One California university’s business school is offering an innovative program to help facilitate growth for startup ventures. Businesses operating in various verticals have benefitted from the program, including Subject, a start-up offering an accredited virtual learning platform currently targeted education in the U.S.
The Venture Accelerator at the UCLA Anderson School of Management is a transformative cohort-based program for early-stage startups and their founders. The program is open to companies not affiliated with UCLA, but focuses on entrepreneurs who are current or former students of the university.
“We offer an adjunct program to all of UCLA that focuses on practicum as opposed to theory, really targeting students and alumni founders for startups,” said Trish Halamandaris, UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator Director.
In addition, the program, which began five years ago, encourages participation of minority and underrepresented students. “The program focuses on people of color and women founders and we provide the same opportunity and the extensive resources offered to startup founders to help them launch and succeed while they’re in the MBA program, or across campus,” Halamandaris explained. Approximately 61 percent of founder participants are from underrepresented groups. The program also supports founders from other disciplines, including the medical school and the school of computer science.
“The truth is, if anyone is going to help anyone commercialize their intellectual property, it’s the School of Management,” Halamandaris pointed out. “We view that as part of our give-back to the university – to help provide a strong, basic platform by which these founders can scale successfully.”
Applicants must be working full time on the venture, and the founders’ company must be at the prototype stage and has proven the concept for product-market fit. The company must also have gained traction in the marketplace with recurring revenue, users and funding.
The Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson offers a curated and immersive six-month experience customized for vertical. The program includes a customized curriculum, biweekly one-on-one mentoring sessions that assess specific needs and address custom milestones, weekly workshops and networking events. The program is free for all accepted companies, if they are currently affiliated with UCLA or are alumni. Companies that aren’t affiliated with the university are assessed a program charge.
Michael Vilardo, Co-Founder and CEO of Subject, participated in the program while earning his MBA at UCLA. He created Subject, focusing on providing exceptional educational experiences for underrepresented K-12 students. The company, which began in 2020 as COVID-19 exposed long-term issues within existing educational systems, is scaling quickly and successfully, with an excellent offering that meets a clear market need.
Subject currently offers 63 core, AP® and elective classes across subjects. Offerings include math courses such as advanced math and trigonometry, English literature and composition, sciences, history and languages. Other courses include music production, crypto currency and engineering.