From Idea to Pitch: CityUHK MBA Students Complete the UC Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship and Business Venture Plan Development Program
From July 27 to 31, 2026, CityUHK MBA students (Class of 2025) travelled to the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, for the five-day Entrepreneurship and Venture Plan Development Program. The program follows the complete life cycle of an entrepreneur, guiding students from idea generation and market research through business model development to pitching and leadership.
Program Overview
Led by senior faculty in entrepreneurship and innovation at Haas, the program stimulated a full venture cycle over five fast-paced days. Participants moved through problem identification, customer discovery, MVP testing, product innovation, business economics, go-to-market strategy, ultimately closing the loop from concept to final pitch with a condensed timeframe.
Key Learning Modules
● Venture Creation and the Silicon Valley Ecosystem: led by Program Director David Charron, examining the interplay of People, Technology, Capital, and Innovation, together with the venture capital investment cycle.
● Story as an Innovation Framework: David Riemer guided students to deconstruct real cases and build their own narrative structures, turning complex ideas into compelling startup stories.
● Customer Discovery and MVP Testing: students practiced demand validation through paired one-on-one interviews, testing business assumptions against real feedback and surfacing actual willingness to pay and key decision-makers.
● Product Innovation and AI: Tom Lee explained product innovation logic and decision models in the AI era from a data-science perspective.
● Go-To-Market and Business Economics: Liz Rockett delivered Go-To-Market strategy and David Charron taught venture economics, helping students build financially sustainable business models.
● Venture Capital: Liz Rockett and Angelo Del Priore, Founding Partner at HP Tech Ventures, evaluated market sizing and risk frameworks from an investor's viewpoint.
Corporate Visits and International Networking
Beyond the classroom, students stepped into the core of Silicon Valley's innovation scene. The programme arranged consecutive visits to Google and Apple, where students experienced the innovation cultures of two leading technology companies. Students also visited the Morphing Matter Lab led by Professor Lining Yao to see how frontier materials research moves toward commercial application. The Entrepreneur Panel gave students direct face-to-face access to Silicon Valley practitioners and investors, extending their networks within the world's premier innovation cluster.
From Ideation to Pitch: Real-World Application
The programme concluded with hands-on practice. In the Final Presentations, students pitched their business plans and prototypes to faculty and seasoned entrepreneurs, receiving one-on-one feedback with a view to turning prototypes into real ventures. The international study programme closed with a certificate ceremony on the afternoon of July 31, 2026, where students received their UC Berkeley completion certificates.
Closing
Across five days, students took away more than a certificate: a methodology from idea to pitch, a reachable Silicon Valley venture network, and a more systematic understanding of entrepreneurial practice. CityUHK MBA continues to expand students' global perspective and practical capability through such international immersion programmes.
Discover more global learning experiences at CityUHK MBA:
• Entrepreneurship and Business Venture Plan Development Program in 2025
•
Innovating
Through Digital Transformation in China
•
Sustainable
Business Strategies in Asia
•
Global
Brand Management at Imperial College
Download our
leaflet, or schedule a one-on-one
consultation to learn more
about the CityUHK MBA Experiences.
