water • feed • focus • try • fail • repeat it
Cultivating my Entrepreneurial Spirit
Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Technology
This certificate offered by the Sudjata Center is an internationally recognized approach to teaching technology entrepreneurship to undergraduates, innovation to Ph.D. students, and technology firm leadership to professionals and executives. Throughout the courses I learned:
Innovative Product design
Game and Competition-based journey of venture creation
Rapid Iterative Build
Market Testing and validation
Entrepreneurs @ Berkeley (member)
Entrepreneurs@Berkeley provides a platform for exchanging ideas, finding potential partners, understanding the start-up process, and nurturing the next Unicorn.
Collaborate
Innovate
Inspire
StEP
StEP is an 8 week experiential program that connects UC Berkeley engineering, computer science, business, design, and law students to help them try a real founder experience.
Looking forward to pitch day this December 6th!
The Skydeck decal is a student led class that offers an abridged version of SkyDeck's core program. This decal features some of the best speakers that SkyDeck has that cover on all the essential topics you need to understand to turn a business idea into a reality. By the end of the semester, students will have a much deeper understanding of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and problem solver.
Putting ideas into practice
Networking
Do you ever get an idea you simply cannot shake? It pokes at your hippocampus, and nudges at your subconscious, prying for attention?
Here are a few of the hundreds of ideas that riddle the margins of my notebooks, crumpled post-it notes, and back of my hands.
Ideas in training. . .
baked goods co.
We are on a mission to reinvent the way you consume cannabis and ignite a passion for cannabis as a culinary ingredient. Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in alternative consumption methods of cannabis, paralleled with an increased desire for personalization, we aim to provide a hyper-curated experience, putting the customer first.
Our instagram, @bakedgoods_co , stands as a marketplace for made-to-order home-baked edibles. Once we have gathered substantial data on our customer’s preferences for which foods they prefer to enjoy infused with cannabis , then we will transition to empowering our customers to make baked goods themselves.
The Grand Vision is to curate a meal-kit delivery box service (Hello Fresh, Blue Apron sort of deal) coupled with cannabis infused olive oil, coconut oil or butter, so that customers can chef up their very own medicated meal.
NUDE Superfood Oatmeal Toppings
6 am practice called for a quick, nutritious breakfast consisting of microwaved oatmeal in my dorm room. Sounds delicious right?
By noon my stomach was growling. So I decided I needed to get more out of my oatmeal. After a trip to the store I blended together protein rich chia seeds, fibrous flax seeds, nuts and dried berries and within hours realized how energized I was throughout the day. I continued making these blends, adding and subtracting different ingredients. Excitedly I told my Dad, as I do with most of my ideas. As a long-time member to the packaging industry his response
“Package it!”
The idea simmered in the back of my mind while my Dad payed me to try selling the blends. Finally as a senior, I feel equipped to make this idea a reality.
The plan: Creatively brand and package oatmeal/yogurt/smoothie superfood toppings into bulk milk cartons and bring to the retail grocery market… here we come Whole Foods!
Think of it as a the crossroads between granola and trail mix, only without all the added sugar.
My partner Lyda and I have joined pre-accelerator, StEP to guide us through the process of ideation, product market fit, segmentation, branding, pricing and legality. We are incredibly passionate about making nutritious breakfasts more convenient and warmly welcome all feedback.
Baby Wingzzz
Megan was my babysitter, but more like an older sister. About a year ago she had her little girl, Brynn. Brynn was about 6months old and was having trouble sleeping, which meant on average 4-5 hours of sleep for both Megan and her husband Ryan. She tried everything from swaddles, to sleep sacks and nothing helped Brynn stay asleep the entire night, which most parents experience.
Megan got creative with ways to help Brynn sleep through the night and on a whim submitted the idea to SHARK TANK. Unexpectedly a producer requested her in for a casting call.
I would love to tell you more, but the idea is currently undergoing the Patent submission process!
Fibonacci Coffee
My coffee machine broke last year so I had to get creative with brewing my daily cup of Joe. I would take the filter paper place it over the cup, pour the grounds inside, and pour hot water over the grounds being sure not to spill all while holding the steaming hot cup with my hand.
