From Classroom to Cal Fund
How a Berkeley class shapes outstanding entrepreneurs and gives Cal Fund a competitive edge
UC Berkeley has long stood out as one of the world’s leading hubs for innovation. Over the past 15 years, the university has built a powerful startup engine that blends academic excellence with real-world entrepreneurial practice. Under leaders like Chancellor Rich Lyons and interim Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer Darren Cooke, Berkeley has grown a robust ecosystem of top-ranked academics, incubators like SkyDeck, shared carry funds, and an alumni network committed to fueling the next generation of founders.
The recently released book Startup Campus chronicles this journey, highlighting how Berkeley has become a model for institutions worldwide. Within this ecosystem, one cornerstone stands out for Cal Fund: the MBA295A Entrepreneurship course, taught by our very own General Partner Kurt Beyer.
295A as a Training Ground for Founders
295A brings together MBAs, PhDs, and other graduate students across disciplines in a way that is unique to Berkeley. Kurt designed the course around his experience as a Navy pilot, entrepreneur, and investor. The class functions like a flight simulator: a place where aspiring founders can test ideas in a rigorous but safe environment before taking them to market.
One of the defining traditions of the class is Darwin Day where, at the start of each semester, students pitch ideas that can range from early concepts to products with some market validation. The class collectively selects a handful of projects to pursue as teams and spends the rest of the semester conducting market research, refining their ideas, and developing business models. The class concludes with a demo day where teams pitch to real investors to get feedback and sometimes raise their first rounds of funding. Kurt’s course also features guest speakers who share valuable lessons with current students and serve as examples of entrepreneurs who got their start in the very same place. In the earlier years of 295A, Kurt brought in speakers from many different backgrounds, but as Berkeley’s entrepreneurship prowess has grown, the guest speakers are now exclusively 295A alumni.
This structure exemplifies the mission of Cal Fund: support companies built by Berkeley entrepreneurs at the earliest stage with the goal of leveraging their success to pave the way for future Berkeley startups. In practice, this strategy unfolds as follows: ideas start in 295A, progress through incubators like SkyDeck or Bakar Labs, and then attract early investment from Berkeley’s shared carry funds, including Cal Fund. These funds then return a portion of the general partner profits to Berkeley entrepreneurship programs, resulting in a self-sustaining flywheel of innovation.
Over the years, 295A has produced startups that have gone on to raise capital and create significant enterprise and social value. For Cal Fund, it has also created something rare compared to other venture funds—a differentiated pipeline of both companies and people that have been vetted and nurtured by Kurt for years.
Companies That Took Flight from 295A
For Cal Fund, 295A has been a natural breeding ground for companies that ultimately make it through our robust vetting process and into our portfolio. Some of these include:
SixMap – Founder Austin Murdock (PhD 2019) took 295A to translate his cybersecurity research into a product. The result became SixMap, a platform that helps organizations spot cybersecurity vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. We invested in their seed round in 2021 and again in the Series A, supporting their growth in customer acquisition, team building, and market expansion.
EdVisorly – Manny Smith (MBA 2021) developed his idea in 295A to help community college students transfer to four-year universities. Cal Fund invested at the seed stage in 2023 and again in a follow-on round as the company evolved from a consumer platform to a B2B SaaS model. Manny credits 295A with teaching him the importance of building a founding team that takes agency over their work and are bought in to the overall success of the company.
Windfall – Founder Arup Banerjee (MBA 2013) is an example of how 295A can shape an entrepreneurial career even when the Darwin Day project does not become the final company. After the class and a stint in a SkyDeck program, Arup launched Windfall, a data company that helps organizations identify and engage high-net-worth individuals to improve fundraising, marketing, and customer acquisition. Windfall has since raised $65M from Morgan Stanley, bringing their total raised to over $100M.
For each of these companies, the relationships built in 295A became the foundation for long-term partnerships with Cal Fund. Venture capital is built on relationships, and having an early connection with founders has enabled us to support them through growth, challenges, and multiple rounds of fundraising.
Building the Cal Fund Team Through 295A
The value of 295A extends beyond companies. It has also been a critical source of talent for our own team. Anne Greul, Shiva Somasundaram, Stacey King, Miranda Ferguson, Mohammad Naqvi, new analyst and advisor, Emily Lammers, and our new General Partner, Bryce Gilleland, are all alumni of 295A. Former team member Vanessa Kahkesh was one of Kurt’s undergraduate entrepreneurship students.
This shared foundation has created a team with diverse experiences across industries such as energy, software, AI, and investment management, and across functions, from operations and engineering to leadership and marketing. Because Cal Fund is industry-agnostic, having a team with broad expertise has been a defining strength.
In a field where many funds recruit from narrow pipelines, 295A has given Cal Fund a pipeline of talent with the diversity of backgrounds and skills needed to help funds and founders succeed. That combination has been central to our ability to evaluate opportunities, support portfolio companies, and build lasting relationships across the ecosystem.
The Long Game of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship takes time. The path from a classroom idea to a scaled company to a successful exit spans many years. 295A gives Cal Fund a way to engage at the very beginning, when teams are forming and ideas are nascent. From there, we can support both the companies that emerge and the people behind them.
This early, long-term engagement paired with differentiated deal flow and a diverse team has become Cal Fund’s edge.
Written by Stacey King and Emily Lammers
