The University of California has been recognized for its strong support of innovation and entrepreneurship, with the National Academy of Inventors naming it the top university globally for patents every year since 2013. TIME magazine recently included 13 ideas from UC faculty or alumni in its list of the best inventions of 2025. Additionally, recent Pitchbook data shows that UC alumni have founded more companies than those from Stanford, Harvard, or MIT.
This recognition highlights the university’s efforts to ensure research translates into societal benefits by moving discoveries into practical use and contributing to job creation and economic growth. The University of California provides students and faculty with resources such as incubators, accelerators, commercialization experts, clubs, and specialized programs aimed at supporting new ventures.
Dominic Milano, who earned an engineering degree from UC Merced, is founder and CEO of Milano Technical Group. After gaining experience in agricultural production across various states and leading research at Morning Star Company, Milano noticed a lack of firms focused on agricultural innovation in California’s Central Valley. He explained his motivation: “I didn’t come from a wealthy family. I figured if I stayed in Merced and built a successful company after graduation, then a couple years down the road somebody else who came from a background like mine would see us and think, ‘If they can do it, so can I.’”
Milano established his company in 2014 to develop automation solutions for agriculture. The business now offers technologies including robotic harvesters and automated fruit-packing systems. Its location in the Central Valley rather than Silicon Valley allows close collaboration with growers but poses challenges in hiring software talent or attracting venture capital. Milano collaborates with CITRIS—a technology research institute across four UC campuses—to create opportunities for local graduates.
He stated: “The best possible thing that could happen for the Central Valley is for people who are educated at UC Merced to stay here and build up the talent base and capital base. One way to retain really good people is to have really good companies, both monetarily and socially. So that’s what we are trying to do.”
Heather Hochrein co-founded EVmatch after earning her master’s degree at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. She said: “In retrospect, starting EVmatch was a risky move because the electric vehicle market was so new when I started the company. But I felt the industry needed more leadership, especially focused on charging equity and access, and I didn’t see that happening anywhere else. Starting a company was the best way I saw to change that.”
During her studies she identified key barriers to electric vehicle adoption—vehicle cost, battery range, and charging access—and chose to address charging availability through a peer-to-peer network where property owners rent out chargers. She added: “I didn’t expect to start a company…But after working on this idea for a year and a half, we knew we were on to something.” Today her firm focuses on managing shared chargers at multifamily housing sites.
Hochrein emphasized economic development within environmental work: “It’s important that the environmental sector consider jobs and job creation because frankly, economic development has been left out of the environmental conversation for decades…And what better way to fix that than to actually create your own company?”
JuJu Clark graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in data science and business before founding TANDM Surf (a surfboard company) as well as Daramel (a caramel syrup startup). Clark described her motivation: “I’m driven by wanting to bring the joy that I feel to others through what I create. Even though businesses do have to make money, the most rewarding thing to me is creating something new that didn’t exist in the world.”
Clark credited her education at Berkeley—including leadership roles in student organizations—for preparing her both technically and professionally: “My degrees from UC Berkeley prepared me not only with the technical skills needed to start and operate a business but also with the confidence that I can learn new things as I go.”
These examples reflect how University of California graduates leverage their education alongside institutional resources designed for entrepreneurship.
