FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2016
Contact: Candice Conti
805-756-5171; clconti@calpoly.edu
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) will host a grand opening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, to celebrate its new 15,000-square-foot SLO HotHouse location in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo.
The SLO HotHouse is a collaborative effort with the county, city and local business community aimed at supporting innovators and entrepreneurs to build a unique startup culture in San Luis Obispo County.
“The grand opening of the SLO HotHouse is a major investment in the future of San Luis Obispo that will benefit our community for generations,” said CIE Executive Director Tod Nelson. “Working with our partners in the county, city, and the business community, the possibilities are limitless. Increasing economic development opportunities will have a ripple effect across our region.”
Attendees to the grand opening celebration will tour the biggest tech startup community in San Luis Obispo and have the opportunity to speak to the innovative individuals in the SLO HotHouse Incubator, a two-year program for Cal Poly students and recent graduates devoted to transforming their businesses from startup to sustainable.
Entrepreneurs can also learn about all the CIE programs and resources available to them at SLO HotHouse. They include the new business incubator — now open to community startups, expanded co-working services, and the Small Business Development Center, which helps startups and established companies launch businesses, attract capital investment, and create jobs.
“The partnership the county has made with the SLO HotHouse is even more important now, in the light of the announced closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant,” said County Supervisor Adam Hill. “Everyone we speak to is very pleased to know we are working together to help young companies.”
Heritage Oaks Bank is sponsoring the event. The public is invited to the SLO HotHouse Grand Opening at 872 Higuera St., directly above the Ross Dress for Less store. Advance registration is required. To register, go to https://slohothousegrandopening.eventbrite.com.
For more information on the SLO HotHouse programs and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, visit cie.calpoly.edu.
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About the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The CIE opens a world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students, faculty and community members by promoting entrepreneurial activity and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County. For more information, go to cie.calpoly.edu.
About the SLO HotHouse
The SLO HotHouse is a community space created through the efforts of Cal Poly and the city and county of San Luis Obispo, the business community, and the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The goal of the SLO HotHouse is to support students and community members create new innovations and start business ventures.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) has accepted eight startup companies into this year’s SLO HotHouse Summer Accelerator program, an intense 13-week program designed for students and recent graduates who have developed new ventures and want help making them succeed.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO — An interdisciplinary team of four Cal Poly students earned the $15,000 first-place prize in Cal Poly’s 13th annual Innovation Quest (iQ) Competition for their startup Mantis Composites, a company that is developing carbon fiber 3-D printing technology to provide full service design-to-manufacturing of high performance materials for automotive, aerospace and biomedical applications.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO — Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and Extended Education are accepting applications for Launch It!, a five-day summer entrepreneurship camp for kids in grades five through eight.
Students in the Launch It! program will be introduced to the concept of innovation and entrepreneurship in a fun and engaging way. Through hands-on, team-based activities, students will learn about the process of customer development, marketing and basic finance. They will learn how to identify and solve problems, build a prototype, and pitch a product.
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Three new companies have finished the SLO HotHouse Incubator, a Cal Poly program designed to take businesses from the startup stage to gaining a foothold in the marketplace.
The two-year program is run by the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The businesses are: Boost Acquisition, a data analytics company targeting the auto industry;MegaMatter, a chemical company developing effective, nontoxic flame retardants; and Moja Outdoors, a website that focuses on content and community that drive retail experiences.
Boost Aquisition, based in San Luis Obispo, employs one full-time employee and six full-time contractors; MegaMatter of San Luis Obispo has two full-time and two part-time workers; Moja Outdoors, which has not officially set up headquarters, has two full-time employees and two part-time contractors.
The Tribune | by NICK WILSON
The Innovation Quest finalists have been announced. Check out the following list and find out who will be competing for the $15,000 grand prize in the spring:
Brandplug: Software that allows marketers to pay social media celebrities for promotion in content on their social media accounts based on the amount of impressions or engagements their promotional content generates.
Bubble: A mobile app that aims to provide quick, once a day exercises to help users increase real interactions with family, friends, and strangers as well as develop a healthier state of mind.
Current: To prevent sexual assault on college campuses, Current has developed a phone case with a built-in stun gun that automatically calls the police, texts a user’s emergency contacts, and activates the phone’s video camera to identify suspects afterward.
