Comprehensive account reveals how Berkeley expanded from academic stronghold to entrepreneurship leader while advancing its public mission
BERKELEY, CA / ACCESS Newswire / August 19, 2025 / UC Berkeley Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E), a campus-wide ecosystem focused on fostering innovations that provide long-term societal benefits, today announced the publication of Startup Campus: How UC Berkeley Became an Unexpected Leader in Entrepreneurship and Startups. The book chronicles the university's remarkable expansion from a traditional academic institution to become the #1 university worldwide for venture-funded startups founded by undergraduate alumni.1
Authored by Mike Alvarez Cohen, Director of Innovation Ecosystem Development at UC Berkeley, and supported by numerous members of the 100-person-strong Berkeley I&E Council, Startup Campus offers a compelling case study for institutions navigating the tension between academic tradition and entrepreneurial impact. The book tells the inside story of Berkeley's six-phase evolution into an innovation hub through the voices of the faculty, staff, and alumni who made it happen. From early internet pioneers and biotech breakthroughs to today's climate-tech disruptors and mission-driven founders, the book reveals how the university built a world-class entrepreneurship ecosystem while advancing its commitment to research excellence and public service.
"Berkeley has always been a place that questions the status quo, a university where big ideas and groundbreaking discoveries come to life in support of the greater good," said Rich Lyons, Chancellor of UC Berkeley and formerly the school's first Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer (CIEO). "Startup Campus is a thrilling story of how we've channeled our dedication to innovation into building a unique and dynamic entrepreneurship ecosystem. We have developed a new model for how a university can drive economic growth and mobility while extending its public mission and societal impact."
Startup Campus explores how Berkeley navigated cultural shifts and institutional challenges to achieve significant entrepreneurial milestones - everything from the founding of market leading companies like DataBricks, Cadence Design Systems, and Chiron by Berkeley alumni and faculty, to the rise of medical breakthroughs including Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene editing, to the creation of SkyDeck, the university's flagship accelerator program that has helped startups raise more than $2 billion to date. The book concludes with a strategic playbook that distills key lessons for other institutions looking to build or strengthen their own innovation ecosystems, while continuing to advance their academic missions.
"This book has been a long time in the making, and it is exciting to see it come together in such a way that honors the achievements of so many who have sat in classrooms and worked in laboratories across the UC Berkeley campus," said Darren Cooke, interim CIEO at UC Berkeley. "Our faculty tell us that their entrepreneurial activities make them better researchers, and our students gain real-world experience that amplifies their impact. Startup Campus highlights why innovation and entrepreneurship are powerful tools for advancing a university's public mission."
Startup Campus is available for purchase via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Google Play, and other online retailers. Find out more via: startupcampus.berkeley.edu.
Early praise for Startup Campus has poured in from tech and business pioneers, Nobel laureates and academic leaders, including:
"UC Berkeley has shaped generations of tech pioneers-including me. Startup Campus distills the culture, policies, and spirit that made it a cradle of innovation, offering invaluable lessons for campuses everywhere."
- Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc, co-author of Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit
"Startup Campus is a vital exploration of how leading universities like UC Berkeley are redefining their role in society. As someone whose work emerged from an ecosystem that values both fundamental science and entrepreneurial risk-taking, I see in this book a blueprint for the institutional evolution we need. Rich Lyons shows how universities can stay true to their academic core while becoming engines of innovation and impact. This is a must-read for anyone who believes in the power of science and education to change the world."
- Jennifer Doudna, UC Berkeley biochemist, CRISPR pioneer and Nobel laureate, Innovative Genomics Institute founder
"UC Berkeley has been the home of revolutionary discoveries in science and technology for many decades. Sometimes less appreciated is how many of those have been translated into very successful products and companies across the digital, biotechnology, materials, chemistry, climate tech, and other sectors. This book is a must read for anyone interested in how visionary leadership built a campus entrepreneurship culture that spawned more venture capital funded startups than any other university."
- Brook Byers, Cofounder of Kleiner Perkins and venture capital pioneer
"Berkeley has always been a place that fosters and honors scholars who can help us see the world around us in a wholly new way, those who turn conventional thinking upside down and make great intellectual leaps that change the world. Strangely, within Berkeley, that was once thought of as apart from entrepreneurial journeys beyond the academy. This book tells the marvelous story of how a few people shaped Berkeley's deliberate, rapid, and inspiring path to entrepreneurship excellence. It's a great story, and one that is sure to inspire other universities on their own journeys."
- Paul Alivisatos, President, University of Chicago, pioneer in nanomaterials development
1https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/pitchbook-university-rankings
About UC Berkeley Innovation & Entrepreneurship
UC Berkeley is #1 in the world for creating venture-funded startups founded by undergraduate alumni. (Pitchbook) The UC Berkeley Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) ecosystem provides opportunities across a wide spectrum of users: students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external partners. Through academic programs, incubation/acceleration, research support, and many other services there are plentiful ways to connect with the I&E community at UC Berkeley. Find out more at https://iande.berkeley.edu/home.
Media contact
Songue PR for Berkeley I&E
berkeley@songuepr.com
SOURCE: Berkeley I&E
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/uc-berkeley-publishes-startup-campus-new-book-chronicles-the-univers-1062644
