Business & Entrepreneurship at Berkeley

From Market Research to Launch Plan

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Program Highlights

Understand how operations, marketing, sales, and finance come together to drive businesses

Learn how to read financial statements in order to decipher a company’s performance

Develop a sales and marketing plan and pitch your venture to investors and mentors

Hear the tales of survival of a startup business from an entrepreneurial founder

Residential:
$5,998

Commuter:
$3,298

Session 1:
June 15, 2025 June 27, 2025

Session 3:
June 29, 2025 July 11, 2025

Session 5:
July 13, 2025 July 25, 2025

Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

Testimonials

Course by the end of the week was amazing. A lot more people were involved with the course and made the learning process a lot easier. The instructor was great as well and the final presentations worked out in the end for the better. I would definitely reconsider taking a course like this in the future, maybe even being a academic mentor for the course.

Alejandro M.
I like this class very much. This is the first time I have learned about business and entrepreneurship. I really learned many new things and presentation skills. Thank you.

- Ivanka C.
I really enjoyed my course it was really interesting and informative. I learned so much from this class from learning how to start a business to managing a business.

Mariana V.

Course Overview

Students will learn firsthand from business veterans about starting and running a business. Over the course of the program, they will develop a plan for a new venture and pitch their idea to real world investors. Along the way, meet with leaders from different areas of business and finance.

Excursions – Last summer in Berkeley, students had the opportunity to visit Bay Area businesses like Netflix, Autodesk Gallery, Maker Nexus, Planet Renu, Shuggie’s Trash Pie, and Pet Experts. Students were also treated to an inspiring and informative career panel of CEOs, producers, and entrepreneur consultants who provided invaluable insights on the journey to becoming an entrepreneur in a wide variety of industries.

Meet your instructor

Mike Mitchell

Sessions: 1 & 5

Mike holds his Masters from UC Berkeley's Rausser College of Natural Resources in Development Practice and his BS in Marketing, Environmental Policy & Management from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the CEO of Pezzy Pets where he is building a supply chain of small-scale fishermen across Mexico and the US to turn overly abundant, invasive fish species into single and limited ingredient pet treats. Mike previously worked for the UN in Mexico as well as rural development projects in Central America.

Oren Katzeff

Session: 3

Oren is the CEO of Literally Media, the largest online publisher of humor and entertainment content, and has spent over 20 years building and scaling content and operations for prominent brands. He joined Literally Media from Condé Nast, where as President of their entertainment division, he oversaw the film, TV, and video business for all Condé Nast brands, including Wired, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New Yorker. He led CNE's growth in viewership to more than 1 billion video views a month and over 40 million YouTube subscribers...

Topics you'll explore

Hands-On Learning

Students will examine best practices in Research and Development (R&D), Operations, Marketing, and Finance. Understand the mechanics of scaling a business while maintaining quality.

Students become part of a new company and configure themselves into teams working on various aspects of a business. The program culminates in a Shark Tank-style friendly competition with professional investors.

SSB business students presenting their shark tank proposal

Career Exploration

Meet with a range of business people, from small business owners, mid-level managers, executives and CEOs from Bay Area companies.

From creative marketers to hard-nosed financial analysts, there are myriad careers you may not have heard of yet. Together we will discuss the career options and the academic paths to get there. In the past, a few student teams were given the opportunity to apply for future internships.