COURSE NUMBER: MBA295.1

 COURSE TITLE: Startup Lab

 UNITS OF CREDIT: 2 units

 INSTRUCTORS: Whitney Hischier; Faisal AlGharabally

 E-MAIL ADDRESSES:  hischier@haas.berkeley.edu; faisal_algharabally@mba.berkeley.edu

 CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu

 MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday, 2:00 – 4:00PM

 PREREQUISITE(S): Completion of Core

 CLASS FORMAT:  classes will be a mix of lectures, guest speakers and focus on outside client project work.

 REQUIRED READINGS:  no required readings

 BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Assignments, participation, final project.

 ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

The Startup Lab is a project-based experiential learning course that teams UC Berkeley students with local venture-backed startups in an effort to identify, frame and address strategic business challenges. Throughout the course, students will gain experience working within agile and dynamic startup environments while applying their academic knowledge in an entrepreneurial context.  This course fulfills the BILD requirement for the MBA.

By the end of the course, students will have:

• Learned and refined consulting skills and project management;
• Developed a strong understanding of good stakeholder management;

• Applied the business principles learned in core classes to a real-world global setting
• Developed industry knowledge in a focused area;
• Worked in a dynamic team environment;
• Built a solid network in the Silicon Valley venture-backed startup space.

 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

Faisal Al-Gharabally is a technology entrepreneur and strategist with extensive experience in the areas of product innovation, product marketing and technology transfer. As the founder of TagStone, Faisal successfully designed and built sensor-based business intelligence and analytics software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings for Fortune 100 and Global 100 companies, well as government and defense agencies across the globe.  More recently, Faisal founded AlGharabally&Company,  a Middle East based strategic consulting firm focused on the application, transfer and commercialization of knowledge and technology in emerging markets.  Faisal has recently completed his MBA at the Haas School of Business as an exchange student from HEC Paris.  While at Haas, Faisal has developed a program to connect MBA’s with technology-based startups through projects, internships and career opportunities. To date, the program has involved approximately 40 MBA's that have worked closely with the management of ten startups including Twitter, Foursquare and Klout as well as other Accel Partners and Greylock Partners portfolio companies.

Whitney Hischier is a lecturer at Haas, a coach for the IBD program, a mentor for the Lean Launchpad program, and a Faculty Advisor to the Center for Executive Education.   Previously, she was the Assistant Dean for Executive Education at Haas where she built a $20m organization.  Prior to Haas, Whitney was a consultant in the US and Europe for KPMG, ABN Amro Bank, and Deloitte on systems implementation and change management. She holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and an MBA from Haas with a Certificate in Healthcare Management.