Complicated? Yes
Time Consuming? Yep.
I thought, 'there’s gotta be a better way’
So I began tying my coffee bags with grounds inside at letting them steep while I went about my morning. No mess, no time lost, but the same delicious cup of coffee. I told my friends of the idea coffee tea bags and we became obsessed.
After some research: We have sought out to design and engineer sustainable, single use bags of coffee that take advantage of the passive pump system of gravity. When the bag is inserted into the water, its surface area should expand so that as much water comes in contact with the coffee as possible. When lifted from the water, the downward pull of gravity should force the bag to contract around the coffee grinds, thus expelling coffee chemistry from the bag. The ratios between coffee grinds and water would be fine tuned in order to produce a cup of coffee in the “Gold Cup Range” (see diagram for understanding). We are on a mission to engineer the perfect cup of coffee that fits with our fast-paced, caffeinated lives.
Innovating a mature system with: StrawCo
The best ideas come from entrepreneurs who take a mature, out dated, conventional, system or way of doing things and sprinkle touch of creative innovation.
Mature system: Wasteful plastic straws
Innovation: Metal straws
There are 3 distinct trends pushing people to reduce their plastic waste. First, Political. The plastic straw ban has set in an increasing number of cities and is on track to be nationwide by 2025. Plastic straws are just the beginning of some serious cultural shifts in leui of global warming. Second, Social. Millenials, Gen X and Get Z are paving the way to a greener future. Their activism will push the next generations to be sustainibly minded. Third, Economic. Fines and regulations to make businesses corporately responsible will only get tighter. Fines for distribution of plastic straws will make their use unprofitable, but the reality is, people still demand straws.
These three trends have forced the world to spit out a solution: Paper straws.
A solution does not have the liberty of calling itself a solution if it simply causes more problems, which in this case is paper waste.
The only sustainable solution: Reusable straws.
So we asked: “Why are restaurants not using metal straws?”
The answer: Too hard to clean.
Our solution: Let’s make moving to more sustainable practices, easy. A reusable straw cleaner and sanitizer. Think of it as a dishwasher for straws. We are on the hunt for an engineer who can help design and manufacture this product. Idea is to go B2B and provide patented straws with the cleaning machine so that restaurants, amusement parks, airports, elderly homes etc. will never again need to order plastic or paper straws.
Rolling Stoned, Led ZepBlazed
The marijuana industry is attractive for two reasons, 1- its booming 2- its relatively infantile. With recent legalizations the doors have been opened for an entirely new market of products.
About a month ago my dad and his friends told me a funny story where the three 50 year old stepped outside at a dinner party to share a joint. Within 10 minutes each one got uncomfortably high and left immediately. While funny, it highlights an important issue. Nowadays weed is too strong and the baby boomer and above generations may not have the tolerance they used to. It is uncommon to see a product marketed to the later generations, which make up a majority of the marijuana consumers. “THC”, “CBD”, “terpenes”, all the vocabulary around marijuana is confusing to the average person. By creating a product with copy made comprehensible and clear I believe we can bridge the gap of the unknown to those being reintroduced to the magical plant. Naming the products (joints & edibles) after 70s and 80s trends and Rock Stars we can appeal to sentimental emotions of the later generations.
CUE (First Place 2020 Skydeck Decal)
Playing good music is one of the most important aspects for a good party, and relying on one host on aux (DJ) to choose what everyone should listen to often leaves the partygoers unsatisfied. Additionally, suggesting music to be played can be awkward and a potentially futile effort. I want to develop and app modeled off of KAHOOT that gives you the ability to access a crowd sharing playlist by having a unique code (similar to a wifi password) for your party. On this crowd-shared playlist you can add a song then are given the option to like or dislike already listed songs. If a song is liked, it will move up the queue and dislikes will move it down the queue. User frequency is cut in half when they are required to enter a personal username and password. Think of it as a jukebox in an app. Exploring new user markets would open up and broaden the potential for going B2B. There is also a future potential to have existing restaurants, coffee shops, clubs, and even stores to get to know their customers better through data driven insights. By pulling cloud data from the user at login we will better understand our users. Let’s create a more interactive, inclusive music experience by allowing each of us to be the DJ.
