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How Rady School Alumni Are Responding to COVID-19
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How Rady School Alumni Are Responding to COVID-19

written by Camille Cannon

Alumni working at the Scripps Research Institute are conducting a study to improve the real-time surveillance of contagious respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 using data from smartwatches and activity trackers. Through the app-based DETECT study, Katie Baca-Motes (MBA ’09 and Director of the All of Us research project), Royan Kamyar (MBA ’10, physician and CEO and founder of Owaves app) and project manager and incoming MBA FlexWeekend student Lauren Ariniello, along with their colleagues, are crowdsourcing anonymized data across the United States.

“By evaluating individual changes to heart rate, sleep and activity patterns, as well as logged respiratory symptoms and diagnostics test results, the Scripps’ team hopes to complement traditional public health surveillance methods, potentially leading to earlier detection and containment of current and future outbreaks in various geographical locations,” said Baca-Motes.

Rady Alumni Board president Josh Kuss is the Senior Director of Commercial Strategy at Illumina and the commercial lead for the company’s San Diego Emergency Management Team. The team has been working since March “defining and implementing the strategies for how we keep Illumina’s employees safe, while ensuring supply to our customers, many of which are on the front line of SARS-COV-2/COVID19 research, tracing, and treatment. We tackled how to transition to work from home, and are now in the process of determining a sound return to work strategy,” said Kuss.

Krithi Bindal (MBA ’17) is the founder and president of Aroga Biosciences, a regulatory writing biopharma firm which has been donating their scientific expertise to peer-review pre-print literature related to COVID-19 research.

“We are in a period of information overload,” said Bindal. “Misinformation about COVID-19, especially information lacking scientific rigor, can lead to significant risk to the public. I feel it is our duty as scientists to ensure effective communication and to help delineate scientific factual results from fiction. After all, our job as scientists is to find the truth.”

“The name of our company Aroga is based on the sanskrit term ‘arogya”, which means free of disease. We hope to continue to contribute to freeing the world of disease as we help to develop treatments for ailing patients. As we navigate these challenging times, our mission is unchanged and is stronger than ever.”

Richard Castle (FlexWeekend MBA ’13), the co-founder and president of Cloudbeds, a hospitality management software, launched the #HospitalityHelps initiative. The online platform facilitates connections between hotel properties that want to make their beds available to healthcare agencies, organizations or individuals who need them. Within a few days, the more than 1.2 million beds had been pledged at HospitalityHelps.org.

Andrea Yoder Clark (MSBA ’17), and her consulting company LiveGoode Programs & Analytics is working with 211 San Diego to analyze statewide data collected from regional 211s to support the state of California’s policy response to COVID-19’s impact on most vulnerable populations.

Jaden Risner and Clay Treska (FlexWeekend MBA ’19) founded Family Proud an app to help patients and their caregivers and loved ones manage their care, while they were students at the Rady School. In Spring 2020, the Family Proud platform was updated to include resources and support for those affected by COVID-19.

Snehanshu Tiwari, Vishnu Sharon R. and Sakshi Sharma (MSBA ’18) contacted Professor Ken Wilbur to offer their help reviewing resumes, preparing for interviews or make introductions for current MSBA students graduating this summer. When Professor Wilbur shared this update on LinkedIn, even more alumni offered to help!

Steve Prestrelski (FlexWeekend MBA ’06) is the founder and chief scientific officer of Xeris Pharmaceuticals, which is offering its GVOKE Pre-Filled Syringe—an injectable treatment for diabetes patients who experience severe hypoglycemia—for $0 copay through May 31st.

The team at Indigo Marketing Agency, founded by Claire Akin (MBA ’10). prepared a list of tips for working from home. “Indigo Marketing Agency is a company run almost completely virtually by mothers of young children,” said Akin. “We saw so many of our clients struggling to adapt, so we wanted to offer our tips and tricks for working at home (even with small children) … I believe that we are helping our team members support their families and spend time with their children. It’s the best of both worlds and it provides a highly fulfilling lifestyle!”

