CalSEED Awards 7 Central Valley Companies $150,000 each, 3 in Davis

CalSEED Awards 7 Central Valley Companies $150,000 each, 3 in Davis

Funded by the Energy Commission, the California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) Initiative handed out $3.75 million to 25 companies across the state to develop their concepts for new clean energy products.  (See the Press Announcement.)  Of those, seven were awarded to companies around the Central Valley, the highest number from this area ever to receive such attention. Three were in our CleanStart region, all from Davis:  DAE Technologies with a new lithium carbon fluoride battery, RePurpose Energy with second-life EV batteries used for stationary energy storage, and ZYD coupling heat pump water heating to hot water storage. 

The other four were P-Kap Systems in Tahoe City with a rooftop solar sun-tracking system, Solar Flexes in Lassen County with an easy deployed ground mounted solar PV system, SierraCrete from Coalinga with a new building material, and RAF Electronics in Fresno with efficient LED theatrical lighting.  You can see who won by county here.

The idea behind these awards is to let early-stage innovators develop their concepts to the product stage.  Then these will compete to receive further $450,000 grants, with only a small handful of winners. This is the third year these awards have been made, with 71 companies in total having received the first-round grants.  Over 200 companies applied this year, also the greatest number ever.

California stands out as offering this extensive and generous program for innovators to advance their products to market and get them better situated for their first rounds of outside investment.  To qualify, companies must be based in California. These awards are not loans, nor do they involve any sale of shares in the companies. They are just straight-up grants.  

Congratulations to all the winners.  Well done! If you want to see some of these innovations and more, sign up for our Central Valley Cleantech Showcase October 9th in downtown Sacramento.  It’s free and you will get to talk to two dozen of these enthusiastic startups.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, EY, Stoel Rives, Greenberg Traurig LLP

BlueTech Valley, Buchalter, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Recycling? Knowing the Consumer is Key

Recycling? Knowing the Consumer is Key

Recently, Gary Simon shared “Why Do Startups Fail?” and provided some data that showed most startups fail because they find there was no market or no customer interest in what they were trying to sell.  That’s amazing–and a big problem. Why do startups keep making this mistake and how can you avoid it? Take the example of recycling. If you were to poll 100 people and ask “Are you motivated to take environmental action?”, what percent do you think would respond “yes”, 40%, 60%, …100%?  If you asked them if they wanted to recycle more would they respond similarly?  

Understanding customer behavior and pain points are a serious matter as a start up. When a business plan is based around an activity that is seen as ethically positive it can be even harder. Recycling is a big one. Everyone wants to waste less and recycle more, but most don’t.  When doing customer research asking “Do you want to recycle more?” is a question that will not help a company understand their customers. Stay away from asking Yes or No questions. Get a potential customer to share their experience and knowledge. For example asking, “How do you recycle?” will get a story about what steps are being taken. “What do you recycle and how much time do you spend recycling?” of “Tell me you worst and best recycling experience” will also invite insightful descriptions from customers about their behavior and preferences.

Why is this important to a startup? Startups need to learn about customers so they can pivot  appropriately to a solution a customer actually wants desperately. A solution work for a few people, but it needs to fit for a larger markets. Recently recycling company RePlanet closed its 300+ stores in California, citing declining state subsidies and increasing cost. They could not get enough quality recyclable material to overcome the changing cost landscape. The realities of operating in recycling are stark. Companies’ channels for quality material are highly competitive and rely on customer behavior. Being able to pivot to some better channel is critical.  RePlanet highlighted new equipment purchases to increase efficiency not being enough to overcome other cost issues. Which brings me to the second part of knowing recycling customers.

Can research determine if there are enough people, with enough materials, materials in sufficient demand, that can be accessed to validate a large enough market for a company?  If there isn’t enough material, the material is not recyclable quality, there is not a constant channel, or the alternative is inexpensive there probably is not a market. For example recycling cardboard is already easy, but it may often be contaminated (pizza boxes) and of little value.    Waste Management once reported paying $100 for one ton of cardboard giving them $5 of profit. That’s not a good business.  What is going wrong?

In response to the opening question. “Are you motivated to take Environmental action?” Valley Vision, recently found 95% are motivated to take some sort of action. Valley Vision’s Environmental Poll shows people of all backgrounds are concerned and want to take action. It is a good place to start for an entrepreneur. The research validates that people want solutions and actions taken in clean tech, but it doesn’t provide much information on the behavior or preferences a startup needs to know when building a product. Doing the additional research and customer discovery is up to the Entrepeureur. But better to dig in at the start and get intelligence on what customers really and are willing to do, rather than put a product or solution out at great cost, burn through all your Friends and Family money only to find out no one wants it. 

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, Moss Adams, River City Bank, GreenbergTraurig

BlueTech Valley, PowerSoft.biz, Revrnt, Synbyo, Califronia Mobility Center

Welcome Ingrid!

Welcome Ingrid!

Ingrid was Executive Director and responsible for the development and management of CleanStart  between 2006 and 2014, in support of the regional clean tech economy. Ingrid is known as a powerful creator of strategic relationships with business, academic and government entities locally, nationally and internationally in support of industry growth. Her career has mainly focused on innovation and entrepreneurship through the development of busines incubators and development programs in tech. As co-founder of the first International Business Incubator in Silicon Valley she was able to provide support to develop incubation centers for Belgium, Japan, Norway, Korea, Scotland and many others.
 
The excitement that’s generated from clean tech entrepreneurship and innovation in a community and the possibilities that it creates thrill me. I so enjoy bringing entrepreneurs, policy makers, community members and organizations together to improve lives and bolster the economy.” —Ingrid Rosten
CleanStart Summer Update: Doing More for Clean Tech

CleanStart Summer Update: Doing More for Clean Tech

With half of 2019 over, I wanted to update everyone on what CleanStart has been up to.  Our cleantech meetups have continued with our holding 6 this year. We put on a Startup Weekend, a 54-hour business plan competition, focused on sustainability. To go with that we have held a series of round tables around legal questions when developing businesses and the future of the utilities.   To top it all off we also released our 2019 Progress report highlighting how the Sacramento region has developed as a cleantech hub working towards CleanStart’s goal of 10,000 careers and $5 billion in revenue. The first half of 2019 we have reached over 500 people through our activities.

What we did in the first half is a good start but we also have some exciting things coming up. We have three more cleantech Meetups this year around Social Equity, Building Efficiency, and our year in review. This month we are putting on a CEO Crash Course with BlueTech Valley at University of the Pacific.  If you remember last year Peter Moritzburke connected with Cleanstart partners at a meetup and catalyzed the launch of his company Aguanaut through the Crash Course.  We hope to have more successes come from this latest boot-camp. 

Additionally, I am excited to announce CleanStart has also partnered with Blue Tech Valley to put on a Clean Tech Showcase of Central Valley clean tech companies this October 9th.  Keep your eyes open for more information soon. The Showcase will have 25 exciting regional companies and expert speakers focused on the success of clean tech. Stay Tuned for more updates.

That was all for this quick update.  Please make sure you are on out mailing list, signed up for our events, and following us on social media.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, Moss Adams, River City Bank, GreenbergTraurig

BlueTech Valley, PowerSoft.biz, Revrnt, Synbyo, Califronia Mobility Center