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04 Feb 2015, 14:09
04 Feb 2015, 17:00
| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Going the Extracurricular Mile at Berkeley-Haas Means Extra Value |
Evening and weekend students here at Berkeley-Haas are either over-achievers or gluttons for punishment. On top of a strenuous academic schedule, demanding full-time jobs, and busy personal lives, many are up to their elbows in extracurricular activities—and loving it. Take second-year student Ennis Olson for instance. He participated in six business case competitions before being on the winning team for the PG&E Net Impact energy ideation competition. Why did he keep trying? Because “each competition was an opportunity to collaborate with team members who brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to everything we did,” he explains. Case Competitions There are plenty of business case competitions right here on campus, like the UC Berkeley Startup competition and the Global Social Venture competition, sponsored by the Haas School’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. Or you can go farther afield, to something like the Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case competition, in which two teams from Berkeley-Haas placed in 2013. The first-place team included then-EWMBA student Yelena Bushman. Clubs Want to engage with entrepreneurs? Find out more about finance? Berkeley-Haas has clubs for all of those interests, and a lot more. Many clubs sponsor exciting conferences like > play, the largest student-run technology and digital media conference in the U.S., and the thought-provoking Women in Leadership Conference.  Joining a club can be mind changing, as student Jack Song found out. “Getting involved with the Marketing Club changed my preconceptions about the consumer-product-goods industry. I enjoyed getting to know all of its facets through speakers and on Career Treks to companies like Clif Bar, Clorox, and Levi Strauss & Co.” You can find a club that meshes with what you do on the job. “I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, so being part of the Entrepreneurship Club was a natural step,” says Arvind Ravishunkar, MBA16, a corporate strategy manager at Fairchild Semiconductor. “I’m particularly excited to partner with the brilliant engineering minds at Berkeley.”  Or you can explore a sector far from your day-to-day. Second-year student Katie Pease, a facilities risk engineer at Lockheed Martin, worked on a research project for BERC (the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative) on fracking. “That’s one of the reasons I’m here: to explore things I don’t know anything about," Katie says. Speakers Plenty of students tell us they learn as much outside the classroom as in. One reason for that is the amazing roster of name-brand speakers who come to campus, like Bill Hambrecht, Reed Hastings, Biz Stone, and Alice Waters. The Dean’s Speaker Series are streamed live, so you can watch even if you can’t make it to campus. Many other presentations are videotaped and can be watched later, including talks by Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez, MBA84, and Khan Academy founder Salman Khan. You’re also welcome at presentations sponsored by Haas research centers and think tanks. The Peterson Series at the Center for Responsible Business is just one example. Sound like too much fun? There’s actually even more going on. Take a look at life in our dynamic Evening & Weekend MBA community.  
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| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Evening and Weekend MBA Startup Jolts Electric Vehicle Charging |
 An MBA startup launched by evening and weekend students aims to send shock waves through the energy storage and electrical vehicle charging industries. Last year it developed a product it hopes will redefine those markets, and within its first year counts Google and LinkedIn among its customers and Nissan and Siemens as strategic partners. It all started with one self-proclaimed automotive geek. Third-year student Arcady Sosinov moved from Russia at age five, and was soon helping his dad, a Boston taxi driver, with brake repairs and oil changes. By age 11, he was replacing entire auto engines. Later, he formed a small company to design, manufacture, and sell performance auto parts for BMWs. Once he arrived at Berkeley-Haas, he took full advantage of the Evening & Weekend Berkeley MBA Program to co-found the automotive startup of his dreams: a company called FreeWire. FreeWire began in the spring of 2014 when Sosinov and classmate Sameer Mehdiratta and Sanat Kamal Bahl, MBA 14, all met in Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad course and realized a synergy: Sosinov had finance and automotive expertise and Mehdiratta and Kamal Bahl had engineering expertise in wireless charging. (Co-founder and classmate Luv Kothari went on to take a position with Bain & Company.) The result was a company that aims to transform the electric vehicle (EV) charging market. Sosinov credits Lean LaunchPad with supplying the foundation and motivation to get FreeWire off the ground. Applying the class methodology of customer discovery and iteration, the FreeWire team conducted 140 face-to-face interviews with potential customers (including large companies that provide workplace EV charging for employees). As a result, the team pivoted away from wireless EV charging, its original idea, to mobile, grid-smart battery-powered chargers. “We realized there was not a market yet for wireless charging, but we also discovered a huge pain point for customers: building the costly infrastructure required with workplace EV charging stations,” Sosinov says. Another problem they uncovered was the limited use of stationary charging stations: employees would fail to move their cars during the day to share the stations with others. FreeWire’s mobile charger, Mobi, which uses second-life EV batteries, solved the problem. “Instead of bringing the vehicles to the charging station, we bring the charger to the vehicles.” FreeWire raised $425,000 in seed capital and secured a $500,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research, Sosinov reports, adding the company is currently making headway towards its A round goal of $6 to $9 million. While Lean LaunchPad was essential to starting the company, other Berkeley-Haas courses have proved vital along the way, Sosinov says.  The Freewire Founding Team (l. to r.) Sanat Kamal Bahl, Sameer Mediratta, Luv Kothari, and Arcady Soinov In the Venture Capital and Private Equity class taught by Terry Opdendyk and Sean Foote, Sosinov learned about financing strategy, and the Entrepreneurship class taught by Kurt Beyer provided a breadth of information on how to run and grow a startup during its first few years. “Getting those three different perspectives was instrumental,” Sosinov says. “The entrepreneurial spirit at Berkeley-Haas is also incredible, as is the network of people and the connections we’ve made.” Up next for FreeWire is expansion into the energy storage market as a whole. The company plans to apply its technology to help commercial buildings and utility companies manage energy consumption to dramatically lower costs. It also aims to help residential power users more efficiently use their solar systems. Sosinov’s advice for other entrepreneurs is two-fold. “I’m a big advocate of the lean startup customer discovery process,” he says. And for Berkeley-Haas students and alumni: “Use your network. There are Berkeley grads in every dimension of business, technology, and government. Reach out to them because they are always willing to help.”  
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06 Feb 2015, 19:46
07 Feb 2015, 00:03
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
Tuck at Dartmouth
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