Sean Haggerty (FlexWeekend MBA ’17), founder of Protector Brewery, made curbside pickup and delivery available, in addition to offering the brewery’s supply of filtered water available to those in need. Protector Brewery has pledged to donate $1 from each order to Team Rubicon, a non-profit organization supporting veterans impacted by COVID-19.

Sara Jones (Flex Weekend ’13) is the CEO of Plum Blossom Creations. She is offering free workshops on The Big Four of Mental Toughness. “As an Unbeatable Mind student, I learned first-hand the power of the Big 4 of Mental Toughness in my fight against Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I used the Big 4 to feed my Courage Wolf, stare down my fears and thrive through the health crisis that threatened my life.”

Roche Diagnostics North America, of which Matt Sause (FlexWeekend MBA ’06) is president and CEO, developed the first available commercial test kit for the novel coronavirus, which was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA.

Do you know of a Rady School of Management alumni responding to COVID-19? Please email cacannon@ucsd.edu with more information.

April 8, 2020 0 comment
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How Collaboration at Rady Changed Amy Bernal’s Career Path
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How Collaboration at Rady Changed Amy Bernal’s Career Path

written by Camille Cannon

Amy Bernal’s path to become Chief Experience Officer at artificial intelligence company Aira began before the company was even born. Prior to entering the Rady School in 2011, Bernal, who graduated from the Flex MBA program in 2014, had worked in project management and business development for local non-profit organizations. “I was hungry to operate in an entrepreneurial environment,” she says. “I knew that Rady was the best in terms of the ability to connect to the right people.”

It was in her first study group at Rady where Bernal met classmate Suman Kanuganti. Bernal and Kanuganti also worked together through their Lab to Market course sequence. By their final quarter, Kanuganti had the idea for Aira, which connects blind and low-vision people to remote human agents via smart phone or smart glasses, and developed his concept through Rady’s Lab to Market and StartR programs.

“I was able to see him create that company, leave where he was working before, and I eventually followed him,” says Bernal, who a senior offering program manager at Intuit before joining Aira.  

Since 2016, Bernal has grown from Director of Agent Services to Chief Experience Officer at Aira. Currently, she is working to expand Aira’s network of 25,000+ partners across companies, locations, platforms and devices to increase accessibility for Aira “explorers” (users).

In the video, Bernal explains how her MBA degree from Rady broadened her skillset and opened her world to new opportunities.

November 6, 2019 0 comment
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Rady’s First Ever StartUp Career Day
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Rady’s First Ever StartUp Career Day

written by Rady School

Career Fair Day – A day full of new opportunities, insightful conversations, and potential job offers on the horizon. Here at the Rady School of Management, there have been dozens of doors open for students at career fairs; from internships, to long-term jobs for the graduate students who have participated in Rady’s career fairs.

Each career fair typically consists of employers from corporate companies that have 250 employees or more. This one, however, consisted of not only large corporate companies but also smaller startups. This was an exciting, unique event for Rady because it is the first career day to ever have startups verses only corporations.

The Rady School of Management not only champions, but raises up entrepreneurs, so having startups present was an encouraging factor for the students who attended the career fair. Some of the startups that came to the career fair included founders from Rady School of Management such as LabFellows.

Some of the startup companies who attended were:

  • Leadcrunch – B2B Sales and Marketing
  • Sendlane – An intelligence-driven email automation service
  • LabFellows – An integrated lab management platform
  • Offer1
  • GoSite – A web platform for businesses
  • Launch Factory – A creative co working space

The list of new companies who attended were:

  • Booz Allen Hamilton – Strategy, technology, and engineering
  • AT&T – Communications, media, entertainment, and technology
  • Tealium —  A universal data hub

Some of the other companies that were present included, Trust&will, Artevist and Prudential.

Here at Rady, we are happy to host career fairs and have found them to be very successful for students looking for job leads and internships.

