Best Berkeley SkyDeck Podcasts (2024)

1
Turning great science into impactful medicine: Lessons from Corey Goodman, Pioneer in Science and Venture Capital 1:21:13

5h ago1:21:13

1:21:13

Corey Goodman, Ph.D., is the managing partner of venBio, a venture capital firm he cofounded in 2011. venBio already has 7 FDA approved drugs on the market, saving and improving lives. Corey spent 25 years as Professor of Biology at Stanford University and Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at U.C. Berkeley, where he was a HHMI Investigator, Head of …

1
Pushing Boundaries: Abhishek Tripathi’s Experience with NASA, SpaceX, UC Berkeley and Startups 1:01:24

19d ago1:01:24

1:01:24

Abhishek Tripathi, is the Director of Mission operations of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Abhi is also the Chair of the Air and Space track startups at Skydeck, which is UC Berkeley's startup accelerator program. For over two decades, Abhi has been at the forefront of human and robotic space exploration. A…

1
Lessons from Evolution of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem at UC Berkeley 58:06

3M ago58:06

58:06

Richard Lyons, Ph.D., is the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, at the University of California, Berkeley. Rich is an economist and the former dean of the business school. Rich will become the next chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. We talk about a wide variety of topics around the Evolutio…

1
Civilization Ventures: Lessons learned from founding, exiting and applying them to support founders as an investor 54:45

3M ago54:45

54:45

Shahram Seyedin-Noor is the founder and managing partner at Civilization Ventures. Shahram received a JD from Harvard and worked at Wilson Solsinis and Cooley before going into investment banking at firms like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. He then entered the startup world co-founding several startups. He eventually ended up Angel investing an…

1
Humba Ventures: Investing in Deep Tech Startups with Engineering Focus 53:11

5M ago53:11

53:11

Leo Polovets is the Co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures. Leo focuses on enterprise software and technical products at Susa. About two years ago, He also started Humba Ventures, a fund that invests in deep tech and critical national sectors like energy and defense at Humba. Leo led Susa's investments in Mashgin, People Data Labs, Scalyr,…

1
Berkeley Skydeck- Catalyzing the growth of deep tech startups at the world’s number one ranked public university. 52:08

5M ago52:08

52:08

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley Skydeck, a startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley. Skydeck started as a mentoring space in 2012 and soon translated into one of the leading startup accelerators in the world. SkyDeck was Formed as a partnership between UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the College of…

1
Medtech Innovator and Biotools Innovator: accelerator for medical device, digital health and diagnostic companies 1:12:25

6M ago1:12:25

1:12:25

Paul Grand is the founder and CEO; Ayelet Marom is the Program Director for BioTools Innovator, which focuses specifically on biotools; and Jim West is the Associate Director, BioTools Innovator, who was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of, Clara Biotech, which was founded in 2018 and was acquired by Innovaprep in the summer of 2023. Jim was the f…

1
Metcela - Treating chronic organ diseases using a novel fibroblast-based technology 58:06

7M ago58:06

58:06

Kenichi Nogami is the co-founder and CEO of Metcela, a clinical-stage biotechnology startup pioneering the research and development of fibroblast and stem cell-based therapy for chronic heart diseases that currently have limited therapeutic options. We talk about the current treatments for heart failure and how the fibroblast technology could help …

1
Lessons learned from a scientist entrepreneur turned investor 1:16:45

8M ago1:16:45

1:16:45

Caleb Bell III, Ph.D., is a venture partner at Corundum Systems Biology and also the President of Corundum convergence institute. We talk about the founding story of Bell biosystems; how they were able to work at various labs around the country with very little money; building teams, culture; raising money, interacting with investors, leadership tr…

1
NAMUH - Attempt at closing the gap between infant formula and human breast milk 1:05:44

9M ago1:05:44

1:05:44

Chaeyoung Shin was the Co-founder and CEO of NAMUH, a startup focused on developing yeast fermentation technologies to produce human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). HMOs are crucial, fiber-equivalent macronutrients that are currently lacking in most formulas. Integrating them in sufficient amounts could significantly close the nutritional disparity b…

