Comstock's magazine 0620 - June June 2020 | Page 24

DISCOURSE
in-person entrepreneurship Toolkit Series,
which is a five-week series, and we’ve
had to adapt that to a virtual setting here
due to COVID-19.
How would you describe Sacramento’s
startup scene — what are our attributes
and what are we lacking?
I think we’re definitely growing. I think
there’s this buzz about our entrepreneurial
ecosystem, and we’re at this
inflection point, I feel, of really taking
this tremendous stride for our region. So I
have a lot of optimism. Obviously, there’s
some current challenges that we’re just
seeing in terms of what that means for
our region. ...
I think there’s definitely growth in
technology. I think there’s going to be a
coming wave of all these mobility types of
companies. But I think one area that’s not
always spoken to is the restaurant and
bar scene. I think we see a lot of entrepreneurship
occurring in that space as well.
And so let’s recognize entrepreneurship
is not just technology companies. … We
have Main Street businesses opening up
and building the culture of our city and
region for the better as well.
How does the Carlsen Center fit into
that scene?
I think one thing about how we fit into
it is trying to be a presenter of different
resources … not trying to reinvent the
wheel of things that already exist. During
Global Entrepreneurship Week in November,
we brought together stakeholders
from UC Davis, (University of the Pacific),
William Jessup (University) and the
community colleges to lead a conversation
of how we can really work together as
a university, as an education institution,
to advance our regional culture around
innovation and entrepreneurship. … The
key thing is that our programs are open
to all students in the region. ...
Another thing we bring is mentorship.
The Carlsen Center’s advisory board
is (made up of) business leaders as well
as key ecosystem leaders. … One of the
things I see as a strong suit of our ecosystem
is (that) there (are) a number of support
systems for the early stage entrepreneurs
in terms of events and mentorship
and programming. I think where we want
to continue to grow is always around the
funding piece for those entrepreneurs. …
The more we continue to build successful
early stage companies, the more we’ll
attract capital and start to create a space
for that to happen.
What have you been focusing on since
you started in October, and what are
your main initiatives for the coming
year?
One of my main goals was bringing connections
from the community into the
Carlsen Center and providing that access
to students. There are resources that exist
on campus which are tremendous, but
what I recognized was … the university’s
ties are much larger to the community. …
So that’s bringing in real-life experience
from current entrepreneurs, or people
that have already done that, as well
as connections to potential investors.
(We’re) trying to bring in people from
the community and organizations that
the university typically hasn’t had touch
points with … and helping elevate the
opportunities and access ... that provides.
This year, our goal was to double the
footprint of students (who) we are serving
on campus. We’re actively wanting to formalize
our partnership with the different
universities and see how we can have an
active dialogue about how we actively
work together and promote our region as
the place for innovation and entrepreneurship,
where we can attract talent and
grow companies together. … Our three
areas that we’re looking to build out specific
tracks or programming for (are) the
Latinx population, veterans and women
in technology.
What kinds of entrepreneurs have been
involved in your programs?
What I really love about our program is
that it is very diverse in all aspects. … We
have people coming in that want to start
nonprofits that are solving social challenges,
people that are looking to start
technology companies, everything from
fintech to the next application. … One of
our students, who’s a freshman … wants
to create a fintech solution that helps
solve college savings challenges. He just
got accepted into the (UC Davis Big Bang
Business Competition).
In our Startup Weekend, we also have
some students who are trying to create
a peer-to-peer platform for campus services,
and they’re applying to go through
our next program, which is a mastermind
cohort. (Other students) are trying to
start an auxiliary dwelling-unit type of
thing. … Their vision is: How do we start
to tackle homelessness through alternative
housing?
How have your programs shifted since
the campus closed?
It’s going well. … We have a fairly nimble
team. We have two entrepreneurs in residence
who help run our programming,
and they’ve been actively switching all of
our curriculum to online learning. … We
were able to actually create a whole new
program which we’re calling a virtual
mastermind cohort. … It’s going to be a
peer-to-peer facilitation, basically helping
them solve key goals in their business,
and then we’re bringing in subject-matter
experts and mentors.
I think one of the things that this
pandemic has really turned out in terms
of an opportunity is it’s forced us to think
differently about our programming.
What we’ve seen is that, through the
virtual setting, we’re able to reach more
people, because there’s not the physical
constraint of someone having to drive to
the Carlsen Center or be physically present.
We’re able really to reach out to the
community, expand our reach. … What’s
really great is we’re getting applications
for the student cohort from all the way
up in Yuba County to Davis to American
River College to Sac State students. So
we’re getting a wealth of applications,
which is really great, and it’s spreading in
24 comstocksmag.com | June 2020