April 12, 2019 0 comment
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StartR Demo-Day on a Whole New Level
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StartR Demo-Day on a Whole New Level

written by Rady School

StartR, founded by a group of Rady students in 2013, is a non-profit six-month accelerator program homed on the Rady campus. The program includes a workshop, mentoring, advice and access to other resources for early-stage companies. StartR has been highly successful and currently has one hundred and thirty-seven teams who have gone through the program. Eight of these teams have also been accepted into EvoNexus. There are fifty-five unduplicated companies that are active, and $63.8 million has been raised so far.

Along with the 6-month accelerator program, StartR also encourages students to partake in the StartR demo day, where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to students, faculty, investors, and professors. Nine companies chose to participate this year in the StartR DemoDay. In the past, the only StartR group to partake in the demo day are Rady MBA students and alumni, but this year was a little different. This is the first Demo Day event where teams from multiple StartRPrograms were invited, rather than only MBA students. All of the teams under StartR Accelerator include Rady, Inclusion, Impact, Veteran, and Teen. This was a monumental step, and highlights Rady’s commitment to champion and spotlight entrepreneurs of all styles!

At  Demo Day, the teams dressed in slacks, polished shoes, and newly pressed blazers, lined up one by one, while they anticipated putting their best foot forward in hopes to win a prize, or attract the attention of a potential investor or partner. As they shared their pitch, they stood in front of the audience with refined power points, apps, and even a real, live business prop itself, including a sleeping pod! The audience listened to each hopeful entrepreneur, all while cheering on their family and friends.

The StartR programs spotlighted this year, and the ones highlighted below with their company pitches, include: StartR Rady, Inclusion, and Impact.

StartR Rady – The premier StartR accelerator, the Rady track is exclusively for our MBA students and alums.  The teams who presented are as follows:

AngioX: – AngioX Therapeutics is an early stage biopharmaceutical company that develops novel therapies for patients with rare Cerebral Cavernous Malformations (CCMs). 

Freightracker: – This Company is bringing IOT solutions to the transportation industry in order to streamline operations and reduce costs bycreating a device which allows users to track their freight anywhere in the world.

SurfUp – An automated surfboard rental station that is paired with a smartphone application to make the surfboard rental process convenient for beginner surfers and tourists on the beach, in-front of stores, resorts, restaurants, and much more.

bou: Bou is a small device that can save, transfer, and emit smells instantly in various circumstances to enhance consumers’ daily experiences in different settings including while watching movies, playing video games, shopping, online shopping, relaxing, etc. 

Virtual Sleep Environment: A virtual sleeping pod which increases human performance, entraining a natural sleep-wake circadian rhythm. This makes it easy to sleep anywhere, at any time!

Visionful: An app that provides fully automated parking guidance and enforcement, making parking simpler than ever before.V

Inclusion: Open to students across UC San Diego and designed to highlight diversity, teams    must have at least one leader from a traditionally underrepresented population.

Felicity CBT – Aims to better the mental well-being of users by providing cognitive behavioral therapy at the convenience of a mobile application.

Impact: The StartR Impact accelerator is open to startups and ideas from across campus aiming to make a societal impact. The teams from Impact, that performed at demo day included:

Athlete Initiative: A sexual violence prevention program and app for college student-athletes, helping to prevent sexual violence on campuses, where one in five students are currently affected.

Family Proud – Connecting patients and families to the technological resources necessary to effectively maximize their quality of care.

It was a competitive battle at Demo Day, and each entrepreneur deserved a prize, but, there are only two awards—a judges choice, and an audience choice.

The team who presented the most polished, well thought out idea according to the judges this year, was Thomas Fontes from Freightracker. Thomas walked up to the stage with excitement, as he won a $1,000 prize towards his business. Thomas is working on creating a custom device with AT&T, in hopes to have a freight tracker on the market by 2020! Rady School is excited to see where Thomas’s business will take him in the future! You can contact Thomas at Thomas.fontes@rady.ucsd.edu.