1
NASA fueling innovation through SBIR/STTR, Awards & Prizes 48:32

12M ago48:32

48:32

Jenn Gustetic is the Director of Early Stage Innovations and Partnerships at NASA. In this episode of Lab to startup, we will learn about various funding mechanisms that NASA provides to support innovation, primarily to support NASA space missions. We talk about the funding process through contracts; differences between grants and contracts; NASA’s…

1
Independent directors for startups 49:31

1y ago49:31

49:31

Ryan Caldbeck, is the COO of Dune, a powerful analytics platform for blockchain research. It can be used to query, extract, and visualize vast amounts of data on the Ethereum blockchain. Ryan was previously the founder, and CEO of CircleUp, a technology platform focused on finding and evaluating private companies. He is also an angel investor in se…

1
Feeding our astronauts - Reflections of a NASA food scientist 1:08:25

1y ago1:08:25

1:08:25

Vickie Kloeris is a food scientist with an out of this world career. She worked at NASA in space food systems for 34 years. She served as the NASA manager of the Shuttle first and then the International Space Station food systems. She and her teams worked through the complex challenges of creating tasty, nutritious, long-lasting, easy-to-prepare me…

1
Developing foundational tools for engineering metabolism inside cells to solve important societal problems. 57:28

1y ago57:28

57:28

Jay Keasling, the CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). He is also a Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and also the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley.. He’s also a Senior Faculty Scientist @ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and also holds other prestigious positions a…

1
PCDworks: Hardtech Basecamp Incubator for building hardware products 1:00:15

1+ y ago1:00:15

1:00:15

Donna Rainone and Mike Rainone are the founders of PCDworks. PCDworks is a technology development company that helped develop hardware for over 50 big companies in the oil and gas, transportation, healthcare and several other industries; and now helping startups with a new incubator model. We first talk about lessons learned from building innovativ…

1
E51 Raising $1bn to bringing entrepreneurship to Japan with World Innovation Lab founder and CEO Gen Isayama 53:07

1+ y ago53:07

53:07

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO of World Innovation Lab, a Palo Alto and Tokyo based venture firm investing in growth-stage companies and serving as a bridge between startups and Japanese corporations.00:00 Intro01:30 World Innovation Lab04:10 From Japanese lawyer to Silicon Valley VC09:10 From DCM to…

1
VeriSIM Life: Using AI to build translational indices to push better drug moieties into clinicals 1:09:22

1+ y ago1:09:22

1:09:22

Jo Varshney, Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life, a startup developing disease-specific simulation software designed to replace animal drug testing by using artificial intelligence. We talk about translational gap in drug discovery, the technology VeriSIM is developing, especially their virtual mouse models; some of the mathematical model…

1
Osage University Partners- Funding university spinouts 55:43

1+ y ago55:43

55:43

Manny Stockman is a Partner at Osage University Partners. OUP exclusively invests in startups spun out of university research. We talk about the investment thesis of Osage University Partners; technology readiness challenges; lessons learned from investing in early stage technologies at universities; challenges with the current market research used…

1
E50 Establishing a growth equity firm with Left Lane Capital founding partner Dan Ahrens 41:02

1+ y ago41:02

41:02

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Dan Ahrens, founding partner at Left Lane Capital, a New York based venture capital and early growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses. 00:00 Intro 02:43 Consumer vs. enterprise tech 05:09 Getting into venture 07:54 Raising Left Lane I 10:35 Investing …

1
Lucira Health 2:07:29

1+ y ago2:07:29

2:07:29

Debkishora Mitra and John Waldeisen are the co-founders of Lucira Health. Lucira Health, which was originally founded as Diassess, is the first company to get an FDA approval for at-home PCR based test for COVID. We talk about the story of Lucira from its founding stage to raising; the technological and market based pivots; raising over $250M (incl…

1
E49 Cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora 35:36

1+ y ago35:36

35:36

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Divyang Arora, founder and CEO of Byte Kitchen about cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora. 0:00 Intro 1:24 2 minute elevator pitch 4:27 Going all in 8:07 Business Model 14:52 The Byte Kitchen playbook 18:52 Optimal Partner Restaurant Profile 25:39 End custo…