DroneFox: Employing a hierarchy of countermeasures, DroneFox detects, identifies, and intercepts unauthorized drones.
Hemp-Shiv Nanoparticle Composite Insulating Material: We are creating a hemp-shiv nanoparticle insulating material that is both carbon-negative and carbon sequestering, that can replace current insulation in commercial and residential projects.
Mantis Composites: Provides a full service design-to-testing platform that allows our customers to create a new era of high performance machines and devices with stronger, lighter, and more intricate composite parts than current technologies allow.
ObserVR: A virtual reality application that allows a user to stream multiple 2D videos in a 3D environment, creating an immersive experience by allowing them to self-producing gameplay and increasing their interaction with what they’re watching.
Pivot: We are helping independent sustainable waste management firms lower fuel costs and increase operational efficiency with a smart network of dumpster volume sensors paired with GIS-powered route optimization software.
Quench: The only company that keeps customers fully hydrated without adding any contaminants to your water, we track hydration with our smartphone app and a revolutionary water displacement disc that measures the amount of water leaving your bottle
Saffron: A mobile app regional marketplace that allows experienced and qualified chefs to connect and sell their specialty, homemade creations with foodies looking for the most delicious and exciting food trends.
Smart Irrigation: We are revolutionizing wine-grape growing by reducing water consumption and simultaneously improving crop quality by providing growers with a smart network of soil moisture probes and precision valves all in pursuit of making the best bottle of wine.
U-Farm: The U-Farm is a fully-automated and sustainable vertical farm for urban environments.
Contact: Candice Conti
805-756-5171;clconti@calpoly.edu
SAN LUIS OBISPO — Three new companies recently graduated from the SLO HotHouse Incubator, a Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) program devoted to taking businesses from startup to sustainable.
“CIE provides a structured, two-year program for startups to receive individual coaching from subject-matter expert mentors, including assistance with product development and business management,” said Judy Mahan, CIE incubator director. “CIE has worked closely with these startups to move them through the commercialization process and successfully launch.”
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Entrepreneurship was once an opportunity accessible only to men. Save for a handful of audacious women who defied such strict gender codes, most females historically failed to break through the barriers of the male-dominated business space. But we live in the 21st century now, an era in which women are a powerful force in society, especially in our economy.
Today, it is not only common for women to be entrepreneurs, but it also means being part of an influential group. According to an American Express OPEN-commissioned report, more than 9.4 million women-owned businesses currently operate in the U.S. Combined, those firms account for nearly a third of all privately held companies, pull in annual revenues to the tune of $1.5 trillion and provide jobs to roughly eight million workers. What’s more, they’re among the fastest-growing enterprises in the nation — increasing at a rate 1.5 times the U.S. average and topping “the growth rates of all but the largest, publicly-traded firms” in the past 18 years.
WalletHub | by Richie Bernardo
View Article
Entrepreneurship was once an opportunity accessible only to men. Save for a handful of audacious women who defied such strict gender codes, most females historically failed to break through the barriers of the male-dominated business space. But we live in the 21st century now, an era in which women are a powerful force in society, especially in our economy.
Today, it is not only common for women to be entrepreneurs, but it also means being part of an influential group. According to an American Express OPEN-commissioned report, more than 9.4 million women-owned businesses currently operate in the U.S. Combined, those firms account for nearly a third of all privately held companies, pull in annual revenues to the tune of $1.5 trillion and provide jobs to roughly eight million workers. What’s more, they’re among the fastest-growing enterprises in the nation — increasing at a rate 1.5 times the U.S. average and topping “the growth rates of all but the largest, publicly-traded firms” in the past 18 years.
WalletHub | by Richie Bernardo
View Article
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Candice Conti
805-756-5171;clconti@calpoly.edu
SAN LUIS OBISPO —SESLOC Federal Credit Union has teamed up with future business leaders as the first corporate sponsor for Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Cal Poly’s CIE is a Learn by Doing experience where students get the tools to develop the skills and cultivate the mindset of an entrepreneur. SESLOC joins the Corporate Founders Circle Sponsorship level with a $25,000 contribution to the center.
“SESLOC has been part of this community since 1942, committed to our educational roots, and this opportunity is in great synergy with our Cal Poly legacy,” said SESLOC President and CEO, Geri LaChance. “We are honored to partner with a program that fosters support for bright, energetic learners.”
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