The UC Berkeley Startup Competition has truly been a student-run program since its inception in 1999. Founded by Melissa Daniels and Keval Desai, a pair of Berkeley-Haas MBA students, the UC Berkeley Startup Competition embodies and showcases the entrepreneurial spirit permeating throughout the UC Berkeley campus and beyond.
To this day, the executive committee is assembled from first-year Berkeley-Haas MBA students challenged with upholding and strengthening the tradition that makes this competition extraordinary.
The Competition has grown over the years in size and scope.
In 2011, Bplan fielded the largest group of contenders and awarded its largest and broadest purse—distributing over $50,000 in prize money. The Competition was recently rebranded from the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition to the UC Berkeley Startup Competition. We expect 2012 to be another banner year in the rich and growing history of the Competition.
The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship is an internationally recognized program and the primary locus at UC Berkeley for the study and promotion of entrepreneurship and new enterprise development. The Lester Center fosters teaching of successful entrepreneurship, encourages Haas-Berkeley students in the creation of scalable startups, conducts research and disseminates knowledge on entrepreneurship to the business and university communities, and facilitates interaction between the entrepreneurial community and the university.