1
Legal 101 for deeptech founders; Understanding the basics; dilution, and safeguarding employee equity 1:18:13

1+ y ago1:18:13

1:18:13

Nick Dorsey and Amanda Gold are partners at Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. Cravath has been known as one of the premier law firms in the US for more than two centuries. We talk about a wide variety of topics involving legal aspects for startups from incorporation to exit- incorporation, picking a law firm, equity split, vesting, hiring first emplo…

1
E48 Protecting passwords through open-source software with Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell 39:21

1+ y ago39:21

39:21

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Michael Crandell, CEO Bitwarden about scaling open-source password manager Bitwarden. 00:00 Intro 00:50 What is Bitwarden 03:22 From side hustle to venture-backed 06:36 Joining a Bootstrapper at Series A 09:58 Open-source GTM 13:25 Open-source defensibility 15:35 Community vs. enterprise edition 17:37 …

1
Intentional Startup Growth with Ethan Song, Founder of RareCircles 22:01

1+ y ago22:01

22:01

Ethan Song is forever an optimist and began his journey as the founder and CEO of Frank And Oak, which aimed to reshape the fashion industry by making it more personal and sustainable. Frank And Oak was named Most innovative company in retail by Fast Company and was #1 on the Deloitte Fast50 list. Today, Ethan is the founder of RareCircles, helping…

1
It’s All About The Founders with Caroline Winnett, Executive Director of Berkeley SkyDeck 23:08

1+ y ago23:08

23:08

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley SkyDeck, a global hub for entrepreneurship, and one of the leading accelerators in the world. She is a serial entrepreneur, civic activist, angel investor, advisor and board member of several startups, as well as and a frequent speaker on startups, accelerators, women in business and consumer n…

1
Cuberg- Next generation Lithium metal battery technology for the electric mobility industry 1:13:10

1+ y ago1:13:10

1:13:10

Richard Wang, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Cuberg, a startup building the world’s first aviation-certified lithium metal battery pack. Robert is also the CEO at Northvolt America, which acquired Cuberg in 2021. We talk about the current challenges around battery innovation and solutions that are being worked on followed by Richard’s journey fro…

1
Building something we use everyday with Krish Ramineni, Founder of Fireflies 24:01

1+ y ago24:01

24:01

Krish Ramineni was a former PM at Microsoft and stumbled into entrepreneurship. When focusing on productivity solutions, he and his co-founders decided to just build something that they would use. Fireflies AI was born and the rest is history! Fireflies AI assistant joins meetings across zoom, Gmeet, Teams, and several other video conferencing plat…

1
E47 Your fund size is your strategy with Kyle Harrison, GP at Contrary 47:35

1+ y ago47:35

47:35

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kyle Harrison, general partner at Country about everything from the economics of whale hunting, the venture product offering to his recent joining of Contrary. 00:00 Intro 01:11 Way into venture 04:58 Time of reflection 07:24 The under-innovated venture model 10:46 Your fund size is your strategy 16:16…

1
Disrupt, Disrupt, Disrupt with Marshall Conley, Co-Founder of slø Jeans 26:04

1+ y ago26:04

26:04

Marshall started his career in 2015 in the event space and had an affinity for pedal-to-the-metal organizations, guerilla marketing tactics, and doing things others won’t. After dropping out of university in 2017, Marshall started working with startups and small businesses, and focused on growth, particularly in sales. After some success growing an…

1
Gradient- Building smart heat pumps that use better coolants to cool and heat the world 58:35

1+ y ago58:35

58:35

Vince Romanin, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of Gradient. They are developing a new heat pump technology to address the impact that air conditioners impose on our climate. We talk about the problem with the current HVAC systems and air conditioners, the energy consumption and pollution they cause, history of heat pumps, and then learn about the …

1
An Introvert’s Guide to Starting Up with Ron Ross, Founder of Everee 27:13

1+ y ago27:13

27:13

Ron Ross is the founder of Everee, workforce payments technology that makes it easy to pay people instantly. He is a seasoned finance executive with 15 years of experience leading accounting, finance and operations teams at fast-growing companies. Ron came up with Everee after seeing firsthand the negative impact of waiting two weeks for a paycheck…

