Thanks to all the startups, angel investors, founders, venture capital, speakers, and friends who attended the first Startup Game Changer Summit in City of Garden Grove!

Sponsored by Sunstone Management and hosted by the City of Garden Grove, the event attracted 100+ local startup founders, investors, and friends.

Attendees had the opportunity to boost their startups, build new relationships with other founders and investors, learn the latest growth strategies, and get inspired to tackle the new year.

Mayor Steve Jones, an advocate of small business and entrepreneurship, kicked off the day with a friendly welcoming speech. Attendees also enjoyed remarks from Shankar Ram of TiE Global and TiE Socal Angels, Anshuman Sinha and Ashish Saboo of Startup Steroid, as well as Sponsor John Keisler of Sunstone Management.

Attendees were treated to expert panels on many topics important to startup founders. These included Legal Basics (both Corporate and Intellectual Property Law) with attorneys Azad Virk of the Stradling Law Firm and Kanika Radhakrishnan of Evergreen Valley Law Group.

Game Changer speakers Annie Qi, Strategy Consultant, SBDC Digital Marketing Lab; Tracie Dean Ponder, Founder, Learn Collaborate, Founder / Executive Director, B~STEM Project; David Friedman, Chairman, Tech Coast Angels, Managing Director, C-Level Partners; and JJ Richa, CEO, Pismo Ventures spoke about how customer focus and feedback is critical to early stage startup success.

Jerry Heikens gave a well received talk about "Breaking the Ice with Investors" to help first-time founders learn how to find and build relationships with angel investors and venture capital firms.

OC Startup Council CEO Scott Fox helped moderate the afternoon, including moderating the Legal Basics panel and a Fireside Chat with local founder and investor, Joshua Y. Lee. 

The event included exhibit booths from local startups and services, so the networking was excellent. 

Among the invited were many angel and VC investors interested in meeting entrepreneurs, researching new ventures and technology, and finding promising early stage investment opportunities.

Attendees enjoyed building new relationships and had a friendly after party at Steelcraft, a fun outdoor venue across the street in Garden Grove, too. 

Congratulations and thank you to the OC Startup Council, Startup Steroid and JTH Strategies for hosting this exciting in-person conference focused on helping emerging startup CEOs gain insights, scale their business, and access funding opportunities!

Mark your calendar to join us again on JUNE 20 2023 for Startup Game Changer Part 2!