Free Ventures

Free Ventures is an initiative for the students, by the students. We like to call it a microgrant.

Free Ventures is UC Berkeley's leading pre-seed startup incubator, crafting highly individualized paths for student founders across industries and academic backgrounds in a 3-month program. Our mission is to free students from the constraints that hinder exploration, allowing for the pursuit of high-impact ventures. To start out in the efforts to improve life for entrepreneurs on campus, we have p

ut together a program that is launching in Fall of 2013. In the program students receive two upper division UGBA units for participating in the Free Ventures program, to help ease the load of classe. Free Ventures also gives funding to teams on a need basis, while taking no part of the venture and expecting no money in return. Eachh project team is assigned a mentor with project specific background from either industry or academia as well, to help provide real world experience to the team. The program also has guest lecturers that hold workshops and sit down with each individual teams for domain advice tailored to each group, as well as giving students dedicated space to work. You can see us featured on Bloomberg TV, by the Daily Cal, and by Big Ideas @ Berkeley below. Please feel Free to reach out to us if you want to partake in any way, or think you can help our efforts! http://bloom.bg/18TqTN3 =lqa2loYzp2p9X0Dwge33qegsRyrwgSwe
http://www.dailycal.org/2013/06/19/uc-berkeley-students-participate-in-36-hour-hackfest/
http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/2013/06/20/bloomberg-hackfest/

04/01/2021

Our 8VC event is happening right now! Come join us now:

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03/13/2021

Midterms got you cramming the internal application in at the last minute? Good news: we're extending the deadline to tomorrow night, 3/13 at 11:59 pm PST!

Free Ventures hosts a semester-long accelerator program in the fall and spring academic semesters. We connect founders to experienced mentors who can help think strategically about how to grow their businesses and provide a host of personalized resources to help startups scale into the future.

03/08/2021

Work closely with the top student-run, early stage companies at UC Berkeley: Free Ventures, Cal's leading pre-seed startup accelerator, is recruiting for our internal team!

Internal team members receive:
- unparalleled exposure to Berkeley's leading startups.
- opportunities to select founders, operate the accelerator, and manage portfolio companies and partner relations.
- opportunities to help batch companies with strategy, fundraising, marketing, and more.

You'll curate a support network of top venture capitalists, resource partners, and founders from around the Valley. FreeV alumni companies have been backed by Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins, 8VC, and more, and have collectively raised over $55 million in funding.

Apps are due on Friday 3/12 at 11:59 PST at http://www.freeventures.org/apply/. We can’t wait to read yours!

02/06/2021

Cal Founders!

Feeling rushed to submit? No worries. We're extending our batch apps by 24 hours to TOMORROW, 2/6 midnight PST.

Join the 60+ teams who have been through our batch program:

https://tinyurl.com/freev-apply-s21
https://www.freeventures.org/

10/24/2020

Had a busy week? No worries — our Internal Team app deadline is being EXTENDED by a day.

Apply at freeventures.org/apply by Saturday 10/24 at midnight to work with Cal's most promising student startups. We can't wait to hear from you!

10/01/2020

We're excited to spotlight our next Fiat Lux speaker, Jessica Ou! Jess joined NEA in 2018 as an investor focused on both enterprise and consumer technology companies. Prior to joining NEA, Jess spent two years at Morgan Stanley in their Global Technology Group in Menlo Park, covering companies across enterprise software, infrastructure, and consumer internet.

From Jess: "I’ve felt improving gender diversity in the business world is of huge importance ever since I joined Berkeley Women in Business my freshman year in college. Female founders, investors, and operators are significantly under-represented in the tech industry across all levels. I’ve found it very important in my career to find senior female mentors for guidance in navigating the industry, so I’m excited to speak at Fiat Lux."

Come hear from Jess and other amazing women TOMORROW at Fiat Lux | Female Leaders (Hosted by Free Ventures)

09/29/2020

📣 Our next Fiat Lux Speaker Spotlight is Jasmine Stoy!

Jasmine is a Product Manager at Facebook within the Entertainment division. She's previously worked on Facebook Live, and now works on Music products. She's passionate about enabling connections through media, and creating media that reflects our generation. She's recently been devoting her free time to Kpop stan Twitter and watching lectures from Virgil Abloh. She graduated from Cal Class of 2016 and was a founding member of Free Ventures.

From Jasmine: "Tech's lack of inclusion is no secret. It's so important to openly shed light on the nuance of the industry's challenges so we can lift others up and advocate for change, but also know how we can take care of ourselves and protect our energy when we face challenges (big or small) every day, because it's a marathon and not a sprint."

So stoked to hear from you, Jasmine ✨

Don't forget to sign up at tinyurl.com/fiatluxf20, and learn more at Fiat Lux | Female Leaders (Hosted by Free Ventures)

09/28/2020

Kicking off our Fiat Lux speaker spotlights with Gresshaa, a Cal alum, and a current Project Coordinator at Apple! Gresshaa has a diverse range of experiences in Marketing, Consulting, and UI/UX Design with companies such as Spotify and Uber.

She has a passion for volunteer work and mentorship with organizations such as FEMTech, Google CS First, Built by Girls, Out in Tech, Women in Network, and more. She likes to spend her free time practicing her design skills, looking at doggo memes, hiking, and playing games on the PlayStation.

From Gresshaa:
"My undergraduate education would have been incomplete without the communities and clubs, very much like Free Ventures, that supported me through thick and thin. The friendships you make here are going to last you a lifetime, I'm so excited for each and every one of you. College is rough, and finding a job during a pandemic is rougher, and that's why I'm here – as a resource for you – so please reach out and let me know how I can help."

We're so excited to hear from you, Gresshaa! 😍 Save your spot at tinyurl.com/fiatluxf20, and learn more at Fiat Lux | Female Leaders (Hosted by Free Ventures)!

Address

2560 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA
94720

Website

http://www.freeventures.org/

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The Free Ventures Story

ABOUT FREE VENTURES

We are a program run by students, for students. Each semester the brightest UC Berkeley student founders apply to Free Ventures to bring their dissertation research, side projects, or innovative products to market. As the only non-profit student-run incubator on campus we aren’t pressed for returns or exits. Instead, we spend our full time cultivating relationships with top undergraduate and graduate student groups, and craft highly individualized paths for founders with the support of top venture capitalists, resource partners, founders, and thought leaders from the Valley. In so doing, we make entrepreneurship accessible to Berkeley students of all backgrounds by empowering them with the support to innovate and build.

By tailoring our batch program to founders across industries and academic background — ranging from undergraduates to MBAs and PhD researchers, with engineering, the liberal arts, and other disciplines represented — Free Ventures fosters a unique range of perspectives in each batch. This shines through when our companies collaborate over the course of our 3-month program and beyond, and is duly reflected in the wide diversity of partners, investors, and thought leaders from the Valley that engage with our program and founders. We uniquely offer students academic units to work on their startups and provide small amounts of equity-free capital — in addition to a full suite of other resources — to enable students to spend less time in the classroom and more time building.