Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
We’re in New York City this week, celebrating Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Month with Lair East Labs, one of the top 100 business accelerators in the world, according to Crunchbase.
It is an auspicious occasion, as this evening (May 17) we and the principals of Lair East Labs – Michelle Wang and Jie Li – sign a five-year partnership agreement to support 50 or more startup companies going through the LEL accelerator. We began working with Michelle and Jie last year, and the partnership has grown and blossomed.
The timing of this agreement couldn’t be better, coming in the middle of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Month. Lair East Labs is well-known for its extensive network of connections internationally, opening markets in Asia and elsewhere to its cohort members. Asian immigrants themselves, Michelle and Jie work hard to enrich the startup community in general and the AANHPI community in particular.
Heck, Jie even got to ring the Nasdaq stock exchange opening bell on Friday as part of the Gold House Heritage Month ceremony!
Growing The Community
As mentioned last week, AANHPI will be 29% of the population in 2025 (the second largest segment based on ethnicity) and grow to be 36% by 2055 (and 38% in 2065). The Hispanic community is the largest segment of the population now at 43%, but that percentage shrinks as the years go by, with the AANHPI community taking the top spot between 2045 and 2055.
While that population is spread out across the entire country, the vast majority live in two areas – New York City and the California coast. It is key to the Sunstone Way to continue to grow the startup community in a bi-coastal way, and our partnership with the AANHPI community makes that possible.
This newly expanded agreement with Lair East Labs will help strengthen the startup community here, there, and across the world. Lair East Labs is known for its extensive international connections, particularly in Asia, and we’re honored to be a part of that.
Our community is expanding, and our involvement is bettering the community. That’s the Sunstone Way.
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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.