MBA Iris Shim and Team Acopio Win 2nd (and 3rd) Top Prizes for Big Ideas

Iris Shim, MBA 12, won a Berkeley Big Ideas Prize last year for Crop-to-Cup and proves that big ideas keep brewing: Her team, now known as Acopio, won two more prizes in Big Ideas 2012 for their plan to boost the quality and economic opportunity found in a morning cup of joe.

Shim and I-School students Ariel Chait, MIMS 12, and Paul Goodman, MIMS 12, continue to hone a mobile/web-based data aggregation and delivery tool that increases transparency, traceability, and quality assurance along the global commodity chain for coffee. Acopio won the $10K grand prize at Big Ideas’ April 13 Pitch Day and a $10K prize in the Scaling Up category, topping more than 200 competitors. Shim, Chait, and Goodman tell the Acopio story below.

Since their win last year, the team has spent summer and winter breaks in Mexico and Nicaragua conducting field research, developing a prototype, and running their first pilot; have formed a partnership with a global investment fund providing working capital financing for agricultural enterprises; and has been accepted into a Bay Area incubator. The team plans to push the Acopio (“harvest” in Spanish) social venture forward this summer and beyond. Learn more at Acopio’s website and in this I-School story on the team.

 

Haas Achieves: A Video Year-in-Review

Congratulations to the full-time MBA classes of 2012 and 2013. In just one year you have accomplished an extraordinary amount, from organizing conferences and international treks to winning case competitions. We are so proud of all you achieve at Haas–and have captured what we could (i.e. some, certainly not all!) in this Haas Achieves video. We know you have many achievements yet to come and wish you the best.

Three Minutes to Launch: Berkeley MBAs Soar in Rocket Pitch

Melissa Millan shoots for the moon at Babson Rocket Pitch

Apparently, elevator pitches take too long: Two Berkeley MBA students had a mere three slides and three minutes to make their mark in Babson’s inaugural San Francisco Rocket Pitch competition on Oct. 1. Kevin Callaghan and Melissa Millan, both MBA 13, made good use of the (limited) time, shooting to first and second place, respectively, and besting 13 rivals from other Bay Area business schools.

Callaghan and his teammate, Inderpal Singh, won the top prize–$5,000 and the opportunity to meet with several venture capitalists–for their Coaster app, which allows users to buy drinks at a bar from their mobile device. No more pushing through crowds, waiting at the bar, or shouting your order to the bartender, notes Callaghan.

Millan took second place for Androgyny, a company that aims to offer premium button-down shirts for women who seek an androgynous look. “Queer women struggle to find clothing that both fits them properly and allows them to feel comfortable and confident,” Millan says. “I think the judges found it refreshing to hear a new idea, especially one outside of the technology sector.”  The $3,000 second prize will allow Millan to move forward with producing a sample run. “I was also able to connect with people in the venture and apparel communities that have the potential to be fantastic business partners.”

In your Corner: Advice for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship mentor and attorney Matt Kirmayer

First-year full-time MBA students Elsita Meyer-Brandt and Jens Uehlecke connected quickly in the opening weeks of school, brought together by German roots, media-related backgrounds, and a business idea. The idea began with Uehlecke, who sees a way to help publishers thrive in a world of diminishing print. He says Meyer-Brandt’s consulting experience in media and entertainment was the perfect complement to his journalism background.

The two are taking advantage of classroom learning and participation in the Digital Media and Entertainment Club and Haas Entrepreneur’s Association to plot their future careers and to explore their interest in entrepreneurship. For a kick-start on their business idea, they sought candid feedback from Matt Kirmayer, a member of the Tech Group at Lowenstein Sandler.

Kirmayer, who specializes in the representation of emerging growth companies, is one of 40-50 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and attorneys advising would-be entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurs Corner, a program offered for 15 years by the Haas School’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In the Corner, experts such as Kirmayer give some 200 hours of advice across nearly 400 sessions per year. Many advisors are local, but sessions by phone and by Skype broaden the expert pool and offer more flexibility to students who may not be on campus when the entrepreneurs are.

Kirmayer’s interest in mentoring at Haas was sparked about six years ago when his firm sponsored the Berkeley Business Plan Competition. “I got an incredible kick out of working with these students–who don’t even realize how bright they are,” says Kirmayer. “They ask unbelievably intelligent questions and have insights and ideas one would expect of much more experienced entrepreneurs.”

Meyers-Brandt came to Haas to make a shift from consulting to industry or entrepreneurship. She says she and Uehlecke are still in the very early stages, “so we used our time with Matt to discuss our idea at a high level. He was very generous with his time and gave us a candid assessment of our idea and our team’s strengths, along with many important insights into how we take our idea from a project to a business plan.”

As for his motivation, Kirmayer says, “Think about what it means for the future to have people innovating at an early age. If we give them the tools they need now, they will find their passions and move forward with some truly amazing ideas in the future.”

MBA Internships: Facebook

Student: Hans Lintermans, MBA 12

Interning with: Facebook, Palo Alto, CA

Thrilled to be with Facebook because: “The energy is amazing. Every week new ideas are thrown around and received with great enthusiasm.”

Can’t believe he’s getting the chance to: Ask Mark Zuckerberg any question during weekly company-wide Q&As and launch an internal solution without much supervision.

Already he’s learned: That he works best in an environment that focuses only on value-added projects. “The company lives and breathes, ‘move fast and break things’ which means that I get the opportunity to work on projects that have real impact, even though they might not be perfect.”

Advancing career goals by: Gaining real insight into a successful startup. “During my MBA at Haas, I am focusing on entrepreneurship and marketing. Working on Facebook’s global marketing team gives me the ideal platform to put what I learn in action.”

Who makes you proud to be Berkeley-Haas? Tell us in the comments below or share your stories with vgilbert@haas.berkeley.edu.

Making Lunch, Making Time (Magazine)

MBA 06s Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, top education activists

Haas Alumnae Make Time’s List of 11 Education Activists for 2011

Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, both MBA 06, co-founders of Revolution Foods, and 2007 winners of the Global Social Venture Competition, were recently named among 11 Education Activists for 2011 by Time magazine. As Time noted: “They’re not the first people to try to improve the quality of school lunches, but the Kristin/Kirsten duo is the first to successfully couple good intentions with a serious and sustainable business model… Even in this economy, a company that sits at the intersection of three hot issues—education reform, child nutrition and sustainable and local agriculture—is a good bet.”

Groos Richmond says the enterprise now serves 60,000 healthy, fresh meals per day in Northern and Southern California, Denver and Washington DC and has created over 450 jobs since inception. Of the duo’s time at Berkeley-Haas, she notes, “We often reflect on how grateful we are for the world class MBA education that Haas provided. Within this program, the Lester Center (for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) served as an incubator for our and other classmates’ ideas, cultivating an engaging, creative and innovation-rich environment.”

“Another sign of the company’s growing cachet?” notes Time: President Obama has appointed Richmond to his White House Council on Community Solutions, which is tasked with mobilizing local resources to solve social problems.

Who makes you proud to be Berkeley-Haas? Share your stories with vgilbert@haas.berkeley.edu.