Inside Berkeley Haas’s Sparkling New Home For Entrepreneurship & The ‘Entrepre-Curious’

‘CAL NEEDS A SPACE LIKE THIS’

Members of the eHub can join one of three tracks, depending on what stage their idea is. The first, the SEARCH track, is for those who don’t have a concrete idea, who are searching for “a problem worth solving,” as McGee describes it. Students with an idea already in mind can join the TEST track, gathering data and planning to support their idea’s viability. Finally, the BUILD track is for those with enough to begin constructing a business model. These students are matched with mentors and given — and held responsible for meeting — goals over the semester.

Sara Lucia Lizarazo López, a master’s student in engineering and project management, participated in the SEARCH track in late 2024 and moved on to the TEST track this spring. “This is my first experience with entrepreneurship, and I am enjoying the process,” she tells Poets&Quants. “My goal is to learn as much as possible from this first attempt at developing a viable business idea.”

She first heard about the eHub through an email, “which caught my attention because it seemed like the perfect program for someone who wants to develop ideas and get inspired but doesn’t yet have much experience in creating a profitable and successful business around a meaningful problem.” During her participation in the SEARCH track, she says, she learned different strategies for identifying meaningful problems that could lead to viable business solutions.

“Right now, I am really enjoying the new location, as it gives me the opportunity to talk to Dawn and connect with other students who share my interests. Also, I love the new location — it’s perfect, homey, and just everything you want in a space to get focused and inspired. I plan to continue learning from more experienced individuals, attending events, and utilizing the resources the eHub offers to further explore entrepreneurship.”

As someone coming in a non-business major, López sees the eHub as a resource that could make entrepreneurship attractive to many who might not ever consider it otherwise.

“The eHub is an incredible space for students from all backgrounds, helping them discover more about themselves, explore new passions, and connect with like-minded people,” she says. “It also acts as a key link to a wide range of entrepreneurial resources on campus, including partnerships with Berkeley SkyDeck, the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program, and the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, among others. With this strong network, students can easily tap into Berkeley’s many resources, making entrepreneurship more approachable and accessible for everyone.

“Cal needs a space like this because it gives students a place to explore ideas, connect with others, and access the right resources to bring their projects to life. It makes entrepreneurship more accessible and helps turn ideas into real opportunities.”

eHUB OFFERS WHAT ‘YOU CAN’T LEARN FROM A BOOK’

MBA student Anthony Magno, Class of 2026, is using the eHub to work on not one but two ideas: the first in cleantech finance and the other in real estate tech. “A Fortune 500 CEO once told me, ‘Do what you love, and the money will come.’ That stuck with me, so I’m pursuing both until reality — or my wife — tells me otherwise!”

The former EY and Goldman Sachs associate says he came to Haas in part because of its leadership in entrepreneurship, climate, and cleantech. “As an avid scuba diver, witnessing coral bleaching firsthand sparked my passion for sustainability. My experience in asset management also exposed me to the energy transition, where innovation is booming, yet investor-ready solutions remain scarce,” he says. “There’s room for 50 new technologies and we need them all!”

On the real estate side, growing up in New Jersey, he saw homeownership as the ultimate wealth-building tool. After a decade of saving, he bought an apartment in Manhattan, “navigating renovations, financing, and a few investment properties along the way. Now, with home affordability at an all-time low, I want to bring cost-saving solutions to a wider audience.”

He first heard about the eHub at new student orientation, when a panel introduced Berkeley’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, including the then-newly launched eHub. After researching all the programs, he realized the eHub provided the structure and cross-program networking he needed. “Joining its first cohort,” he says, “was an easy decision.”

He uses the space every day.

“With its new physical space, I’m there daily — taking calls, meeting my team, and networking with mentors,” Magno says. “Through eHub, I’ve connected with VC partners, successful entrepreneurs, and industry leaders who’ve built and exited ventures.” The best part about the eHub is “the dedicated physical space,” he adds, because while “Zoom is great for execution, brainstorming in person fosters deeper collaboration and creativity. Building real relationships is key in the early stages of a startup. Startups need professionalism. eHub provides a boardroom-like setting to meet with investors and mentors, elevating student ventures. Plus, being next to Haas makes it an ideal hub for interdisciplinary collaboration.”

Magno adds that the eHub’s leadership is “outstanding — Dawn, for example, connects us not just within Berkeley but also with top industry figures. She introduced me to directors at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and even a startup mentor whom I met for dinner in London over winter break. That kind of networking is what sets eHub apart — you can’t learn that from a book.”

‘WHERE DO THEY NOT THINK THEY SHOULD BE ENTREPRENEURS?’

Dawn McGee says the eHub will practice “a weird branch of exclusive inclusivity,” requiring users to become members and members to practice entrepreneurship for the rest of the semester. That will require a minimum of 50 minutes per week in exchange for access to the building.

Members get perks like programming to connect them to mentors and each other, as well as admission to events and programs. A regular program currently is “Thursday Nights with the eHub,” a collection of beginner-friendly ways to practice entrepreneurship. “I ran one of these programs,” McGee says, “and a student came up to me afterwards and said, ‘You know, I thought this was going to be all about money and profits and capitalism,’ which clearly to her weren’t all great things, right? But, there’s a lot more to entrepreneurship than money and profits and capitalism. It’s about connectivity. It’s about experimentation. And so, these Thursday night events get them to experience what entrepreneurship can feel like. They’re entrepreneurship experiences, but really they’re community-building experiences.

“I measure my success in these events by the metric, ‘Is everybody talking with each other at the end of the event?’ And if they are, then I did a good job.”

This semester, the eHub will invite a different campus partner each week to broaden the exposure of entrepreneurship, “and let people know entrepreneurship is for everyone,” McGee says. “So hey, transfer students, entrepreneurship is for you. Hey, Black students, entrepreneurship is for you. Hey, sociology majors, entrepreneurship is for you. We’re going to go look: ‘Where do they not think they should be entrepreneurs, and can we invite them and give them a little bit of a different taste of what entrepreneurship is?”

Adds Saikat Chaudhuri: “Anybody with a good idea, they’re welcome. That’s what we’re trying. We are a startup ourselves. There are three pieces to the eHub: One is connect, one is build, and one is be discovered, and the spaces are configured to help you connect and spend time with each other to be discovered as well as to build. But everything’s flexible.

“I don’t know where the energy’s going to be, and so we can adjust that. And we’re excited about that part also.”

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