The team who won the audience choice award was Robert Sweetman with Virtual Sleep Environment. Robert brought a real, live sleeping pod to his presentation that tracked the brain waves of the sleeper, revealing to the sleeper if their brain was active, calm, or busy. This would allow the sleeper to find peace and calmness and fall asleep at any time! Robert is working on getting the sleeping pod in airports, and creating stations for consumers to sleep anywhere, anytime, and especially before or after a long flight! You can contact Robert at Rob@existech.us for questions or thoughts.

Rady School of Management is proud to house and educate students and alumni, who are passionate about entrepreneurship.  Building on the success of their startups, all of the teams who presented will be continuing to pursue their business ideas in hopes to continue to succeed in pioneering a new, innovative way to solve and better our world!

April 10, 2019 0 comment
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StartR Continues to Startup

written by Hallie Jacobs

Since 2012, with the launch of mystartupXX, accelerators have had a presence on the Rady School of Management campus. The mystartupXX program was a first of its kind startup accelerator focused on building female-founded companies. Not long after, in 2013, StartR was launched with a goal of accelerating startups led by entrepreneurially minded MBA students and alums, helping them achieve success that was unseen in the school before the program.

As interest in entrepreneurship has grown, so has the demand for additional programs to support the diverse interests and talents of Rady School students.  As the programs expanded their scope and reach, more students and San Diego community members were exposed to the burgeoning entrepreneurial landscape with the help of the resources and network provided by the Rady School, thanks to programs like the Veteran Ventures and Social Venture Accelerator.

Each of the accelerators has undergone changes over the past year, with the most significant being the expansion of mystartupXX to included not only female founders, but those from diverse and traditionally underserved populations. With all of these changes, this was the perfect opportunity to bring all of the accelerators under the same umbrella and look forward to building on the StartR brand. The new StartR will encompass the programs launched at the Rady School to form a more unified and holistic entrepreneurial platform.

“The Rady School accelerator programs have helped to launch more than 55 ventures to date, and we hope to bring even more veteran, community, youth and diverse entrepreneurs into the startup world,” said Lada Rasochova (MBA ’08) Executive Director of the California Institute for Innovation and Development. “Bringing all of our programs together under the StartR umbrella will better tie them together, and will help us share resources and showcase our reach and commitment to diverse entrepreneurship.”

Rady School entrepreneurial programs have exponentially grown since the launch of StartR and mystartupxx, providing entrepreneurial resources to hundreds of students and community members. The innovative approach of the program will continue to shift and change, addressing the needs and trends in the startup world.

The first StartR Class

“The StartR accelerator programs are in a fantastic position to help our students and community members with their companies and ideas,” Rasochova said. “The Rady School is home to a wealth of resources, from brilliant faculty, to a wide network of investors and a number of workshops designed to help businesses get off the ground. We have been able to create new programs based on interest and needs of entrepreneurs in all sectors and at every stage of their journeys.”

New brand, same focus

The StartR programs all have the same goal – to help connect budding entrepreneurs with the resources and opportunities necessary to taking new companies and ideas to the next level. While StartR Rady is focused specifically on helping Rady students and alumni launch their companies, the other four programs are designed to help members of the UC San Diego and greater San Diego communities.

StartR Rady

A new name for the original six-month StartR program, it was created for Rady School affiliated students and alumni who already have a business foundation. During the program, students have access to a number of workshops, mentorship opportunities, networking events and more. The program culminates with a pitch event where startups present their companies to San Diego business leaders. 

StartR Inclusion

Originally mystartupXX, this program introduces early-stage founders from underrepresented populations to the world of startups through mentorship, business education and funding. StartR Inclusion strives to promote diversity in entrepreneurship at UC San Diego and beyond. Teams must be affiliated with UC San Diego (students at any level, recent alums, postdocs or students at local research institutes) and must have a member of a traditionally underrepresented population in a leadership role to participate.

StartR Impact

Businesses with a socially-conscious focus are booming, and investors are eager to support companies that also have a social mission. Formally known as the Social Venture Accelerator, StartR Impact nurtures innovative, scalable companies that address important social issues. The program is open to all UC San Diego undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students.