Startups i’ve worked for…
Blue Harvest CBD
High Table
Gr8nola
Quokka Brew
Golden Ties
Ideas coming soon…
Subscription box business model:
Children’s clothing:
As children grow older parents spend mass amounts of money on keeping them in comfortable, fitting, and trendy clothes. By partnering with child’s clothing brands parents will be able to customize their subscription box and receive a new shipment however often their child(s) needs. The catch: Parents will still get brand name, quality clothing for a fraction of the cost. Less overall waste will accumulate and clothes will reach the end of their useful life before being thrown away.
Children’s Toys:
Similar concept to the one above, but with children’s toys. Rather than accumulating mass amounts of plastic junk after a child gets bored of a toy, the box will be sent back, sanitized and recycles for use of another family. We will partner with toy manufacturers to give them an alternative channel of distribution given that most retail is going digital.
Repeat items dedicated to sustainability:
repeat foods: oatmeal, coffee, etc, repeat materials: shampoo/conditioner, toothbrush, razor etc repeat vitamins
Hare of the Dog:
Hard Kombucha beverage for the morning after a long night. It’s been know for a while that a Bloody Mary bites the hangover symptoms in the butt. There are a variety of pills, drinks and even patches on the market that all claim to be ‘the hangover cure’, however none of these have taken flight as the widely used and supported cure. So why don’t we just take the centuries old cure, “hare of the dog”, and make it more accessible than a Bloody Mary. By adding all essential vitamins and nutrients that pre-exisiting cures claim to have we will not only match their ‘super healing powers’ but also provide an alternative value proposition, probiotic filled kombucha tea.
Solar powered outlets:
Similar to outdoor in-ground solar powered lights, take your traditional two or three pronged outlet and use converted solar energy to electrical energy. As a student, studying outside helps me stay focused while also enjoying California weather. From a business aspect, cafes and restaurants will be able to increase their consumer-convertable surface area. In other words: More outlets, more customers plugged in, more time spent, more purchases.
Thesaurus suggester:
A Grammarly-like integration that is downloadable to your keyboard. As you type the Thesaurus suggester will flag keywords which are thought to be “dead words” or “dull words” such as: fun, nice, good. Much like auto-correct, it will work by suggesting correct or alternative grammar/spelling choices. The Thesaurus suggester will use AI to suggest more creative, descriptive words making user’s writing more engaging, illustrative and interesting.
The Intern:
Focused on the Japanese concept of "Keiretsu” (a conglomeration of businesses linked together by cross-shareholdings to form a robust corporate structure) The Intern is a way for companies to work together to bridge the gap between youth talent and the professional world. As of now interning is a relatively individualistic endeavor, you search available positions and apply within your capabilities both skill wise and location wise. However as an out-of-state student I see the vast benefits to getting experiences outside of one’s typical culture and community. Moving to another city or even across the U.S. is relatively expernive and thus unattainable for most prospective interns. The Intern is about elevating those less advantaged students who may have the desire for a cross cultural interning experience to move from California to New York or anywhere of that matter and have the possibility of doing so. How it works: First floor will be a coffee shop/cafe designed for interaction and networking, large tables, lots of outlets, board games, white boards, and even a ping pong table, the ultimate goal is to create a creatively arousing experience. Top floors will consist of subsidized housing partially paid for by the companies interested in investing in “The Intern”, they’re investment is in the interest of bringing like-minded brilliant students together to share ideas and experiences about their internship. By investing they will also be opening the doors to a large pool of potential interns bringing in talent from across the country to work at their companies. Finally the Basement floor will be a club/concert venue in order to bring the interns together on a musical social front. Creative expression and releases are essential to productivity. The Intern will start in two cities simultaneously and eventually expand to all major cities in the US.
Virtual Reality therapy:
The study below outlines how semi-immersive therapy has proven to improve cognitive function after a traumatic Brain Injury or concussion. By commercializing such a technology and charging up to $200/hr for sessions we will be able to diagnose and treat TBI and concussions.