Latest News & Blogs
carbonBLU Headed to Western Region Finals
Profile: Arch Nexus
“Our hope is that Arch | Nexus SAC will be an inspiration for others to employ similar methods and create places that enhance the community and respect nature.” - Arch | Nexus Arch | Nexus SAC, a Sacramento architectural firm, is in the hunt for becoming...
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New Sacramento Ranking
Business Week published in its Sept 11 edition a two-factor ranking of 300 areas in the US as tech hubs. Unfortunately, it is only available in the print edition. I have extracted approximations of the data by measuring the dots on image of the chart...
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“Burners” to bring innovation to the world
Burning Man inspired NGO Black Rock Labs creating accelerator for playa tested clean tech
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Sacramento Innovation Awards
Three Companies Profiled by Clean Start are recognized at Stoel Rives Innovation Awards. Tenkiv and Terzo power own the Sustainability Category and Athena Intelligence is in Food & Agribusiness. All three offer solutions that help build the region as...
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Are You “Deal-Ready”?
Are You "Deal-Ready"? Come to our October 18 class if you have any doubts. What kind of doubts? Consider this story: You have done pretty well at slogging through setting up your business over the past five years. You have a product. You have...
read moreAbout CleanStart
CleanStart was founded in 2005 as a nonprofit organization designed to accelerate the development of clean technology ventures within the Northern California region. Our mission is to empower entrepreneurs with the knowledge, capital, and connections that are critical to creating a successful new business. We do this by:
CONNECTING the Northern California region’s clean tech community through CleanStart PowerUP! networking events.
PROMOTING the region’s clean tech economy in the annual CleanStart Progress Report, on social media & news outlets and at statewide and national events.
EDUCATING Clean Tech business leaders through classes and the Entrepreneurs Showcase sponsored by Velocity Venture Capital.
Our Team
Gary Simon, Chairman
A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.
Mark Henwood, Board Member
CEO of Henwood Associates, Inc., an owner and operator of hydroelectric facilities in California. Mark also leads Powersoft, LLC, a SaaS provider and was a co-founder of CleanStart with Gary Simon.
Ken Bossung, Board Member
A proven sales executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in building high-performance sales teams and business development strategy.
Benjamin Finkelor, Board Member
Thomas Hall, Executive Director
Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.
Cameron Law, Associate
Cameron is a Sacramento-native who recently graduated with a Masters of Business in both Sustainability and International Business. His goal is to ignite Sacramento’s clean tech economy catalyzing the transformation of the region into a global economic hub with CleanStart.
CleanStart Accomplishments & Updates
CleanStart has been busy working to build the clean tech hub in the Sacramento region. We have been supporting local growth through education, networking, and promotion. Some of our recent successes include:
- CleanStart Restart, our successful crowdfunding campaign that exceeded its goal, brought stakeholders back and promoted several regional companies.
- 2017 CleanStart Networking Kickoff at The Urban Hive in Midtown Sacramento. With over 60 people from regional companies, Tenkiv live blogging their Kickstarter from it, and California Sunlight showing their solar power solutions.
- Our Legal Essentials Class nearly sold out and was highly recommended by attendees. Douglas Bosley of BTNT Law presented to a full room at Impact Venture Capital.
- The 2017 Progress Report was completed and released on April 26th.
- The 2017 Progress Report shows the 93 companies in the core clean tech sector is generating $3.2 billion in revenue and 5,300 jobs, up 26% from $2.54 billion and 4,150 jobs from the last survey released in 2015–five times faster than the overall economy grew.
- CleanStart will be hosting a class for companies interested in Crowdfunding. Leveraging CleanStart’s own experience and connections into the local crowdfunding community, CleanStart is proud to present “Is Crowdfunding Right for Your Tech Startup?” on June 20th.
CleanStart Companies
Upcoming Events
Contact Us
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801 K Street, 28th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
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