Berkeley-Haas Student Startups at Cutting Edge of Social Enterprise
Berkeley-Haas student and alumni startups are usually on the cutting edge of industry trends, so its no wonder the newest batch is continuing that line of success.
IDbyDNA uses big data to “improve the speed and accuracy of pathogen detection for infectious diseases.” Co-founded by Guochun Liao, EMBA ’14, MS ’01 Computer Science, and Ph.D. ’01 Genetics/Bioinformatics and Martin Reese, Ph.D. ’00 Computational Biology, IDbyDNA compares itself to “Google for the DNA space.”
The technology at the core of IDbyDNA’s model allows its Taxonomer software to “quickly identify all known viruses, bacteria or fungi” in patient samples over the web in a matter of minutes. IDbyDNA has a plethora of applications from improving patient diagnostics to speedy public health responses during “food contamination outbreaks” to helping “improve crop resistance to disease.”
SapphirePine came to light after Berkeley-Goldman student and Colorado native Sam Schabacker, MPP ’18 noticed acres upon acres of pine trees killed by bark beetles on a backpacking adventure through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The dead trees all bear a distinctive blue and green-streaked grain—one Schabacker knew came highly coveted by furniture enthusiasts back home.
Adam Pugh, Sandra Lupien & Sam Schabacker of SapphirePine
Together with full-time MBA student Adam Pugh and MPP candidate Sandra Lupien, the trio sought to address “wildfire, safety and climate emissions hazards by giving new life to some of the 100 million dead trees as handcrafted furniture and other wood products.” SapphirePine was a recent recipient of a Dean’s Seed Fund grant.
Lendsnap is an online startup that seeks to rectify “the mountain of bank statements, tax returns, W-2s, and pay stubs required” to secure a mortgage. Co-founder Orion Parrott, EMBA ’14, says the inspiration for Lendsnap came after he took part in Berkeley-Haas Professor Toby Stuart’s Silicon Valley Immersion Week:
“Loan officers spend a third of their time chasing borrowers to turn in documents. We link to people’s financial accounts and get the original documents from banks, brokerages, and places like H&R Block and Turbotax with the permission of borrower.”
Lendsnap’s innovative software solution “streamlines document collection and updating for lenders, boosting the productivity of loan officers by up to 50 percent and shortening the time required to approve a loan.”
Read more on the Berkeley-Haas student and alumni startups highlighted here.
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
