Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
As we approach the end of Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Month, I think it is important to note that our commitment to our AANHPI community is a year-round focus. That involvement stretches from many of our tech startup founders, to our investors and to our staff.
We are a diverse company, a diverse group of sister companies. We value each and every one of our partners. The concept of enriching our communities with purpose and fulfillment plays out here every day.
Want an example of that? Visit the new blog by John Shen, my partner and the CEO of sister company American Lending Center. It’s called “Build Your Dream,” and it’s worth your while.
Members of the Sunstone team came with me last week to New York City, where we cemented our partnership with Lair East Labs. That makes Sunstone not only a national player, but puts us even more solidly on the world stage, thanks to Lair East Labs’ strong East Coast and Asian market ties. That complements the doors American Lending Center opens there.
Room For Everyone
While we emphasize our partnerships in the AANHPI community, we have many other partnerships as well. It is my goal to have these many communities working together, creating a better environment for us all.
And it works. We’ve already seen great growth in just the second year of the CSU Startup Challenge, with 18 campuses participating this year. That’s up from five campuses in 2022.
The same is true at the next level – the accelerators. The Long Beach Accelerator continues to grow and get stronger, with founders coming from every sector. We hope to grow community in the same way with Lair East Labs’ renowned accelerator program.
On the municipal level, the Launch Beach campaign in Long Beach is gaining traction too. Sunstone Management and Sunstone Community Fund are two members of an eight-member coalition working to bring 100 new startup companies to the city in the next five years under Mayor Rex Richardson’s leadership. Those coalition members are extremely diverse.
A final stop on our tour of successful diverse community-building has to be the Sunstone Community Fund. In less than a year, the fund has committed over $2M across a number of one-time and multiple-year grants designed specifically to support diverse startup founders at their earliest and most vulnerable stages – diverse in every way.
Did you know you can help build that community with a donation? Check it out here.
Be part of a community that will help shape a new founder focused American economy. 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.