The next Bio Statup Speed Teaming will be held in March, 2024
Berkeley LSEC's Bio Startup Speed Teaming program introduces would-be startup founders with complementary expertise, with the hope of finding fruitful matches. Participants include technical experts with a potentially commercializable technology, and individuals with business, operational, or technical expertise who are interested in co-founding or joining a startup.
Motivation
One of the most commonly expressed pain points in academic life sciences entrepreneurship is that it's hard to find a teammate, co-founder or advisor with complementary skills, particularly with business expertise. Investors expect balanced startup teams, and several entrepreneurship programs on campus require it, such as Berkeley SkyDeck, UC LAUNCH, and NSF I-Corps. Moreover, a balanced team helps gain admission to and ensure success in programs such as Nucleate Bio, StEP, Form+Fund, and SkyDeck Pad-13.
Successful startup teams have been formed across departments at Berkeley, but much of the success is related to the resourcefulness and luck on the part of the founders to find each other.
Speed Teaming Solution
Inspired by the methods used to match Key Advisors with cohort startups at Berkeley SkyDeck as well as speed dating events, we run a non-curated and non-algorithmic approach to connecting possible would-be teammates. We facilitate a up to a ten 10-minute one-on-one meetings over the course of two hours, between would-be startup founders with disparate but possibly complementary areas of expertise. This Speed Teaming process runs with the understanding that most of the meetings will not result in a fruitful connection. However consistently one or two strong connections are made, which we consider a success. We are aware of two companies being formed as a result of connections made in Speed Teaming.
For each of the Speed Teaming rounds, participants are placed in a Zoom room with another attendee. At the end of each ten-minute session, they return to the main zoom room. We leave any follow-up conversations to be arranged by the attendees, who will be encouraged to communicate with each other after the event if they find potential synergies.
Campus Collaborations
This program is presented by the Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center, with support from IPIRA, QB3-Berkeley, Haas/SPH MBA/MPH program, and Haas Healthcare Association.
