We'd like to extend a huge thank you to all who supported our student founders over the course of our campaign -- with your help we were able to raise $700 for our program!

These funds will go directly towards providing equity-free grants to our founders, helping them to scale their businesses and make their mark on the world. Follow us on Medium, social media, and our site to stay in the loop with our founders' progress as the batch progresses. We will be sending out gifts corresponding with your donation amount in the coming weeks.

Thank you again for all your support!

Best wishes,

The Free Ventures Team

Today is the last day to donate and support top startup founders from UC Berkeley! If you believe in our mission, please be sure to donate by midnight tonight and share our project to build awareness. If you'd like to learn more about our work at Free Ventures, check out our recent press release highlighting trends in the Berkeley startup ecosystem and announcing our Spring '17 Batch.

Thanks so much for the support!

With only one week left in our campaign, we'd like to thank our current donors for supporting our student founders by offering a sneak peak at the awesome problems our student founders are tackling this semester!

We received over 50 applications from Berkeley students ranging from PhD researchers in cognitive science and computer vision, MBAs, and undergraduates, and chose the top six to join our Spring '17 Batch and participate in our semester-long incubator program. Below is a brief introduction to each group of founders:

Genetic Foresight: Genetic Foresight provides a genetic test that determines your likelihood to adversely react to medications based on your genetic code; this allows your doctor to make safer and more effective prescriptions. Additionally, the report includes how your current prescription medications will interact with other medications you may be prescribed to prevent harmful drug-to-drug interactions. Your report will be updated biannually based on newly produced research, newly created drugs, and newly prescribed medications to ensure your report never becomes obsolete.

Memory: Memory is an Alexa-based voice assistant for patients with Alzheimer's. It responds to patients' questions using information provided by family members and caretakers and collects data used for medical research and improvement. Memory's goal is to reduce the burden on caretakers and allow physicians and healthcare providers to channel customized treatment methods directly to patients in their own homes.

PeerEditr: PeerEditr is a collaborative application for students and teams to share feedback on visual and design projects. Our product provides tailored features for a breadth of projects, from résumés and presentations to marketing material and web design. Our goal is to provide the quickest and most seamless feedback experience.

Acuity for Moms: Acuity is online education platform dedicated to stay-at-home mothers looking to re-enter the workforce. It aggregates already existing online courses to create customized learning paths based on skills, interests, personality, and time availability. Learning is also a highly social process so the platform includes virtual and in-person communities.

Cognigience: Information overload drains the cognitive bandwidth of high-performing individuals and organizations, reducing their peak performance potential. We are the only research-backed cognitive enhancement solution serving this market, bringing data-driven diagnostics, enterprise software, and customized VR therapeutics to the world.

Paladin Drones: Paladin Drones is creating autonomous drone solutions for public safety departments. Their solutions have landed them a spot as a finalist for Berkeley Big Ideas, and helped them win the Penn Innovation Grant.

If you're excited by the work our founders our doing and would like to support UC Berkeley's brightest student founders, we'd greatly appreciate a donation of any amount and for you to share our project to help build awareness around the work we are doing. As you can see above, our founders this semester are tackling difficult problems and could use all the help you can offer!

Thanks so much for your support!!

Thank you to all who have supported our student founders thus far!

We are now at the halfway point of our fundraising campaign – there’s just two more weeks to get involved! As of this afternoon, we are only 5% toward our goal of raising $5,000. While we are also pursuing larger checks from individual donors, we need as much support as possible to be able to support our student founders – which this semester are tackling problems in the bioengineering, drone, healthcare, and productivity industries to bring their research-proven solutions to market.

If you believe in our cause and would like to support UC Berkeley's brightest student founders, we'd greatly appreciate a donation of any amount and for you to share our project to help build awareness around the work we are doing.

Thanks so much for your support!