COURSE NUMBER: MBA292T.4
This course
is dual-listed with the Evening-Weekend MBA Program.
COURSE TITLE: Impact
Startup Disco
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1
INSTRUCTORS: Jorge
Calderon
E-MAIL ADDRESSES: calderon@haas.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY/TIME:
Please note the unorthodox schedule of
this course. You must attend all three sessions of this course in their
entirety in order to earn a passing grade.
PREREQUISITE(S): none
CLASS FORMAT: Activity
based lectures, readings and flipped classroom media content to deliver
instruction
REQUIRED READINGS: TBD
BASIS FOR FINAL
GRADE: Final Presentation & Deliverables
CAREER FIELD:
Entrepreneurship; Social Impact; Innovation fields
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S
CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
Class Summary:
Previous students have said Startup Impact Disco is one of the most worthwhile
and memorable courses they have taken through Haas.
This
is a high-octane, fun, single weekend course for graduate students who are
interested in meeting other impact innovators and getting hands-on experience
developing a new social venture concept.
The
course pedagogy leverages the Purpose-Driven Design Process and a combination
of other Lean Start-up Method and Berkeley Entrepreneurship Tools. The
pace and mindset is inspired by other “hackathon” and startup weekend
formats. A structured roadmap is used to help guide students through a
sprint formation and ideation process. Impact Startup Disco uses activity
based lectures, readings and flipped classroom media content to deliver
instruction.
Students
will begin the course by developing, advocating for and then prioritizing a
long list of ideas, which are narrowed into venture teams based on student
votes. 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 4:30 pm to Sunday at 4 pm.
Impact
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 an advanced
entrepreneurship course or applying to one of Berkeley’s venture competition or
accelerator programs.
For
Spring 2018, all social and environmental impact
related concept themes are welcome, but ideas should address a large urgent
opportunity.
Class Objectives:
· Learn the basics of getting a social start-up concept to
problem-solution fit
· Deepen
your understanding of the problem you seek to address
· Learn
the importance of team composition and team dynamics in building a social
venture start-up
· Get
to know future co-founders and teammates
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Jorge
is a career entrepreneur, management consultant, venture investment
professional & educator. Mr. Calderon is the Founder and CEO of Eddily,
a skill building and campus recruiting software platform for college students
that is directly powered by employers. 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 Purpose-Centered Design methodology and
its related activities and frameworks. He is also a lecturer at the
Berkeley-Haas School of Business, where he built the Social Lean LaunchPad and
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.