1
Hiring Your Fractional CFO with Alejandra Santos, founder of Startup Tandem 24:33

1+ y ago24:33

24:33

Alejandra Santos is the founder and CEO of Startup Tandem. She landed in Miami from Honduras at the age of 17 with no support, money, or family. During her first few years in the US, she struggled to keep a roof over her head and food on her table, while at the same time pursuing an education…. But she did it. Alejandra comes with 14+ years of expe…

1
Getting Creative with It with Shannon Erley, Founder of Pomp Beauty 25:47

1+ y ago25:47

25:47

Shannon Erley has worked in the skincare and beauty industry for years and was personally struggling with adult hormonal acne. It wasn’t until she started working with a licensed esthetician that recommended a good at-home skincare routine was when her skin started to improve. With so many people getting skincare recommendations elsewhere, she want…

1
Valitor- Engineering better medicines by leveraging its multi-valent biopolymer technology 57:51

1+ y ago57:51

57:51

Wesley Jackson, Ph..D., is the co-founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Valitor. Wes was the founding CEO and led the startup through its Series B financing where they raised over$30M to date. Valitor is a biotech startup that uses a novel protein-biopolymer conjugation technology that was licensed from the University of California, Be…

1
Getting Obsessed with the Customer Journey with Maia Monell, Co-Founder of Nav.it 32:19

1+ y ago32:19

32:19

Maia's the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of the Nav.it Money App, the fitness app for finances which provides personalized financial coaching to help people build good habits and live financially well. She's devoted to closing wealth gaps perpetuated by a system not built for the majority of America and believes financial wellbeing is an inte…

1
Partnerships, Shared Content, and Engagement with Lindsay Pinchuk, Founder of Bump Club and Beyond 29:50

1+ y ago29:50

29:50

Lindsay Pinchuk started her first company with just a $500 investment, growing it to reach 3MM users per month and generating 7-figures in revenue year over year. Less than a decade later she led her company through its acquisition to a large agency holding company. Today, Lindsay is Founder + CEO of Lindsay Pinchuk Marketing + Consulting, helping …

1
The founder of The North Face - featuring Hap Klopp [SHORT VERSION] 11:56

1+ y ago11:56

11:56

This episode is scheduled to publish on 11/29/22 at 11:00 AM Hap Klopp is the founder of The North Face and has been its CEO for over 20 years until he sold it in 2000. Since then Hap has been teaching at universities in the Bay Area as well as started HK Consulting, his own consulting company, served in boards of many startups, and mentored hundre…

1
The founder of The North Face - featuring Hap Klopp [FULL] 36:22

1+ y ago36:22

36:22

Hap Klopp is the founder of The North Face and has been its CEO for over 20 years until he sold it in 2000. Since then Hap has been teaching at universities in the Bay Area as well as started HK Consulting, his own consulting company, served in boards of many startups, and mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs. Check out Hap Klopp and his colleague Ca…

1
Translating lessons learnt on diversity from academia to startups and the tech world. 59:31

1+ y ago59:31

59:31

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III is the President Emeritus of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) who served as president from 1992 to 2022. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance.. He was named in 2012 by President Obama to chair the President’s Ad…

1
Building a Winning Pitch Deck with Justin Izzo, Research Lead at DocSend 30:10

1+ y ago30:10

30:10

Justin Izzo is the research lead at DocSend, the secure document sharing platform that provides founders with the insight they need to succeed throughout their fundraising journey. Justin brings 15 years of research and leadership experience to the role in combination with his passion for educating and empowering startup founders. On today’s episod…

1
Authentic Community to Drive Growth with Stephanie Cartin, Co-Founder of Entreprenista 30:45

1+ y ago30:45

30:45

An entrepreneur at heart, Stephanie Cartin walked away from her corporate career in 2012 to follow her passion to launch Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer marketing agency based in New York City named to Inc. 5000's fastest growing private companies two years in a row. In 2018, Stephanie co-founded Entreprenista, a media comp…

