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What drives someone to leave everything familiar behind and chase a global vision? When Genomelink co-founder Tomohiro “Tomo” Takano first landed in the Bay Area, he had no visa, no funding, and no traction — only a bold idea: to build a “DNA App Store” that would…
Using artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems, 1,200 developers vied for venture capital funding and other prizes over the weekend at a UC Berkeley hackathon. Participants competed Saturday and Sunday in the field of generative AI, which consumes data, learns from it, then produces text,…
With an ever-growing SkyDeck advisor network, we’re excited to expand SkyDeck’s leadership. Please join us in welcoming veteran tech leader Nathan Trueblood as Co-Chair of SkyDeck’s Advisor Council, alongside longtime Chair, Marc Meyer. Nathan brings over 30 years of experience that includes leading product management…
Berkeley SkyDeck is honored to welcome Steve Chen as our newest Advisor and as a Ambassador to Taiwan and APAC! As YouTube’s founding CTO, Steve helped redefine the internet – leading the development of YouTube’s core infrastructure and scaling the platform from a small startup…
Last week, SkyDeck’s most anticipated bio event of the batch, the Bio + Health Track Dinner, brought together founders, alumni, and advisors for an inspiring evening at UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club. Hosted by our Track Chair, Heather Koshinsky, the dinner spotlighted the cutting-edge work of…
Berkeley SkyDeck welcomed YouTube cofounder, Steve Chen, for an unforgettable fireside chat last week. Moderated by SkyDeck’s Executive Director, Caroline Winnett, Steve shared candid insights from his early days at PayPal and eBay, the scrappy beginnings of YouTube, and what it takes to build a…
Berkeley SkyDeck’s Batch 20 began last week and we were thrilled to welcome 101 new startups to SkyDeck’s three programs, including 20 startups to the Berkeley Accelerator. With companies ranging from AI-powered SaaS to robotics, biotech, security and more, we can’t wait for you to…
SkyDeck hosted its largest Demo Day in Berkeley last week, with over 320 in-person guests and another 900 attendees online! Batch 14’s innovative founders presented their startups, which included solutions for endometriosis (an incredibly painful disease afflicting women), tools to accelerate integrated photonics design, a…
SkyDeck’s Executive Director, Caroline Winnett, was interviewed for Crunchbase’s “Female Leaders Series,” in which Winnett reflects that the soft skills of “grit, determination, and discipline” that she gained in pursuit of her professional music career, also helped her succeed as a serial entrepreneur. For entrepreneurs just starting…
With the season of applications in the air, startups that are gunning to join an accelerator and leverage the benefits of an insta-network often wonder what the process for selection actually looks like. In his latest blog, SkyDeck Fund’s Founding Partner, Chon Tang, takes readers…
Applications for Berkeley SkyDeck’s Batch 15 Acceleration Program have just opened. Apply by Aug. 31st here! SkyDeck’s hybrid acceleration program allows global startup founders direct access to Silicon Valley through the collective resources of the entire UC Berkeley ecosystem. In her latest blog post, Caroline Winnett…
Berkeley SkyDeck is hosting the Batch 14 Virtual Pitch Showcase on Thursday, August 4th! Select SkyDeck Europe, Pad-13, and IPP companies will be pitching, followed by one-minute feedback from each of the judges. Judges include Caroline Winnett (Executive Director, SkyDeck), David Riemer (author of Get Your…
Berkeley SkyDeck is well known for hosting the largest Demo Day in the Bay Area for the startups in its accelerator, but it also hosts each cohort a pitch competition featuring the startups in its incubator and Innovation Partner Program. This time around, SkyDeck will…
The SkyDeck Fund is excited to welcome two new members to its team, Riddhi Khanna and Capucine du Besset, as Platform Associates. Both will be focused on deal sourcing, further developing the platform for SkyDeck startups, and facilitating greater connectivity between the SkyDeck network, potential…
Join TechCrunch’s climate-tech conference, TC Sessions: Climate, on June 14th at UC Berkeley. The single day event features some of today’s biggest names, such as Impossible Foods founder, Pat Brown, SOSV’s General Partner, Pae Wu, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Professor Bill Collins among many others….
Last Wednesday, the campus leaders at UC Berkeley met with VCs at an exclusive UC Berkeley: Next Gen Entrepreneurship event to celebrate the launch of the new Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (BBH), a 40,000 sq ft home for world class life science startups. The event featured three speakers,…
Berkeley SkyDeck kicked-off its Batch 14 Program on Monday. Nearly 110 startups joined in person for orientation. The SkyDeck Penthouse was abuzz again for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
