Startup Campus Book

About the Authors

Mike Alvarez Cohen is the principal author of Startup Campus. For over a decade, Mike has been involved with UC Berkeley’s transformation into an entrepreneurship powerhouse through his role as Director of Innovation Ecosystem Development at the campus.

In February 2024, while Rich Lyons was UC Berkeley’s inaugural Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer, he co-launched the Startup Campus book project with Mike and Laura Hassner, who was at that time Executive Director for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the Berkeley Changemaker program. When Rich became Chancellor in July 2024, Mike and Laura expanded the book project’s core leadership team to include Darren Cooke, who succeeded Rich as Berkeley’s Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer. 

Mike, Laura, and Darren planned and implemented the book project in collaboration with dozens of Berkeley faculty, alumni, and staff—many of whom are members of the campus’s 100-person-strong Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council. The result was a campus-wide team effort over 1.5 years to tell the story of how UC Berkeley emerged as an unexpected leader in entrepreneurship and startups.

The Startup Campus book project has been entirely funded by philanthropy, and all proceeds from book sales support research, education, and entrepreneurship at Berkeley.

Coming Soon - August 2025

How did the University of California, Berkeley—once skeptical of involvement with corporate activities—become a leader in entrepreneurship and startups? And how did the campus manage that transformation in ways that have advanced the university’s mission of research, education, and public service?

Startup Campus tells the story of UC Berkeley’s reinvention from the perspective of faculty, staff, and alumni who led the campus’s transformation. From the dawn of the digital and biotechnology revolutions through today’s climate tech and social ventures, the book traces how Berkeley built a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem that spans every stage of the startup journey—from ideation and incubation to acceleration and scaling.

Rich with insights and firsthand accounts, this is more than UC Berkeley's story. It's a case study about how universities can provide societal benefits while also driving socioeconomic mobility. Follow Berkeley's six-phase evolution from its early backlash against corporate collaborations to its current exuberance for entrepreneurs and startups. Through stories of founders and their ventures, discover how the university overcame institutional resistance, resolved cultural tensions, and harnessed its thriving innovation ecosystem.

Whether you're a university leader, a government official, anyone or someone interested the future of higher education, Startup Campus offers insights about managing change, nurturing entrepreneurship, and creating lasting value.

Read how one of the world’s great universities rewired itself for the twenty-first century and what other institutions can learn from its journey.

Advance Praise

“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 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

“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

“Startup Campus demonstrates the power of the agile and scaled home for infinite creativity that UC Berkeley has become since the 1960s. This power has driven trillions of dollars of new economic energy and its replication is possible throughout the country by studying this fantastic American innovation story.”

— Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University, author of The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education

“Berkeley’s entrepreneurial spirit transforms world-class research into real-world impact, advancing breakthroughs in human and environmental health. Supporting this engine of discovery means accelerating solutions for the challenges that define our time.

— Barbara Bass Bakar, former Chief Executive Officer for several major retail firms, Founder of the ACHIEVE Program, a high school scholarship and enrichment program

“UC Berkey 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

“A key ingredient in the recipe for Silicon Valley and the U.S. technology industry, is the critical role of the University. This book charts the evolution of UC Berkeley’s enormous contribution and commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship that has fueled the growth of the technology industry, while maintaining its public mission and academic excellence. Berkeley’s story is a valuable road map for every University to realize its potential to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that contributes to the improvement of our society and the student experience.”

— Larry W. Sonsini, Senior and Founding Partner of Wilson Sonsini

“I was there when entrepreneurship at Berkeley was still an experiment—before incubators, before venture labs. I watched a bold mix of academic rigor, risk-taking, and cross-disciplinary energy turn Berkeley into one of the world’s engines for startups. This book captures that evolution and, for me, brings to life a personal journey that helped shape what academic innovation can become - a Startup Campus.

— Steve Blank, Serial entrepreneur and creator of the Lean Startup methodology

“Public universities are America's greatest innovation and there is no better example than Berkeley. It changed my life. Here's the story of how a great school also became a vital center of entrepreneurship.”

— Scott Galloway, Haas 1992, Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern and Co-Host Pivot and Prof G Markets podcasts, serial entrepreneur