The big day has arrived – Irvine Tech Week starts today, and Sunstone will be front and center.
Before we host the first public event, I’ll be speaking to a group of our partners who will hear about the state of Sunstone and our exciting plans for 2023.
Then we’ll welcome about 150 members of the startup community to hear from a panel of four great founders talking about their past experiences and future plans as the start-up environment evolves, especially in the wake of SVB’s collapse.
But first, I wanted to share some of Sunstone’s news with you. That’s why you’re getting The Sunstone Way a day early this week.
Great In 2022
Sunstone completed its first full year in Irvine in 2022, establishing our headquarters here in late 2021. In that short time, Sunstone Management has become the most active early-stage VC in Irvine according to Pitchbook.
The Sunstone Community Fund was born in 2022 and has already made over $500,000 in grants that will serve as a catalyst to grow university-based programs, develop new early-stage tech accelerators in partnership with local governments, and support diverse startup founders.
Going Forward
We started 2023 with some big agreements essential to the Sunstone Way. We signed on to the Grow Long Beach initiative, which is designed to enrich the community by bringing 100 start-up companies to that city in the next five years. Sunstone Management will be responsible for managing the anticipated $25 million Long Beach Venture fund for this initiative to support early-stage entrepreneurs in their journey.
Just a couple of weeks later, we extended our Memorandum of Agreement with the non-profit Long Beach Accelerator for another five years. That’s an average of 10 startups a cohort twice a year for five years — $1.5 million. In that agreement, we increased our investment commitment to each startup founder joining a cohort to $150,000. Some of that money goes back to LBA in the form of the startup’s registration fee.
Then we went to downtown LA, partnering with the USC Price School of Public Policy to create a challenge for students and local governments to come up with new ways to help cities promote a founder-focused approach to economic development, new business creation, and job growth for their communities. Sunstone Community Fund grant will provide $5,000 cash prizes to the five winning student teams help cover expenses, and keep that effort to create innovative economic development plans going for another five years.
And, in light of the Silicon Valley Bank situation, we have redoubled our efforts to work with our government partners and our founders to help identify adequate working capital to keep our start-ups strong and moving forward.
Please join us at Irvine Tech Week and in the future as we pursue our philosophy of investment, entrepreneurship, and community to make our community a better place to work and live.
Join us on that journey. Make sure you don’t miss the next Sunstone Way. Sign up at http://eepurl.com/dMmV1k.
Let’s make entrepreneurial dreams come true.
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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 in 2022 & 2021.