I just attended ST@B (Startups at Berkeley), an event that brings together the entrepreneurs at Berkeley. Everyone talks about startup’s coming out of Stanford, but hardly anyone mentions Cal. At such a big school, it’s hard to get to know fellow classmates.I think it’s great that students and alumni are pushing to build up the startup spirit here. I actually wanted to organize an event like this, but they did a better job than anything I would have done.

The Rundown: The event a general social networking event along with keynote speaker, James Hong of HotOrNot (also a Berkeley Alum).

The People: There was a good turnout of young people who were really passionate about entrepreneurship. The great thing about this event is that I could relate to the people I met on matters other than business and startup’s. No offense to older folks, but it’s really hard to connect when the subject is not Silicon Valley. About half the room were students still in school. The rest are recent grads and some drop-outs. From my understanding, the event was mainly organized by Corey Reese, Krutal Desai, and Jared Kim.

The Keynote: James Hong had some great advice for young people. Here are a few that I remember:

1. Do it now. Popular reasons for waiting: school loans (try mortgage loans), or want to get industry experience first (you don’t learn much). Time is your biggest opportunity cost. Liabilities only add up, not go away: try family and kids.
2. Do what you feel passionate about. If you are doing someting just for the money and not passionate about the idea, chances are someone else who is passionate about it is doing it too and is going to beat you.
3. Know what you are getting yourself into when you take VC money.
4. Should you drop out of school? Sure, if you feel really passionate about it. Chances are you won’t get good grades anyways if all you are doing and thinking about is your startup.
5. Third time’s a charm. HotOrNot was James’ third startup before he finally succeeded.

Perks: Pretty good free food. O yea, and they raffled off an iPhone at the end.

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