SkyDeck’s New Normal: Hybrid Programming Offers Startups Acceleration with Flexibility
In the world of startups we talk a lot about headwinds and tailwinds. Tailwinds can be an extremely powerful force, pushing you forward. Headwinds can stop you in your tracks. At SkyDeck (along with everywhere else in the world) the headwinds the past two years were raging. If you had told us when the world shut down in March 2020 that just over two years later SkyDeck would be fully back in action and stronger than ever, we might have been a bit skeptical.
“Hybrid” dictionary definition: the offspring of two animals of different species. Our hybrid program is indeed a beautiful animal. We no longer require startups to be in person at SkyDeck for the entire program. We have developed what we feel is a well-balanced mix of in-person and remote programming. Startups spend the first six weeks of the Batch with us, and the following eight weeks remote. The last six weeks are in person at SkyDeck as our startups prepare for Demo Day. Some of the events that we used to have in person are now permanently transitioned to remote, and for the better. We now have many more Advisors who are not physically located in the Bay Area, and they can participate beautifully through our hybrid program. Our Advisor network now numbers 450 and counting. Our Demo Day is now hybrid — investors can attend either in person or remote. We had 850 attendees at our Batch 13 Demo Day.
And most interesting of all, we’ve been able to launch SkyDeck Europe in Milan with far greater options for networking due to our hybrid programming. Startups in Europe are participating in SkyDeck remotely for the first part of the program and then in person in Milan for the last part of the program, hosted by our excellent partner, Cariplo Factory. Advisors from our Berkeley network have joined our growing European Advisor network to guide the startups. Now that Zoom/etc. are standard practice of relationship development, we are able to merge our US and European networks and everyone loves the global web that remote can build.
SkyDeck has emerged from the first two years of the pandemic bigger and more global than ever. Some of this growth is actually due to the pandemic and the adoption of remote working around the globe. Startups are formidably adaptable and flexible. But there is no substitute for an in-person interaction, which is why we have a hybrid program to give founders, advisors, and investors what we believe is the best of both worlds. Our only fond wish is that the entire world would be on the same time zone. We can dream…
The world of startups also knows that timing can be make or break. Through a combination of hard work and good luck, our dedicated fund, the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, closed Fund 2 just moments (literally about a week) before the stock market started its wobbly run downward. With $60 million in fresh capital, the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund will continue to invest in our accelerator track startups, and now with a higher check size of $200,000.
It’s game on at SkyDeck.
