HyVerde

Our inaugural clean energy convening, #NEXLevel, is underway in Berkeley. Around 200 clean energy entrepreneurs, innovators, policymakers, scientists, funders, and thought leaders are gathered for interactive sessions, connections, and insights. Stay tuned for the outcomes of this exciting day. The first session features representatives from the California Energy Commission, ElectricFish, Community Energy Labs, GILLIG, and the University of California Office of the President, discussing California clean energy companies' opportunities and challenges.

🚀 Recap of the 2nd Annual Merced to Market (M2M) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference 🚀 On April 15th, the M2M conference brought together an impressive array of investors, attorneys, industry leaders, and the UC Merced community. Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and postdocs who have founded companies shared their insights on the path to entrepreneurship. This year, we hosted the 1st UC Merced Company Showcase where founders pitched their innovative ideas! 🔷 Here’s What We Covered: - A Serial Entrepreneur's Guide to Academic Innovation Speaker: Bob Tinker, CEO, Investor, Operator, Author. - Transforming Ideas into Products Panelists: Wilson Mak (CTO at Digestiva), Ishita M. Shah, Ph. D. (CEO at Matrubials Inc.), and Broder Schmidt (CSO at Prose Foods) Moderator: Daphney Sihwa, MSc., UC Merced Graduate Candidate - Legal Workshop 101 for Start-ups Panelists: Larry Adkison (Sr. Principal Counsel), Nima Ashok Katz (Principal Counsel) from University of California Office of the President, and Todd Rumberger (Partner at WilmerHale) - Industry-Academic Collaboration and Intellectual Property Strategies Panelists: UC Merced faculty Shijia Pan and Jay Sharping, Vadim Vapnyar (Partner at Carter, DeLuca & Farrell LLP) - Business Model Testing and Iteration Using the Lean Startup Methodology Speaker: Darren Cooke (Executive Director, University of California, Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center and Berkeley SkyDeck Bio Track Chair) - Attracting Investors and Funding Strategies Panelists: Charles Eason (SBDC Advisor), Ryan Witt (Angel Investor at Asclepius), Vittoria Lecomte (Investor at HawkTower), Tiq Chapa (Investor at L'ATTITUDE VENTURES), Daniel Emilio Sabzehzar (Managing Partner at Tesserakt Ventures), Andrew Artz (Founder and Managing Partner at Dark Artz) Moderator: Gehad Elhanafy, IP and Tech Analyst at OTIIR 🔷 Shoutout to our UCM companies who participated in the Showcase: BreakdownBio - Jesse Rodriguez Reyes and Kevin Ramirez, MSc., UC Merced Graduate Candidates Biosynesis - Clarissa Nobile, Professor at UC Merced Protein Architects - Victor Muñoz, Professor at UC Merced GridSense - Emerald S. Nash and Liliana Figueroa HyVerde - Kimberly de Castro DormRush - simao gama PosTrue - Shreya Shriram and Asiyah Awais M2M is dedicated to steering academics on their entrepreneurship path, transforming university-inspired research into tangible products, forming dynamic teams, and navigating the complex journey from concept to commercialization. Stay tuned for next year! 💡✨ #M2M2024 #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #UCMerced #StartupJourney #AcademicToIndustry #TechInnovation #InvestorPitch

The Water, Energy and Technology (WET) Center had both #Ag and #Energy companies tour the amazing University of California, Merced farm and testing labs today. There was immense cohesiveness throughout the whole tour between students, faculty, the cohort and even a Valley Ventures Alumni, Kimberly de Castro. Leigh Bernacchi, PhD did an outstanding job facilitating the excursion through the smart farm, greenhouse, biochar lab, battery optimization lab and industrial lab. We even had a Farm-NG demo! Today’s event highlighted the power of collaboration for entrepreneurs, faculty and students in the Central Valley. By working together to bring technology to market, we can achieve our common goal of economic growth. Samuel Fairbanks Eric Hadden Emily Dinino William Burns William Knutson Ken Camarco Edgar Perez John Bonardelli, PhD Kristina McMillan