Latest News & Blogs
Brookings – “Cleantech venture capital: Continued declines and narrow geography limit prospects”
The Brookings Institution has published a review of VC investment into clean tech with some interesting conclusions. As we have said before, venture capital may not be a very good source of start up money in the clean tech sector. This report shows in detail how...
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Don’t Discount Equity Crowdfunding
by Thomas Hall If you have been in any startup community long enough, you have talked to the entrenched stakeholders, venture capitalist, law firms, accelerators, incubators, and the like. All seem to have similar tools to bring a business to success. However, there...
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Company Profile AQUAOSO
AQUAOSO Technologies, a startup public benefit corporation headquartered in Sacramento, California, is launching a beta version of their online water trading program this summer. The AQUAOSO team is dedicated to improving the water industry, and is led by CEO and...
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Sacramento’s green tech jobs, revenues up more than 25 percent in past two years
As reported by Victor A. Patton of the Sacramento Business Journal, the Sacramento region’s clean energy and green technology sector in 2016 reported all-time high numbers for revenue and jobs — and gains of more than 25 percent for both since 2014, according to a...
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Clean tech industry ‘on a roll’ in the Sacramento region
As reported by Mark Glover of the Sacramento Bee, CleanStart Inc., the Sacramento-based nonprofit that works to foster the growth of clean tech companies throughout the region, said Wednesday that 94 area firms generated $3.2 billion in revenue in 2016.
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What are reasonable expectations of crowdfunding?
There are lots of kinds of crowdfunding--starting with asking for donations to selling stock in your company. Clearly asking for donations is going to result in a lot less money than offering a discount for pre-ordering a product or selling shares of stock. There are...
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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.
Madeleine Jones, Intern
Madeleine is is a second-year Environmental Policy student at UC Davis. She is excited to be working with CleanStart to help Sacramento become a clean tech hub.
Terry Chen, Intern
Terry is a senior year Economics student at UC Davis. He is enthusiastic to help promote clean tech in the Sacramento region.
Sydney Cooper, Intern
Sydney is a fourth year applied statistics major at UC Davis and expects to graduate this spring. Sydney is eager to help Northern California be more sustainable.
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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