COURSE NUMBER:  MBA292T.4

COURSE TITLE:  Impact Startup Disco

UNITS OF CREDIT:  1

INSTRUCTORS:  Jorge M. Calderon

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

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; Impact “at Scale”/Tech; Impact Investing, Other Innovation Fields

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: 

Class Summary:

Previous students have said Impact Startup 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 innovators and getting hands-on experience developing a new venture concept.

The course pedagogy is based on the Startup Discovery Method, which leverages Purpose-Driven Design, Lean Start-up Method and other 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.

All student participants will be asked to submit an idea during the week leading up to the class.  After a peer voting activity narrows the list down to a manageable number of top ideas, teams are organically formed during the first session. At the end of the course, each team will present their validated concepts and their next steps plan to a panel of experts.

In addition to a short pre-class assignment, students are expected to commit to the instruction and development activities that span from Friday at 4:30 pm to Sunday at 4 pm.  (You should plan to be available for your team outside of the stated class times on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.)

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 2020, all social and environmental impact related themes are welcome, but ideas should address a large urgent opportunity.

Class Objectives:

• Learn the basics of developing an impact venture (start-up) from concept to the problem-solution fit stage
• Deepen your understanding of the problem you seek to address
• Learn the importance of team composition and team dynamics in building a impact venture
• 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 previously led Impact Strategy Advisors (ISA), a boutique impact 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 Startup Discovery Method and Purpose-Centered Design frameworks.  He is also a lecturer at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, where he developed the Impact Startup Launchpad, Startup Disco & portions of the BIVP curricula, is a Fellow within Berkeley’s Institute for Business and Social Impact (IBSI), founded the Berkeley Impact Venture Partners (BIVP), was formerly part of the faculty team for the LAUNCH accelerator, previously served as the Faculty Director for the GSVC, and is actively involved with campus based inclusive innovation programs.  Through Berkeley Haas, he received the Richard H. Holton Teaching Fellow (2015-2016) Award and 2016 Berkeley-Haas Best Case Award.  Mr. Calderon also 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.