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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, pupil 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.
“Throughout Mayfield’s 55-year history, we’ve helped early-stage entrepreneurs transform breakthrough ideas into iconic companies. With the advent of AI, we believe it’s more crucial than ever to meet founders where they are in their journey. The Mayfield AI Garage embodies this conviction, providing the capital, mentorship, and resources founders need to take their AI ideas to the next level,” stated Navin Chaddha, managing associate at Mayfield, in an announcement. “UC Berkeley has phenomenal AI talent, and the SkyDeck accelerator program has a proven legacy of nurturing founders. Partnering together made perfect sense, and we can’t wait to see the exciting AI-based ideas from the first cohort of applicants.”
The brand new program formally launches on January 22, 2025, with functions open till February 28, 2025. The three successful groups will likely 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 area 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 companies,” stated Chon Tang, founding associate of Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, in an announcement. “We are thrilled to be working closely with the Mayfield AI Garage team and offering students unparalleled access to the resources necessary to create successful companies.”
UC Berkeley has lengthy been a pacesetter for startup founders, rating first for undergraduate alumni founders, first for feminine founders, first for the variety of firms 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 prospects 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 beneath administration.
Final yr, Mayfield launched the Mayfield AI Storage initiative with $100 million centered on ideation-stage founders constructing AI Teammate firms. This program grew out of Mayfield’s 40-year observe document of working with entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs). Our EIR program has been the launchpad for quite a few profitable firms, and we’re bringing this confirmed mannequin to UC Berkeley, offering the identical high-touch assist and assets to pupil founders.
I requested Navin Chaddha, managing associate of the Mayfield Fund, why it was good to start out so younger with AI enterpreneurship whereas college students have been nonetheless in faculty.
“I’ve been investing for over two decades and noticed something fascinating: the most transformative companies often come from young founders who approach problems with a “beginner’s mind,” he stated in a message to GamesBeat. “History has shown that some of the most successful companies, like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, were started by students who weren’t constrained by conventional thinking. In the AI era, being young is a superpower.”
He added, “Today’s students are growing up with AI; they’re building with large language models like others use spreadsheets and imagining applications that others might dismiss as impossible. The technical talent coming out of UC Berkeley right now is extraordinary – they are bringing fresh perspectives to hard problems. These students are publishing papers on foundational AI models, winning international competitions, and many are already working on projects that could be the next breakthrough in AI.”
I additionally requested what number of offers could occur in a given time.
“We’re selecting three student teams to join the Mayfield AI Garage at Berkeley program, but this is just the beginning of a much broader vision,” Chaddha stated. “Each team gets a stipend and access to essential tools and resources, but more importantly, they get mentorship from our team and access to our entire ecosystem to help move from ideation to a full-fledged startup.”
And he stated, “Through our partnerships with Nvidia and Microsoft, these teams will get direct access to cutting-edge AI infrastructure and technical expertise. Being part of UC Berkeley SkyDeck’s Pad-13 program is also transformative – it puts these founders at the heart of UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, connecting them with other founders, faculty, and SkyDeck’s network of industry advisors.”
And I requested about competing applications and why Berkeley SkyDeck was the best alternative.
Chaddha stated, “Silicon Valley has numerous accelerators and incubators that provide capital and resources in exchange for equity, but we’ve structured the Mayfield AI Garage at Berkeley program differently. Rather than taking a broad-based approach, we’re creating a launchpad for three student teams to explore if their AI ideas can turn into companies – with no strings attached. We’re not taking equity or requiring incorporation; instead, we’re providing capital, mentorship from our team, and access to our entire network at this idea exploration stage.”
He added, “Training large language models or running extensive experiments can be prohibitively expensive. Accessing resources like Microsoft Azure compute credits or Nvidia’s Inception program requires being a venture-backed company, which can be a significant barrier for students. We are removing these obstacles entirely. Teams also get access 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, significantly in areas like basis fashions, information, 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 pupil founders constructing the way forward for AI. “