StartR Veteran

StartR Veteran was launched at UC San Diego in 2017 as Veteran Ventures to support veterans looking to launch a business after serving. The 10-week program provides veterans with the support and skill development necessary to be successful in entrepreneurship. This program is open to veterans inside and outside of the UC San Diego network who are interested in launching a business, or who are ready to scale and raise capital for existing businesses. StartR Veteran is a collaboration between UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, The Basement, and Office of Innovation and Commercialization.

StartR Teen

It’s never too early to start thinking entrepreneurially, and StartR Teen strives to introduce middle and high school students to the world of startups. StartR Teen works to introduce students to startups, successful entrepreneurs and potential career mentors to showcase the exciting world of entrepreneurship in America’s Finest City.

February 13, 2019 0 comment
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Rady Team Wins Triton Innovation Challenge

written by Renan Sallai Iwayama

When I first stepped onto the Rady School of Management campus last year, the innovation and entrepreneurship was obvious – I could feel and see it happening around me. I was very excited with the conversations I had with students and faculty, and after attending the class “Research for Marketing Decisions” with Professor Anand Bodapati, I decided to apply to the Master of Science in Business Analytics program.

At the beginning of this year I was invited to join the third cohort of the MSBA program that started classes in August. I found it very demanding, but at the same time very fulfilling, because I could further develop my critical thinking skills and dive deeper into complex business issues.

However, I felt that just attending classes and completing my assignments wouldn’t be enough to be successful in my career. In fact, I quickly realized that the Rady School and University of California, San Diego had so much to offer that I had to take advantage of every possible opportunity!

On October 3, I attended StartR Demo Day. StartR is a free, six month-long acceleration program held twice a year on the Rady School’s campus, and at the conclusion of the program, StartR teams are given an opportunity to pitch to investors and industry experts during Demo Day.

This was an amazing experience and I learned so much about different innovative business models! At the end I connected with each of the startups representatives and because of my networking ability, I was able to start working with Kabir Gambhir (MBA ’10), a Rady alum who launched a business called Bevea.

Bevea, is a startup in the consumer and packaged goods industry that created a new drink made from the coffee fruit, also known as cascara. Unfortunately, cascara is often dumped into rivers or just left to rot in reaps which both brings harmful environmental impacts. Bevea is currently buying cascara from Costa Rica and producing a drink that is both healthy and delicious, while also preventing pollution and generating extra income to cascara farmers and their communities.

Encouraged by our advisor Lada Rasochova, we decided to join the Triton Innovation Challenge — a business competition focused on fostering creativity and bringing commercially promising, environmentally focused technologies generated by the finest minds at UC San Diego to the spotlight. Supported through the generosity of The William and Kathryn Scripps Family Foundation Inc., the program is presented through a partnership between the Rady School of Management, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Jacobs School of Engineering.

This was indeed a great challenge for me because I had to create a new pitch from scratch to properly address the competition’s criteria and connect to the audience to convey our company’s message. I had support from the organization because they provided us with the workshop “Art of the Pitch” led by Silvia Mah (MBA ’12), a successful Rady School alum and startup expert. Attending this workshop was a game-changer for me and Bevea.

We progressed through the Triton Innovation Challenge, competing in the initial pitch competition and making our way through the semifinals. I represented Bevea at the finals, competing against five other extraordinary startups: The BioEnergy project, Ocean Motion Tech, FreeGen Technologies, Khepra and CleanCoast – The Water Quality Sticker.

After watching six outstanding presentations from teams coming from diverse backgrounds and representing startups from different industries, the judges and the audience made their choices:

  • 1st prize – $10,000 (Bevea)
  • 2nd prize – $5,000 (Ocean Motion Tech)
  • 3rd prize – $2,500 (Khepra)
  • Audience Choice – $2,500 (Bevea)

My pitch won first place for Bevea and was also able to capture the audience support for our sustainable cause. This was a unique moment and an extraordinary personal achievement for me! I can still barely believe that I could balance everything ranging from my personal life to work and academics in the last several weeks. I was proud to represent Bevea and the Rady School at this prestigious business competition.

