Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
Let’s continue to explore why we do what we do – enrich lives through investment – and how we do it.
Here at Sunstone Management, we are building something lasting. We are building a great company where we love to come to work.
We love to come to work because we are helping to make our community — and our world — a better place to live. And the key to our success is our relentless focus on the health of people, the economy, and the world we all live in. That’s apparent in our three-pronged investment philosophy. Our investments are Founder Focused, Market Modern, and Sustainable.
What That Means
When I say Founder Focused, I mean that we invest our time in finding the people that we think have the greatest probability of building great companies that will make the world a better place. These people have passion, experience, and a burning desire to solve challenging problems that will have a generational impact.
Market Modern is a word we use to describe technology that will modernize or improve the way we are currently doing business — regardless of the sector — from transportation to medical breakthroughs to financial management. Yes, Artificial Intelligence is a part of many startups these days, and we are searching for ways that it can modernize existing markets to make them cleaner, safer, and more efficient.
Being Sustainable is key to one of our greatest investment goals – to have a long-term impact on the world, even beyond our lifetime. Good companies become great when they impact multiple generations and there is no greater challenge facing future generations than climate change, which impacts access to clean air, water, energy, and the environment. I find it particularly exciting that Sunstone invests in technology solutions that address climate change and promote environmental sustainability for the next generation.
Two Shining Examples
Two of our partner companies, Evolectric and Seatrec, are hard at work making our world a little less dependent on fossil fuel.
We met Evolectric when founders Bill Beverley and Jakson Alvarez participated in the Long Beach Accelerator. They have come up with a way to retrofit old diesel cargo trucks to run on electricity. That not only reduces engine emissions, it also avoids the need to find a way to dispose of old trucks.
Evolectric has made Long Beach its home, and expects to be able to take advantage of the huge number of trucks carrying cargo to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles – combined, the largest port complex on the West Coast, and the largest in the country. Evolectric’s vision is to retrofit old tractor chassis, and they now have a shop in operation that we think could someday help make the air cleaner and environment better for the residents who live near the port and freeways in north Long Beach.
Seatrec founder Yi Chao, Ph.D., has been working with Sunstone for several years. He and his partners envision a way to generate electricity – energy harvesters – that use changes in ocean temperatures at different depths.
The technology seeks to power platform sensors in the middle of the ocean, recharge research submersibles and more. If Seatrec’s vision is realized, charging stations will be able to be located far from land worldwide.
Evolectric and Seatrec, as well as their founders, are living Sunstones, making their communities and the world better in a Founder Focused, Market Modern and Sustainable way.
That’s the Sunstone Why, and The Sunstone Way.
As always, be a Sunstone!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Note: We refer to early-stage technology entrepreneurs as Founders. Information provided here is to inform about the types of small business start-ups that have been selected for participation in certain programs in which Sunstone participates. Information provided here is aspirational and there is no assurance of success. Early-stage investing comes with an inherently high degree of risk. The information provided is neither an offer to sell or an inducement to offer to buy interests in any Sunstone sponsored fund that may have invested in the Founder.
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More About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital sponsor firm located in Southern California that invests in diverse early-stage technology entrepreneurs who seek to build great companies. We believe in the aspirational power of the American economy to attract and inspire investors and entrepreneurs from throughout the world. We deliver new and exciting opportunities for economic growth through the creation of innovative public-private partnerships, and our unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row.
© Sunstone Management Inc.