<p>Hi, after attending the calso orientation I found that there is alot of extracurricular activities available at CAL. I have check out the web site but find that most of them relates to volunteering, student government or fraternity. So I was wondering if there is any program, workshop, seminars regarding to students that wish to start their own business?</p>
<p>Any information regarding the subject would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Some students actually start businesses while in high school or college – with varying levels of success or lack thereof.</p>
<p>What kind of business are you looking into?</p>
<p>Berkeley is considered one of the top schools for tech CEOs, so you can bet many students are interested in tech startups. Nowadays, a business degree just doesn’t cut it, so you might want to look into learning programming in addition to business.</p>
<p>Nine out of ten startups fail. The odds are against us - statistically, nearly none of us will be the next Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, or, my personal favorite, Li Ka-shing. But, perchance, you have a novel idea that will ripple around the world - the next Black Swan. I do not deny that a human being can generate a Black Swan; I only reject the idea that a human being can predict it. Black Swans - both negative and positive - are unpredictable by nature, so walking into the business world expecting to erect a multibillion startup is absurd.</p>
<p>Instead of sauntering into the hinterlands of HAAS with the sole intention of “establishing a buinesss,” relax a bit. Get active with clubs, and party with love. Enjoy the smell of impecunious hobos in People’s Park. Learn programming and maybe even a new language. Recruit your army, your clique of close and trusted subordinates, slowly and carefully; and what the Zuck - maybe, just maybe, by the time you graduate, you’ll have enough understanding enough knowledge to build something that will rock the world.</p>
<p>^Even if the Op’s startups are destined to fail, by starting one and going through with it and putting all your effort into it, you will probably learn more about business than all the lectures and textbooks in Haas could ever teach you.</p>
<p>“Enjoy the smell of impecunious hobos in People’s Park”</p>
<p>smile, thank you all for the reply, and the slight hint of humor incorporated in the responses</p>
<p>I think my true intention is manifest in the last sentence of Lucyan’s response, “Maybe by the time I graduate I’ll have the knowledge to build something…” </p>
<p>And I guess my question would be how do I obtained it, this knowledge? </p>
<p>The most superficial answer that I could think of is to take classes, attend seminars, and extracurricular that pertain to establishing business, and hence this post.</p>
<p>And the reason I ask for the extracurriculars, is that it had occurred to me that even if I have an idea that could ripple the world, I would have absolutely no clue where to start it, do I just knock the door of an angel investor or seeding company and tell them to fund my idea or do I just go rent a house hire some crew and start selling? There has to be some conditions that I have to met before I even start establishing my own business, and that is what I am looking forward to learn in participating in the extracurricular activities, as I realized that it is more the mechanics behind the establishing of a business than the actual technical details of my potential product that is going to hinder my dream.</p>
<p>And to respond to Lucyan and loldanielols’ concern regarding programming, since I am an engineering major, I had already learned programming in two object oriented languages. </p>
<p>Thank you again for the reply, any further information would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>isn’t there an entrepreneur half-class you can take for credit? you should check it out</p>
<p>@f24u7: There are established programs for people like you who have no connections to investors. These programs have established application procedures. Keep in mind that ideas are a dime a dozen - what matters to these programs is a person’s ability to get things done. To that end, that can be fulfilled by engineering extracurriculars and personal projects and internships.</p>
<p>Alternately, you could build up connections through internships at startup firms - you will probably get to work with the founders, and later on you can ask them to refer you top investors.</p>
<p>If you have an idea, what you should do is build a product - even a prototype. No one is going to give you any money for just an idea (the sole exception would be the programs I mentioned where you apply).</p>
<p>Most of what I have said only applies to Silicon Valley.</p>