Latest News & Blogs
CleanTech Companies Pitch Investors at Five Star Bank Event
If you hadn't heard much about Five Star Bank's "Shark Tank"-style event putting local entrepreneurs in front of investors, that was by design. The Bank made this an invitation-only event and focused its attention on getting the best of best young, fundable companies...
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Welcome EnerDapt to our Community!
EnerDapt is an early-stage HVAC SaaS company that provides 24/7 monitoring service, cost-driven analytics, and automated HVAC management system to commercial real estate owners, targeting small to medium size existing buildings that usually cannot afford sophisticated energy management systems. Check them out at their website. They are based at McClellan Park.
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Storage Meetup Recap
This MeetUp probably had the liveliest Q&A of all such events we have put on so far.
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Brookings: Tsunamis of innovation are shaking the energy industry
Innovation is making some fuels, like natural gas, significantly more competitive while crushing coal in some markets. Even more profound changes are now appearing in the electric power industry, where traditional firms that operate large power grids see threats from new upstarts that are siphoning away customers and creating totally new types of local power grids.
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Startups Encouraged after engaging with panel of active investors.
The other night was an amazing workshop for the packed crowd at 801 K Street with incredible insights into building constructive relationships with investors. So much was covered it is hard to do a summary that does the session justice. The discussion was...
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LACI Companies Visit the Capitol
What kind of companies? Don’t worry I’ll bring you up to speed. Rated as one of the top 10 global incubators, the LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is the City of Los Angeles’ official business incubator for clean technology and provides key support to high profile teams...
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.
QiDong Jai, Associate
Qidong recently graduated from UC San Diego and has a B.S. in Managerial Economics. His multicultural background helps companies approach problems from new perspective.in the region. His passion of understanding new technologies that could change the world supports CleanStart and the Sacramento Region.
Kate Newton, Associate
Kate is a recent graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and has a strong background in entrepreneurship and global politics. After helping launch an AgTech startup on the central coast, Kate is back in her hometown looking to take her experience into the world of Cleantech and help grow the Sacramento region.
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.