I am grateful for all the inspiration my fiancé, Cintia Kussuda, gave me and the support of my family and friends. Special thanks to Emily Dayton, Rady Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions, for encouraging me throughout the MSBA program and Kabir, Bevea CEO, for believing in my unlimited potential!

My mentor, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda once said: “This lifetime will never come again; it is precious and irreplaceable. To live without regret, we must have a concrete purpose, continually setting goals and challenges for ourselves. And we need to keep moving toward those specific targets steadily and tenaciously, one step at a time.”

Bevea is now one step closer to becoming a successful product enjoyed by the masses and I look forward to the next goals and challenges that I am going to achieve during the winter quarter.

Renan Sallai Iwayama is an MSBA candidate at the Rady School of Management.

 

 

 

 

 

December 11, 2018 0 comment
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Alumni Spotlight — Robin Clough

written by Hallie Jacobs

Robin Clough (MBA ’14) is the co-founder and CEO of Tequila Enemigo, a luxury tequila company that has won 5x Double Gold Awards across three continents within one year, and is now served at some of the world’s best venues, including The Ritz Hotel and Annabel’s.

“We initially launched in London in September 2017 to surprising critical acclaim  — earning accolades from Forbes, Business Insider and CNN — culminating in our launch in NYC in November,” Clough said.

Enemigo’s award-winning Tequilas are now available in store in NYC at the prestigious Park Avenue Liquor and online nationwide at www.parkaveliquor.com. The company also released an exclusive first edition bottle only available in the United States.

Clough was part of the Rady Full-Time class 2014, and while at Rady he was part of the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital clubs.

1) What impact has Rady had on your career progression?

First and foremost, I met my co-founder Sebastian Gonzalez (MBA ’14) at Rady, and together we built what Tequila Enemigo is today. For me, Rady was a slightly different experience to most. I arrived as a 23-year-old straight after graduating from college in London. I left Rady jumping straight into a product management role at Hewlett Packard leading an eight person software development team and with the foundation of a future successful luxury company already in motion.

2) Has your Rady MBA enabled you to change industries or functional areas or even achieve a promotion? 

I decided to pursue an MBA at Rady because I knew that starting my own company was what I wanted to do and it felt like the best way to develop the cross-functional foundational skills needed. I quickly realized that product management at a tech company was the perfect next step toward entrepreneurship while our Tequilas would be aging. My class had other students who were directly looking for similar roles and as most were years ahead of me, I had an instant step up in knowledge seeing how they went about developing their skills.

3) What event or realization served as a ‘turning point’ for you during your Rady School and/or professional career?

The biggest moment happened a few years after graduating from Rady where I took a step back from product management and worked out what drove me. By this time Enemigo had already begun and our Tequilas were about to come out of the barrel, I quickly confirmed that Tequila Enemigo was my full next step and that I was finally ready.

4) Tell us a fun fact about you, or something people may not know about you.

I am the youngest founder of an international luxury liquor brand. I got accepted into Rady five days before term started, after completing my full GMAT prep and test in the 3 weeks prior.

5) What is the most memorable moment from your Rady School experience?

From a professional standpoint, it has to be the first term progression. Still jet-lagged, I naively walked into the class on day one surrounded by experienced, mostly mature classmates, leagues ahead of me career-wise, and left at the end of the first semester 100-times ahead of where I started. From a personal standpoint, I have worked with many of my classmates and close friends after Rady. Peter Butler (MBA ’14) and I were product managers at HP on the same team, which was run by Rady alum Aron Tremble (MBA ’07), and Sebastian is my co-founder for Enemigo. All the times we had brainstorming different projects, trips to Mexico and skiing in Tahoe enjoyed with a glass of Enemigo — those are the best moments.

6) How have you applied your studies to your career?

The biggest things I still reflect back on are the case studies — I still draw on scenarios from On Amir’s marketing class, Operations, Accounting, and Corporate Finance.

7) What advice do you have for prospective students?

