Welcome back to the Sunstone Way.
Here we are, already in August. Did you know that the first pro football game of the year, the Hall of Fame Game, takes place today, Aug. 6? The Arizona Cardinals and the Carolina Panthers face off in Canton, Ohio.
Back-to-school sales have begun, despite the hot summer temperatures we’re enduring. At most of our partner universities, it’s already late registration time.
Here at Sunstone, we’re helping to plan the many entrepreneurial program partnerships we support, and working to recruit students and partners. The monetary support comes through the Sunstone Community Fund (thanks to John Shen and Stella Zhang), while our teams at Sunstone Cities, Sunstone Venture & Innovation Center and Marketing, Communications and Community Engagement do the hands-on work.
Partnering With Cities
Our first activity this August is an information session for city officials interested in participating in the Sunstone Economic Development Challenge @ USC Price. I freely admit to being biased about this program, which is preparing for its fifth year – I helped start the challenge as a member of the USC City/County Management Fellowship and an alumnus of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.
This challenge is both a win-win and a great example of Public-Private Partnerships (P3), a guiding principle at Sunstone. Graduate students at USC Price get the opportunity to work on real world economic development plans in partnership with municipal officials eager to hear new ideas.
Students are applying to be part of a team now – the incentives include the experience, the connections made and prize money of up to $5,000 next spring, after presentations to a panel of judges. This program works; students get jobs! (Two past participants – Giselle Melendez-Cruz and Hannah Cruz – work at Sunstone now.)
It takes willing government partners to make the Challenge work. The student teams need to work with officials to learn about the municipalities’ needs and resources to come up with a plan. So we are hosting an information session to explain the process to those interested on Friday, Aug. 14.
The Zoom session will explain the logistics of the Challenge and how to apply to become a participating city. In order to register, go to 2026-27 Sunstone Economic Development Challenge @ USC Price – Client City Info Session · Zoom · Luma. For more information about the program, email Hannah Cruz at Hannah.Cruz@SunstoneCities.com.
Partnering With Universities
Our partnership with USC is important, but it is far from our only higher education connection. We started with support for California State University, Long Beach, (we were founded in Long Beach) with a grant to the CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship to coordinate university-based activities across the entire CSU system.
That resulted in the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Competition, which brings teams of entrepreneurs from many of the 23 CSU campuses to compete for up to $200,000 in seed funding each year. The 2027 competition is at San Francisco State University. We’ve also sponsored the CSULB-specific Sunstone Innovation Challenge for a number of years, where CSULB students offer up business ideas in a pitch competition.
One of our founding partners, Stella Zhang, earned her master’s degree at the University of California, Irvine, and now sponsors the Stella Zhang New Venture Competition, a pitch competition at the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business. Sunstone also is a supporter of the UC Irvine ANTrepreneur Center, where entrepreneurs are trained.
While grants from the Sunstone Community Fund are the physical evidence of this university support, our team of experts donate a lot of their time to help these and other programs flourish. I personally love getting the chance to talk to students (I was a teacher once, you know), whether it’s about economic development or starting a business of their own.
It is a privilege to be the private part of the Public-Private Partnership when it comes to helping the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. They are our community’s future. And it is the Sunstone Way!
Remember, always be a Sunstone.
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