COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 295T.2

COURSE TITLE: Startup Disco

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1.0

INSTRUCTORS: Jorge Calderon

E-MAIL ADDRESSES:  jorgecalderon@haas.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY/TIME:  TBD

Please note the unorthodox format of this course (9/9-9/11). You must attend all three sessions of this course in their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.

PREREQUISITE(S): none

CLASS FORMAT: Case method, guest speakers, lectures, readings and flipped classroom content to deliver instruction

REQUIRED READINGS: TBD
  
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES

Modified from the successful Impact Startup Disco and new for Fall of 2016 is the Startup Disco.

This is a high-octane, fun, single weekend course for graduate students who are interested in meeting other innovators and getting hands-on experience developing a new start-up concept.

The course pedagogy is heavily influenced by the Lean Startup Methodology.  The pace and mindset is inspired by constructs introduced in hackathons and startup weekend formats.  A twelve-step journey helps guide students through a sprint formation and ideation process.  Startup Disco uses case method, guest speakers, lectures, readings and flipped classroom content to deliver instruction.

Students will begin the course by developing, advocating for and then prioritizing a long list of ideas, which then students will choose in order to form teams.  At the end of the course, each team will present their validated concepts and their next steps plan to a panel of experts.

Students are expected to commit to the instruction and development activities that span from Friday at 4 pm to Sunday at 5 pm.

Startup Disco is an interdisciplinary course and encourages students from Haas FTMBA and EWMBA programs, and students from any of the other graduate programs throughout UC Berkeley to participate. 

This course is a great prequel for those planning on taking a longer entrepreneurship design course like Lean Launchpad or participating in a Berkeley accelerator program like LAUNCH.

All concept themes are welcome, but ideas need to address a large opportunity.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Jorge is a career entrepreneur, management consultant, venture investment professional & educator. Mr. Calderon is the founder and CEO of Carett, an education tech startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area that is reimagining how college students prepare for their careers. He is currently on leave from Impact Strategy Advisors (ISA), a boutique social venture & investment design consulting firm where he was the founding Managing Director. Jorge’s practice focused on helping capital sources & operating companies transform intentional social purpose into economic & positive impact value. Mr. Calderon has broad expertise in a variety of social themes, including education, economic development, diversity/inclusion, job creation, poverty alleviation, access to food, technology for change and the field of impact investing. Jorge is the author of the Social Blueprint, a toolkit for implementing the Purpose-Center Design methodology he developed. He is also a lecturer at the Berkeley-Haas School of Business, where he built the Social Lean LaunchPad and Impact Startup Disco curricula, is a Fellow within Berkeley’s Institute for Business and Social Impact, is part of the faculty team for the LAUNCH accelerator, was previously the Faculty Director for the GSVC, and is actively working on developing a campus based inclusive innovation program. Mr. Calderon previously founded Springworks, a program lab that was committed to developing paths for women and minorities in innovation related careers. Earlier he was the founding Director for the West Coast office of a tech focused seed stage venture capital firm and has had roles in top tier management consulting, banking and technology companies. Mr. Calderon is a University of Michigan graduate and received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.