Often times at business school, there is extreme pressure to be involved with every part of what’s going on, be in as many clubs etc — I would argue that your number one goal is to work out what you want to do after you graduate, and then really focus in on what the school and clubs can do to help you achieve that. There is at times a lot of class work, but also a lot of free time too — the most successful people in our class now were the ones who used their free time wisely.

 

 

November 28, 2018 0 comment
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Two Prestigious Organizations Laud Rady School of Management MBA Program for Excellence in Entrepreneurship

written by Hallie Jacobs

Rady School of Management at UCSD.

The MBA program at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego has been recognized as one of the top programs for entrepreneurship in the U.S. by the Princeton Review and Bloomberg Businessweek. The school’s MBA program ranked 16th in The Princeton Review’s “Top 25 Graduate Schools for Entrepreneurship of 2019,” and 24th in the Bloomberg Businessweek “Best Business Schools” entrepreneurship category.

Both rankings recognize the best programs for students aspiring to launch their own businesses.  In the Princeton Review ranking, the Rady School ascended from 25th to 16th in this year’s 2019 ranking, placing the school’s MBA program among the elite programs for entrepreneurship in the U.S.

“Since its founding, the Rady School has been dedicated to providing an outstanding education focused on innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “This ranking recognizes that the Rady School is a leader in entrepreneurial education. The incredible companies founded by our students and alumni are transforming our world and are proof-positive of the quality of entrepreneurship education the school provides.”

Since the school’s first MBA class graduated in 2006, students and alumni have started over 150 operational companies, contributing over $2 billion to the economy. The rapid success of startups originating at the school can be attributed to the unique structure of the Rady School’s MBA program, which integrates entrepreneurial education into the program through its capstone Lab to Market course sequence.

 

 

November 14, 2018 0 comment
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People of Rady: Davide Giovanardi

written by Hallie Jacobs

1) Why did you choose to pursue a Master of Finance?

The financial world became my fascination when I realized how it impacts all of us. I am captivated by the mathematics and financial rules governing our world and I am eager to understand the inner workings of the financial field to search for patterns that impact the future. Finance is my chosen professional life and where I am looking forward to making a significant contribution to the betterment of the world economy and its citizens.

2) Why did you choose the Rady School?

The Rady School of Management has earned the reputation of being a modern and very up-to-date program where the faculty and students are focused on the future. Rady highlights both the academic and the professional aspects, conferring knowledge in quantitative finance, but also training in communication and leadership skills that are fundamental for succeeding in today’s competitive world. The program challenges students to work individually, but also with teams and groups, which is imperative to getting real-world experience that will benefit students after graduation.

3) What do you feel makes Rady unique? How do you benefit from these aspects?

Being a relatively new program, its astute faculty and leaders were able to design it to be a modern Master of Finance program. The program offers a unique and original quantitative approach emphasizing data and matching the current job demand in the financial industry. Moreover, the Rady School has an esteemed history in quantitative decision making with Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz. If we then consider the exceptional and devoted faculty, the result is a unique learning experience, which forges leaders in the modern data-driven financial world.

4) What classes are you looking forward to taking this year?

First and foremost, I’d like to emphasize that Rady shapes the program on the students’ strengths and skills by offering a superb variety of electives. Among my favorite classes, there is the core Financial Econometrics and Empirical Methods taught by Professor Rossen Valkanov. I am looking forward to taking the Collecting and Analyzing Financial Data, Computational Finance Methods and Analyzing Large Data courses as well. I’m fascinated by the relationship between finance and data science and eager to learn models and techniques by exceptional professors to further increase and deepen my passion for this expertise.

5) What are your goals after graduation?

My goals after graduation are to continue this incredible journey and to study and complete a top-flight Ph.D. program, and to participate in the financial, investment industry. I’m confident that Rady will provide me with all the academic and professional competencies needed to ultimately achieve my goals.

