San Jose State University

San José State University is in many ways the original Silicon Valley startup, continually evolving over more than 160 years to meet the needs of the region, state, nation and world. A comprehensive university education, granting bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 250 areas of study, SJSU is an essential partner in the economic, cultural and social development of Silicon Valley and California. With more than 36,000 students, 4,300 employees and over 350,000 alumni, the Spartan spirit is deeply ingrained across the globe.

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UC Berkeley is  the lead institution for the NSF I-Corps Hub in the Northwest region, part of the broader national NSF I-Corps network. NSF announced Berkeley’s hub leadership in October 2024, and the hub includes partners such as UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCSF, UC Santa Cruz, Oregon State, University of Washington, and University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The NSF I-Corps program at UC Berkeley is a free, remote 10-day customer discovery course for people with a STEM startup idea or technology they want to commercialize. Berkeley says the program teaches teams to conduct 20 customer interviews to identify customer segments, sharpen value propositions, validate the market, and move toward product-market fit.

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Companies have access to (and support from) Norcal SBDC's consulting resources. NorCal Small Business Development Centers at Temple University is part of a nationally accredited program that provides educational training, business resources, funding and capital access  support, and experienced no-cost, confidential consulting to business owner, tech entrepreneurs included.