Pitch Perfect: Haas Venture Fellows Offer Pitch Lab Sessions to FounderSchool

We are happy to announce that the Haas Venture Fellows (HVF) group will support the FounderSchool startup acceleration program by offering pitch lab practice sessions to all of the founders in the program. The Haas Venture Fellows Pitch Lab provides entrepreneurs from the greater UC Berkeley community with the opportunity to practice their pitches and receive truly objective feedback on their ideas in a risk-free environment. The goal of the HVF Pitch Lab is to provide feedback on both the style and the content of the presentation, and support the success of UC Berkeley entrepreneurs. The Pitch Lab is hosted by Haas Venture Fellows program and the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haas School of Business. Haas Venture Fellows is a select group of Berkeley MBA students who receive hands-on experience in the venture capital industry by undertaking project work for prominent Bay Area venture capital firms. The HVF team has collectively seen hundreds of pitches for funding, including those by entrepreneurs involved with business plan competitions at Haas and applicants to the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Lab.

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Silicon Legal Strategy joins FounderSchool as Law Firm Partner

We are proud to announce we've formed a partnership with Silicon Legal Strategy to further aid and support the efforts of our startups in FounderSchool. The team from Silicon Legal Strategy includes founder Andre Gharakhanian and Partner Kristin Sverchek.

With the assistance of Silicon Legal, our inaugural cohort of startups will have access to a pool of resources aimed to help them set up their businesses at whatever stage they may be. From incorporation to advising on equity compensation plans, Silicon Legal allows our startups to focus on building their businesses without being distracted by the legal documents and processes. 

As entrepreneurs themselves, Silicon Legal is sensitive to the needs of our students and is especially dedicated to helping many of our first time entrepreneurs learn the ropes and succeed. A longtime friend to Cal, one of the partners attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate and is now a partner at Silicon Legal.

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Former Entrepreneur and Haas Venture Fellow, Christopher Fong, Becomes Our New Venture Advisor in Residence

Christopher Fong is a Haas Venture Fellow and recent graduate of the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA program. From the land down under to the Valley, Christopher's journey has taken him all over the world and working with some of the most prominent people in the marketing industry.

He currently works in Google’s Advertising division where he collaborates directly with Fortune 500 Chief Marketing Officers and advertising agencies to help them achieve their marketing goals. Upon joining Google in 2006, he led the development of the Education Industry vertical within the Direct Sales Organization; this is now a multi-million dollar vertical for the company. Christopher was also

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Justin Huang comes on board as Engineer in Residence

Justin Huang has joined FounderSchool as our first engineer in residence.

Beyond making himself available to startup teams for engineering advice, Justin is  always looking for new projects to work on. Justin recently won the Ideas Fest at UC Berkeley with his innovative location- based Twitter application, Rawr. He is a current undergraduate Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major.

An avid hacker who loves to tinker with hot new API's, databases, and frameworks, Justin is also an active DJ.

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Jeff Fan joins FounderSchool as Designer in Residence

We are proud to announce that FounderSchool has selected its first designer in residence.

Jeff is the founder of Innovative Design, UC Berkeley's largest graphic design student organization, and has recently launched a boutique graphic design agency in the Bay Area (http://innodstudio.com/). He is a self-taught graphic designer with 6 years of experience in the professional graphic, web, and print industries.

As a designer in residence, Jeff is currently working with us developing Founder School's brand identity and marketing collateral designs.

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