October 16, 2018 0 comment
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StartR Demo Day Showcases Rady Innovation

written by Hallie Jacobs

Entrepreneurship is a fundamental aspect of the Rady School of Management educational experience. Whether students are pursuing an MBA, Master of Finance or Master of Science in Business Analytics degree, students have the opportunity to take an idea and transform it into a company at the Rady School. The StartR Accelerator – a free six-month long acceleration program open to all Rady School students and alumni – sets the stage for students to get businesses running through educational seminars, access to funding, mentorship connection and more. Recently, the StartR Spring Class of 2018 gathered to present their pitches to Rady School students, faculty, alumni and the San Diego business community.

Robert Sullivan, Dean of the Rady School of Management, kicked off the event by celebrating the success of the StartR program.

“Since its inception in 2013, the accelerator program has launched 61 companies,” Sullivan said. “Twelve of these teams have been accepted into the prestigious EvoNexus accelerator, and 60 percent of the teams that have been launched are still operational. StartR teams have generated more than $40 million in capital.”

A successful graduate of the StartR program returned to campus to speak about his company, CB Therapeutics. Sher Ali Butt (MBA ’16) entered the Rady School with an idea – to create cannabinoids without the use of marijuana plants. These compounds are not psychoactive. They do not produce a “high” or have potential for abuse and are already sold in the market similar to supplements. Since graduating from the Rady School, CB Therapeutics has been accepted into EvoNexus and Y Combinator, raised millions of dollars in funding and was recently selected as a finalist in a TechCrunch pitch competition in San Francisco.

“Rady was the best thing that happened to me and my business,” Butt said. “I came with an idea and left with a business. As a scientist, I was comfortable with creating the product, but I had no idea where to begin with the business side of things. CB Therapeutics would not have been possible without the Rady School.”

Here’s a look at the companies that were pitched at StartR Demo Day.

TrySpree

If you’re a fan of free stuff, TrySpree is for you. Developed by Ben Koonse (MBA ‘19), the website scrapes the internet to search for products offering free samples. The user is able to select free samples they’re interested in testing and choose to try them risk-free. TrySpree is then able to offer custom-selected samples to the customer based on their selections and interests. The company has created the most revenue out of any company actively involved with StartR, currently generating $1 million in revenue annually.

Hylite

Traditional shopping malls are struggling to meet the demands of dedicated online shoppers, but Rady School student Chuan He (MBA ‘18) is developing a solution to help both malls and customers improve their shopping experiences. Hylite is a precise marketing system that uses LED lights to identify preciswe shoppers’ location within a shopping mall. Shoppers are able to navigate better within a mall and can receive product offers from businesses in the location. Hylite plans to launch in China where almost 1,000 new malls were built last year alone.

AnalytixHub

Modern businesses have more data than they know what to do with in order to make informed decisions. AnalytixHub – launched by current student Fay Mehr (MBA ’19) – created a company that connects data scientists and analytics experts with companies and research institutions. The platform is also moving toward creating a database that provides advanced data analysis services and consultations on demand.

Bevea

Sugar-packed sodas are out and healthy beverage options are in! Bevea, created by Kabir Gambhir (MBA ‘10) creates beverages from a nutrient-dense coffee cherry byproduct. The beverage Cascaraa provides a solution for the 23 million tons of byproduct created annually while creating a low calorie, low sugar and delicious sparkling beverage. The drink comes in five flavors – original, mint basil, lavender, hibiscus, and rose chili.

Evolution Smart Bag

The average American woman owns 13 purses and handbags from seven different brands. To cut down on the clutter, Rady School graduate Suvi Tanninen (MBA ’18) created a smart bag designed to fit the needs of women on the go. The modular, washable and customizable bags come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes and are equipped with pockets that provide wireless charging.

In addition to the pitch presentations, Herb Meistrich was presented with the Guru Award in recognition of his mentoring support of students in the StartR program. The audience also voted on their favorite pitch and selected Koonse of TrySpree to receive a $500 check for his company.

Due to the success of their startups, each five teams have chosen to continue building their companies after graduating from StartR.

“It’s inspiring to see these teams succeeding and contributing to the local and national economy,” Sullivan said. “The Rady School community is proud of their efforts and we are looking forward to watching them continue to grow.”

October 4, 2018 0 comment
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