem builder; and an early stage deep tech founder.
2. Topic: Demystifying legal aspects for startups"- Role that law firms play in a startup journey.
Date: October 28th, 2021, 6.00-7.30 pm.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bpep-idea-to-funding-fall-21-workshop-series-tickets-181386942227
Attend this workshop to understand why a startup needs a law firm from incorporation to exit and everything in between. Joe Wyatt, a Partner at WilmerHale will walk through the stages of a startup and the role a startup law firm plays during the journey.
It is very important for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand the importance and costs associated with one of the most important partners in a startup journey- a trusted law firm. It is often a black box and the bills can be scary for grad students and postdocs (launching startups) who never dealt with law firms. Very often, law firms get a bad rep for the high costs, but most really don't understand why (and also how many startups fail and the bills they have to write off). Understanding legal costs will also help founders with engaging with the right firm, seeking input on various topics from incorporation to planning exits.
BPEP Scholarship: We are happy to announce the launch of a scholarship program to Postdocs and Visiting Scholars (VSPA affiliates) to explore launching startups that are based on research produced at UC Berkeley. The scholarship ($500) will help access resources provided by qb3 Startup in a box program. From incorporation to operation to growth, this program provides support and resources to entrepreneurs, in addition to access to their SBIR workshops. This scholarship program is limited to UC Berkeley VSPA affiliates with active appointments, who have a Ph.D. degree. Additional preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate their service to the entrepreneurial community at UC Berkeley. The scholarship program is enabled by a generous sponsorship by the Visiting Scholars and Postdoctoral Affairs Program (VSPA). Thanks to Yvette Lane-Newton, the Director of the VSPA , who has been instrumental in making this happen.
- Link to application: https://forms.gle/bZcLMd6FEYnE58Gy6
- We are extremely pleased to announce that Bacchus Therapeutics, founded by Arvin Gouw (Former Chair, BPEP) has been awarded the AbbVie Golden Ticket. Bacchus Therapeutics is a biotech company developing novel compounds that exploit cancer's hypermetabolic state by targeting cancer-specific metabolic pathways. Their proprietary compounds cause regression of incurable MYC cancers and prolong survival in our preclinical mouse models bearing human tumors.
Our Goals
Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program (BPEP) aims to foster entrepreneurship in the UC Berkeley postdoctoral and graduate community. We provide tools, mentoring, and a platform for science-business communication to enable research innovations to move into the marketplace. We believe entrepreneurship is an integral part of UC Berkeley's ethos, and aim to build a community of entrepreneurship among UC Berkeley's postdocs.
Post-docs Job Portal
Berkeley Postdocoral Entrepreneurship Program (BPEP) is happy to announce the launch of BPEP job portal for postdocs at UC Berkeley in collaboration with the Visiting Scholars and Postdoc Affairs office at UC Berkeley. Click here to access the job portal and find job openings.