1
E46 Uncovering tax credits (aka free money) for startups with MainStreet founder and CEO Doug Ludlow 39:55

1+ y ago39:55

39:55

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Doug Ludlow, co-founder and CEO of MainStreet, which helps startups and small businesses uncover tax credits. 00:00 Intro 01:05 Hipster 05:09 Happy Home Company 07:10 Starting MainStreet 11:22 The nature of Tax credits 16:03 The Path Act 17:52 The MainStreet Product 19:14 Customer success stories 20:4…

1
[REPLAY] Building the startup muscle for academic founders. 50:16

1+ y ago50:16

50:16

Martin Casado is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a pioneer of software-defined networking, and a co-founder of Nicira Networks. We cover the lessons learnt from Martin's journey as an academic entrepreneur founding Nicira and factors that aspiring entrepreneurs planning to translate their research to products should consider. - Sto…

1
Disrupting an Industry from the Inside Out with Priyanka Murthy, Founder of Array 27:22

1+ y ago27:22

27:22

The eldest daughter of two immigrant entrepreneurs, Priyanka Murthy has a talent and passion for the law. She became a Fulbright Scholar, a cum laude Northwestern Law graduate, an editor of the Law Review, and a law clerk to two prolific federal judges. But a side hustle with her parents’ small jewelry wholesale business made her realize that the j…

1
From Farmer’s Market to Whole Foods with Saskia Sorrosa, Founder of Fresh Bellies 22:43

1+ y ago22:43

22:43

Originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Saskia Sorrosa built a strong career in marketing and moved into what she believed to be her dream role—VP of Marketing for the NBA. When her second child arrived on the scene, Saskia realized that she needed to step back from her corporate career to pursue aligning her business with her values. That’s when she f…

1
E45 Building a nextgen, authentic professional social network with Candor founder Kelsey Bishop 27:49

1+ y ago27:49

27:49

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kelsey Bishop founder and CEO of Candor, which is a nexgen, authentic social network. 00:00 Intro 01:02 What is Candor 03:25 Single player mode 03:56 Kelsey’s background 06:19 Employee-culture fit 08:31 Getting started 10:31 Migrating from bubble 11:38 Raising the Seed 12:42 Getting pre-empted 13:50 R…

1
Nucleate Bio- A collaborative student-led organization that facilitates the formation of pioneering life sciences companies 1:06:35

1+ y ago1:06:35

1:06:35

Anjali Ramaswami, Tobias Schmid and Miroslov Gasparek, are leaders at Nucleate Bio, a nonprofit educational organization that empowers the next generation of bio-entrepreneurs to launch successful life sciences ventures. Their program connects early-career scientists with business students and provides a structured educational framework with one-on…

1
Painting a Compelling Narrative for Investors with Joshua March, Co-Founder of SciFi Foods 28:14

1+ y ago28:14

28:14

Joshua March is Co-founder and CEO of SCiFi Foods, a Bay Area food tech company focused on making transformational meat alternatives first by combining plant-based and cultivated meat to make burgers that are drastically closer in taste to the real versions. But his journey began in a completely different industry. One line in a scifi book sparked …

1
E44 Shipping an open-source, low code enterprise tool builder with Appsmith founder Abhishek Nayak 45:53

1+ y ago45:53

45:53

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Abhishek Nayak the co-founder and CEO of Appsmith, which is an open-source, low code internal tool builder. 00:00 Intro 03:15 Entrepreneur in Residence at Accel 05:52 Third time at the Rodeo 09:55 Validating a startup idea at his wedding 11:38 Built for Internal facing apps 13:48 The Appsmith Customer…

1
How to Build a Unicorn with Yahya Mokhtarzada, Co-Founder of Truebill 27:26

1+ y ago27:26

27:26

Before co-founding Truebill (now Rocket Money), Yahya Mokhtarzada and his brothers were always starting companies together. From the traditional lemonade stand to shoveling driveways, their ventures were always evolving. Together, they launched Free Webs—which became Webs.com—and Yahya found himself (and his brothers!) raising Series A when Yahya w…

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