🧠Beta Weekly: How to Get Into Berkeley SkyDeck, Hat-Trick Capital Recap, and What’s Next — YC Bootcamp & SciFi VC Social
Your go-to update for what’s happening across the Beta Pre-Accelerator. Built for builders & founders.
📅 Featured Events
Thinking about Y Combinator?
Join us for a high-impact founder bootcamp, co-hosted with Heizen and CoffeeSpace, designed to help early-stage founders stand out in their YC applications.
This tactical evening goes beyond the FAQ — featuring alumni insights, live pitch reviews, and proven strategies that get noticed. Speakers include Robin Choy (YC W20) and Liam Collins (YC S24), who will share what actually worked in their applications.
Got plans Thursday night?
Join us in Mountain View for a special edition of our Founders & Investors Social — featuring SciFi VC.
Expect bold ideas, lightning pitches, and high-signal networking with some of the most curious minds in fintech, AI, and beyond.
Closing out the season with a bang
We’re teaming up with Acorn Pacific Ventures for our FINAL Founders & Investors Social of the year — and you won’t want to miss it.
Acorn Pacific Ventures brings deep cross-border experience, backing early-stage startups with global ambitions — and they’ll be in the room.
Expect big ideas, fast pitches, and conversations with founders building in AI, consumer tech, and markets around the world.
🚀 Program Highlights
What does it really take to get into Berkeley SkyDeck? We went behind the scenes with Matt, Sanjay, and Grace from the SkyDeck team — and they didn’t hold back.
This session gave Beta founders a rare inside look at how SkyDeck selects teams, what their fund looks for in investments, and why tapping into the Berkeley ecosystem can create long-term strategic advantage.
Last Thursday night’s social brought together early-stage founders, VCs, and ecosystem leaders for an evening of lightning pitches and high-signal conversations. Co-hosted with Hat-trick Capital, this event spotlighted the next wave of innovation in agentic AI, robotics, and venture-scale execution.
Beta University 8-week Pre-Acceleration Program
​​​​​Beta University Pre-Acceleration Program is a FREE 8-week pre-acceleration experience for founders who can be physically present in the Bay Area. Designed for founders to build VC-fundable businesses with proven know-how from the heart of Silicon Valley.
​​​​​​​​​​Some of our recent Alumni companies include Generation Lab (Sequoia), Adsgency AI (HF0), Tutti AI (Berkley SkyDeck), Openmart (Y Combinator), Mathgpt pro (Y Combinator), Dreammore AI (A16Z), Final Round AI (HF0), SCAM AI (Berkley SkyDeck), AWEAR (Techstars), and more.
Secure your spot now.
Cheers,
Beta University Team