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Berkeley SkyDeck, the worldwide hub for entrepreneurship and accelerator, together with UC Berkeley School of Computing, Knowledge Science, and Society (CDSS), introduced a partnership with Mayfield.
The goals is to assist AI-focused, scholar entrepreneurs with unparalleled entry to enterprise capital and world-class mentorship.
A part of the Mayfield AI Storage initiative, this new program will choose three successful improvements from UC Berkeley college students, and award them a $25,000 stipend for every founding workforce member (as much as $50,000 per workforce); admittance to Berkeley SkyDeck’s extremely aggressive Pad-13 incubator program; acceptance into Nvidia’s Inception program for startups; as much as $350,000 in compute credit from Microsoft Azure; and direct mentorship from Mayfield’s workforce.
“All through Mayfield’s 55-year historical past, we’ve helped early-stage entrepreneurs rework breakthrough concepts into iconic corporations. With the appearance of AI, we consider it’s extra essential than ever to fulfill founders the place they’re of their journey. The Mayfield AI Storage embodies this conviction, offering the capital, mentorship, and sources founders have to take their AI concepts to the subsequent degree,” stated Navin Chaddha, managing associate at Mayfield, in an announcement. “UC Berkeley has phenomenal AI expertise, and the SkyDeck accelerator program has a confirmed legacy of nurturing founders. Partnering collectively made excellent sense, and we are able to’t wait to see the thrilling AI-based concepts from the primary cohort of candidates.”
The brand new program formally launches on January 22, 2025, with purposes open till February 28, 2025. The three successful groups might be introduced by April 15, 2025, and the primary program will run from Might – November 2025. As a part of the SkyDeck Pad-13 incubator program, founders will obtain entry to SkyDeck’s premium workshops, a devoted mentor from SkyDeck’s 800+ pool of advisors, working house on the SkyDeck penthouse in Berkeley, and extra advantages from useful resource companions. Pad-13 is a vital pipeline for the SkyDeck Accelerator program.
“Berkeley SkyDeck’s partnerships have been pivotal to our success and a key draw for our accelerator corporations,” stated Chon Tang, founding associate of Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, in an announcement. “We’re thrilled to be working intently with the Mayfield AI Storage workforce and providing college students unparalleled entry to the sources essential to create profitable corporations.”
UC Berkeley has lengthy been a frontrunner for startup founders, rating first for undergraduate alumni founders, first for feminine founders, first for the variety of corporations based by alumni, and first for the quantity of enterprise capital funding raised. This new program, in partnership with Mayfield, seeks to proceed that custom for AI-focused founders. To be taught extra, go to https://mayfield.ai/berkeley.
Mayfield companions with founders from day zero who see limitless potentialities the place others see constraints. Drawing on its 55-year legacy of firm constructing and people-first philosophy, Mayfield carry founder-to-founder experience to its startups. Mayfield has had over 120 IPOs and 225+ acquisitions. It has $3 billion in belongings below administration.
Final 12 months, Mayfield launched the Mayfield AI Storage initiative with $100 million centered on ideation-stage founders constructing AI Teammate corporations. This program grew out of Mayfield’s 40-year monitor document of working with entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs). Our EIR program has been the launchpad for quite a few profitable corporations, and we’re bringing this confirmed mannequin to UC Berkeley, offering the identical high-touch assist and sources to scholar founders.
I requested Navin Chaddha, managing associate of the Mayfield Fund, why it was good to begin so younger with AI enterpreneurship whereas college students have been nonetheless in school.
“I’ve been investing for over twenty years and seen one thing fascinating: probably the most transformative corporations usually come from younger founders who strategy issues with a “newbie’s thoughts,” he stated in a message to GamesBeat. “Historical past has proven that a few of the most profitable corporations, like Microsoft, Google, and Fb, have been began by college students who weren’t constrained by typical pondering. Within the AI period, being younger is a superpower.”
He added, “At this time’s college students are rising up with AI; they’re constructing with giant language fashions like others use spreadsheets and imagining purposes that others may dismiss as not possible. The technical expertise popping out of UC Berkeley proper now’s extraordinary – they’re bringing contemporary views to arduous issues. These college students are publishing papers on foundational AI fashions, successful worldwide competitions, and lots of are already engaged on tasks that might be the subsequent breakthrough in AI.”
I additionally requested what number of offers could occur in a given time.
“We’re deciding on three scholar groups to affix the Mayfield AI Storage at Berkeley program, however that is just the start of a much wider imaginative and prescient,” Chaddha stated. “Every workforce will get a stipend and entry to important instruments and sources, however extra importantly, they get mentorship from our workforce and entry to our complete ecosystem to assist transfer from ideation to a full-fledged startup.”
And he stated, “Via our partnerships with Nvidia and Microsoft, these groups will get direct entry to cutting-edge AI infrastructure and technical experience. Being a part of UC Berkeley SkyDeck’s Pad-13 program can also be transformative – it places these founders on the coronary heart of UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, connecting them with different founders, college, and SkyDeck’s community of {industry} advisors.”
And I requested about competing applications and why Berkeley SkyDeck was the suitable selection.
Chaddha stated, “Silicon Valley has quite a few accelerators and incubators that present capital and sources in change for fairness, however we’ve structured the Mayfield AI Storage at Berkeley program in another way. Relatively than taking a broad-based strategy, we’re making a launchpad for 3 scholar groups to discover if their AI concepts can flip into corporations – with no strings hooked up. We’re not taking fairness or requiring incorporation; as an alternative, we’re offering capital, mentorship from our workforce, and entry to our complete community at this concept exploration stage.”
He added, “Coaching giant language fashions or operating in depth experiments will be prohibitively costly. Accessing sources like Microsoft Azure compute credit or Nvidia’s Inception program requires being a venture-backed firm, which is usually a vital barrier for college kids. We’re eradicating these obstacles fully. Groups additionally get entry to Berkeley Skydeck’s Pad-13 incubator program.”
And he closed by saying, “Our partnership with UC Berkeley builds on our lengthy historical past of backing profitable Berkeley founders, together with Poshmark, Cloudgenix, MindsDB, BigPanda, Rancher Labs, and Mammoth Biosciences. UC Berkeley is a powerhouse in AI analysis, notably in areas like basis fashions, knowledge, middleware and tooling, and human-AI interplay. We’re excited to associate with UC Berkeley’s CDSS and SkyDeck to make the Mayfield AI Storage at Berkeley a launchpad for scholar founders constructing the way forward for AI. “
