Berkeley StEP – “Don’t look for a job, create your own business!”
What is StEP?
StEP is a 10-week startup incubator program in which we match students and alumni from all UC Berkeley campuses with complementary backgrounds to team up and guide them to launch their startup.
We foster a culture of doing before bragging, inclusion of different ideas and backgrounds, and above all, of believers and changemakers.
Why did you start StEP and what motivates you to keep running it?
Transformative ideas are born out of identifying new trends or gaps in existing systems.
When we arrived from abroad into the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem at UC Berkeley, we didn't miss a chance to go take part in any conference, gathering, or class that involved entrepreneurship.
After endless hours of conferences and gatherings with aspiring entrepreneurs, we identified two conflicting observations: each time someone asked: who wants to start a company? 80% of the hands were raised. However, less than 5% of the students start companies. There was a clear mismatch between supply and demand. We talked to as many people as we could and identified as the two main gaps: I don't have the team I need, and I don't know how to start / give that first step.
So we took a step back, and to further understand why Berkeley students had this issue and why other top programs did not and we identified key issues in the Berkeley entrepreneurial ecosystem:
Lack of key competencies in the founding term
Siloed mindset across key campus organizations
Underdeveloped entrepreneur-investor community
We envisioned the way to enhance the UC Berkeley entrepreneurial ecosystem by combining institutional initiatives (top-down) with student-run initiatives (bottom-up). Berkeley has a long-standing reputation for stellar academic curriculum and institutional programs that have contributed to successfully launch ventures over the last decades. However, Berkeley was clearly missing a student-run initiative that could be a gateway to entrepreneurship for a large portion of the Student community. StEP comes to play to fulfil this precise need.
Two questions might arise from these observations. The first one is why both approaches are needed; second is why is that there was not a student led initiative that tackled this problem? Both answers are complex, but we will oversimplify them: students are unbiased and are closer to the “voice of customer”, thus having a better understanding of the pain points. Then, why was UC Berkeley before StEP missing such an initiative? Perhaps the following framework can help to shed some light over it:
This matrix classifies the main initiatives carried out by the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Association (a student led organization) in the past years. And we notice that most of the initiatives that were carried out involved low effort and low coordination. To carry out a program like StEP requires more than just organization: it requires coordination between different organizations and departments: integrating different schools, entrepreneurial organizations, undergraduate, graduate and postdoc programs.
So, what motivates us to keep running the program? Realizing how the positive impact we have on participants. Constant words of gratitude from them is what fuels or will to further develop StEP. Having students saying to us things such as “I rejected my Google job offer because I believe in my startup and I want to go full in” or how StEP startups are now in top Bay Area’s Acceleration Programs, is valued far more than any official recognition.
But above all, we are enthusiastic about spreading the culture of StEP: challenge the status quo but from action and results, not just words. StEP is not a class, is a program where participants are changemakers looking for a real founder experience.
What is the future of StEP?
Continuous innovation. StEP is a startup itself, and that is the mindset of the program’s leadership: keep innovating to keep thriving. Ultimately, sky is the limit.
Our challenge is to provide more than matching co-founders and exposure to investors and the general public. We want to personalize as much as possible our offering, so that it is relevant for each startup. That is why we keep innovating and experimenting. In our last edition, we launched the StEP Coaching Program. We recruited a stellar team of coaches that added a tremendous value to the program, guiding the startups through the 10-weeks, supporting them in accomplishing their KPIs, and collecting their requests. Additionally, we started developing proprietary content to further assist our speakers. Following these principles, our new program offerings will be… Stay tuned!
Felt inspired by StEP’s mission and wanna join the StEP Team?