Welcome back to the Sunstone Way.
Gooooal!
It’s World Cup time. Often called the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, the soccer (football to the rest of humankind!) tournament kicks off today, June 11.
The field has expanded to 48 national teams, and it will take 104 games played in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to determine the next Cup winner. The United States team starts play right here in Southern California, facing off against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium on Friday, June 12.
A Long Road
This FIFA World Cup is the longest tournament ever, running from June 11 to July 19. But that six weeks is a blink of an eye compared to the time national teams have spent qualifying for the tournament.
The first qualifying tournaments were played in South America and Asia in 2023! In Europe, where the qualifiers have the shortest time span, they started more than a year ago, in March 2025.
It took until March 2026 for all 48 teams to be determined. That’s a long road.
But players had an even longer road – pretty much a lifetime. I started playing soccer as a youngster and made it to the college level. Most of these World Cup players likely started their soccer careers as toddlers, and have been working at it ever since.
Soccer Entrepreneurs
These teams can be seen as the culmination of an entrepreneurial endeavor that began years and sometimes decades ago. Argentina, the reigning World Cup champion, didn’t build their team overnight. The dynasty that is Brazilian soccer began its dominance in 1958, when a 17-year-old Pele led the team to its first World Cup, playing an innovative style of creative passing, dribbling and scoring.
That’s really what teams in every sport seek – new ways to gain an edge that helps them win. Innovation also epitomizes what it takes to succeed in the entrepreneurial business world – innovation, perseverance and talent.
As I get ready to watch a lot of World Cup matches, I thought it would be fitting to talk a bit about a couple of our partners who have demonstrated this same innovation, perseverance and talent. I think you’ll appreciate the parallels.
Seatrec
We came alongside Seatrec and its founder, Dr. Yi Chao, very early in the process. Dr. Chao had spent his career at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, part of the California Institute of Technology, and had the beginnings of a way to provide clean power in the ocean for offshore applications.
Dr. Chao formed Seatrec in 2016 – the same year Sunstone Management was formed! By 2019, Seatrec had its first commercially viable float. The science behind it was generating electricity by taking advantage of the colder ocean temperatures at depth compared to the surface temperature.
In early 2020, funds overseen by Sunstone Management became a Seatrec investor and a partner in the development process. The COVID-19 pandemic stalled that process, but Dr. Chao persevered, developing self-powering floats with sensor systems that allow for ocean data collection. That data is used for weather forecasting, ocean floor mapping whale monitoring and more.
A P3 Model
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have shown significant interest in Dr. Chao’s work at Seatrec. There have been research contracts to advance power generation for both sensors and autonomous underwater vehicles.
A partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School showed it was possible to collect acoustic data in real time with underwater drones powered by Seatrec floats. More recently, an agreement with Sea-Bird Scientific will have Seatrec build floats for the international Argo Program to monitor ocean ecosystems and health.
This activity is supported partially with a State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) guaranteed loan to Seatrec from American Lending Center Holdings, Sunstone’s sister company. The infusion of capital at the beginning of 2024 was one of the first loans approved for the California Climate Tech Finance program.
Today, Seatrec’s InfiniTE™ float is operating in multiple sites, providing the power to collect important information autonomously.
Lair East Labs
A group of entrepreneurs with significant expertise in Asian markets came together in 2017 to found Lair East Labs (LEL) in New York City. LEL was designed to be an accelerator to help startups expand business along the East Coast and internationally – they did such a good job that Crunchbase put LEL on its list of the Top 100 Accelerators in 2019.
We at Sunstone were watching, and reached out to start working together in 2022. I was in the Big Apple in 2023 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the amazing Michelle Wang, LEL’s managing partner.
Later that same year, LEL became a certified accelerator in the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s (NJEDA’s) NJ Accelerate program. That meant that startups graduating from LEL’s accelerator program and locating in New Jersey were eligible for financial support – yet another example of our public-private partnership (P3) approach.
More recently, LEL has created a two-way pipeline for Asian startups. Partnering with Meet Startups in Taiwan, LEL has gone to the island three times to work with 11 Taiwanese startups. Teams have a chance to win a round-trip ticket to New York, with interview opportunities and connecting with LEL resources.
One success, a company called Airtree, already has come out of that program. The Aeroponics developer has plans for a U.S. base to grow vegetables, and has become part of the LEL accelerator.
The Sunstone Way
Both Seatrec and Lair East Labs are examples of how partnerships – particularly public-private partnerships – can generate success. It has been a real pleasure to play a small role in that success in both cases. Developing partnerships, developing friendships, develops community.
And that’s truly the Sunstone Way!
Remember, always be a Sunstone. It’s the gooooal!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone
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Sunstone Investment Group, headquartered in Southern California, is the holding company for the Sunstone family of entities, including: Sunstone Investment Management Services, responsible for administrative services; Sunstone Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser, which oversees Sunstone Venture Partners LLC, a private capital fund manager; Sunstone Cities, a government economic development consulting firm; and Sunstone Community Fund, a charitable organization that supports entrepreneurship. Sunstone is dedicated to enriching lives through investment, entrepreneurship, and community. Email us at contact@sunstoneinvestment.com.
©Sunstone, 2026
Disclosure: Seatrec is a Sunstone Investment Group portfolio company. This blog is for informational purposes only and its contents should not be construed as a recommendation. The information on this social media site alone cannot, and should not be used in making investment decisions. Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses associated with any investment.