About Venture Lab

The CET Venture Lab provides UC Berkeley's top entrepreneurial teams educational support, access to an extensive network of experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, help with business planning and milestones, office space, and financial support in the form of prizes from CET.

Teams are primarily chosen during the CET Venture Lab Competition in the beginning of the fall semester. The Competition comprises a 4-page written application followed by elevator-pitch in front of faculty, entrepreneurs, VCs and your peers. During the spring semester, teams may apply at the discretion of Center's directors. Appointments for all teams are for at most one year and succesful teams are encouraged to re-apply in the fall to secure workspace, prizes, and other benefits for an additional year.

Spring applicants should understand that they will also need to make an elevator pitch; that the acceptance decision will be made by the CET directors possibly in conjunction with select Industry Fellows; that space will be granted if available (and needed) but that financial prizes will not be awarded and will only be accessible during the subsequent fall competition.

Photo: Marcia Hickman
Announcing the 2010 Venture Lab Winners!
Arktos	Algorithms for the power industry to optimize the dispatch of flexible loads.
Axis	Safety vest for equestrians with proprietary visco-elastic polymer.
Berkeley Biochar	Bioproduced charcoal retains vast amount of water & helps resist drought.
Flotype	Social engine for fashionistas to access stylists and their creative outfits.
FreeForm Power	Completely printable battery in which every component starts off as an ink.
Fuel from the Fields	Produce charcoal briquettes from agricultural waste in rural Haiti.
Monsterville	A mobile location-based casual game for Android devices.
Opinion Space	New system for group discussion using data visualization models.
Past Winners (2009-10 Academic Year)
BidWave	Using a novel auction algorithm, this team is designing an engine for retailers to implement viral marketing campaigns.
BioMarque Systems	This team's microfluidic MEMS technology seeks to eliminate the need for slow and costly protein sizing assays.
Energizing Solutions	This patent-pending technology detects 3 types of abnormal motor operation responsible for over 90% of motor failures.
Flex-Solar	Flex-Solar's solar nanopillar (SNOP) cell has the capacity to significantly reduce the cost of solar energy harvesting.
Indinero.com	Indinero creates software to help small businesses better track, manage, and provide instant insight into their finances.
Magoosh	Magoosh provides online test preparation and launched its beta site in July 2009.
Modista	Using computer vision technology, Modista organizes image collections and displays them via a visually intuitive user interface.
MPI	MPI's technology, magnetic particle imaging, is designed to rapidly, safely, and affordably perform coronary angiography.
QVSense	A novel and proprietary approach to photovoltaic power management that achieves substantial energy savings.
WeMakeItSafer	WeMakeItSafer developed a suite of web applications for problems associated with identifying recalled products.