Continuing our support for #BlackLivesMatter - An article we liked from Founder Institute: Black American Startup Resource List: 200+ Accelerators, Incubators, Investors, and more According to CB Insights data, only one percent of venture capital-backed tech companies are founded by black and African American entrepreneurs. The Founder Institute's mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build... Read more →

OCSC Members - Just a reminder: You can now access TWO more great Member Benefits! Local OC startups can now also get great discounts on HubSpot marketing tools, plus waived fees for life on new corporate credit card accounts from Brex. (Don't forget - this is in addition to huge AWS credits, KPMG accounting services, Rutan & Tucker legal work,... Read more →

Super connector and entrepreneur Sinan Kanatsiz joined Accelerate OC recently. He is currently the CEO of KCOMM, a PR and marketing agency he started over 20 years ago. He’s worked with many of the largest and most prominent companies in Orange County, as well as some of fastest growing and innovative ones. Sinan also founded and is currently Chairman of... Read more →

A Thought Leader article we liked from Nate Dallas of Medium: 15 Startup Tips From 15 Years as an Entrepreneur Here are a few tips that many hustlers never get the opportunity to learn. 1. Sell your first product before you ever build it. All anyone needs to start a new business is a product, a buyer, and a way... Read more →

An article we liked from Thought Leader Abe Othman of AngelList: Innovation isn't Correlated with the Markets AngelList data isn’t the only source that suggests venture returns and the public markets are uncorrelated. Portfolio theory suggests that making investments in uncorrelated assets could substantially lower the risk that investors must shoulder to achieve their desired investment returns. Unfortunately, one well-known... Read more →

A Thought Leader Guest Post from James Lloyd-Townshend, CEO of OCSC Member company Jefferson Frank: Jefferson Frank’s AWS white paper sets a blueprint for start-up cloud mobilization. Recent changes to the way we work have made cloud technology more in-demand than ever, with many start-up businesses now doubling down on a ‘cloud first’ growth plan. James Lloyd-Townshend - CEO at... Read more →

Spencer Rascoff and Carey had a lively conversation about many of the exciting things happening in the LA and Southern California startup community. Spencer has fully immersed himself here and is helping to build it as the next global innovation center. They discussed the many advantages we have here, such as diversity of economy, creativity in abundance, and quality of... Read more →

Brex is the first corporate credit card designed for startups - and you can get one! SPECIAL OFFER: Now OCSC Startup Company Members can get a Brex card for your company with NO FEES for LIFE and great benefits - including up to $5000 in AWS credits! Brex provides corporate cards to startup company founders with no personal guarantee required,... Read more →

The Orange Fellowship is an exciting new two year program for recent college grads who presently work in an Orange County company and want to further develop themselves and their professional networks here. The fellowship will provide quarterly learning opportunities, quarterly social opportunities, networking, skill building, and engagement in the bigger community of Orange County. The overall goal is help... Read more →

A Thought Leader excerpt from Rupert Brenninkmeijer of Medium: How To Run A Growth Experiment Using the G.R.O.W.S method In order to get the most out of your growth strategies, having a clear cut process in running growth experiments is paramount. As long as you approach this with some scientific methods — allowing any test to be analysed from a... Read more →

A Thought Leader Guest Post from David Friedman, President of Tech Coast Angels Orange County: When an Entrepreneur Should Seek Seed Funding As an angel investor, I have been asked numerous times by entrepreneurs: when is the best time to seek seed funding? I tell them it is broken down into two parts. First, they must build awareness for their... Read more →

Fred Haney joined Carey on Accelerate OC and class was in session. He covered some important points for startups, such as what makes a fundable startup, the importance of strong management teams, and even how entrepreneurs need to understand they are competing for investment dollars. He is a private investor and venture capitalist, as both a fund manager and individual... Read more →

A Thought Leader Guest Post from Kevin Ruef of 10-8 Systems: How to Increase your Startup’s Ability to Sell The idea of selling both your product and personal credibility can be daunting for most technical founders, or those with minimal sales experience. And rightfully so, the sales process can be an excruciating process. Most conjure images of used-car salesmen. Although... Read more →

A Thought Leader Guest Post from Girard Miller of Tech Coast Angels Orange County: An Overlooked Resource for Rebuilding Local Economies: Angels Locally focused investors support the innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems that will produce high-paying jobs in the post-pandemic world. Public officials can learn a lot from their angel investors. While the news media and public officials focus on COVID-19’s devastation... Read more →

Dean Kline is the Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of a newer group at USC called Rossier EdVentures, which is an education ecosystem at USC. Carey and Dean talked a fair bit about it and the exciting things Rossier EdVentures is doing to support innovation across the education landscape. Dean is also Co-Founder and Managing Director for Penn Venture Partners,... Read more →

HubSpot is well known for its popular all-in-one CRM, Sales, and Marketing tools that help startups worldwide. Now OCSC Startup Member companies can get a BIG DISCOUNT on HubSpot tools! Use them to help your startup with customer relationship management, social media marketing, content management, lead generation, web analytics, search engine optimization, live chat, and customer support, too. HubSpot for... Read more →

The OC Business Council has compiled a valuable list of helpful local resources for food, veterans, mental health services, senior services, childcare, opportunities to give back and more. Updated weekly, the list is a resource designed to help Orange County residents find the support they need during this challenging #CovidSpring. Visit here to see the May 18 Orange County community... Read more →

An article we liked from Thought Leader Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz: IT’S TIME TO BUILD Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it’s not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it. Many... Read more →

It was a pleasure for Carey to welcome John Bradley Jackson to Accelerate OC. JJ, as his friends call him, is an Investor, Professor at Cal State Fullerton, Author and Startup Adviser. He is the Director of the CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship and he’s also the Director of CSUF Startup Incubator. The CSUF Startup Incubator helps startups validate business models.... Read more →

Steve Pfrenzinger is a successful multi-time entrepreneur, hall of fame angel investor and long-time executive coach specializing in self-awareness and how it can become your X-Factor for success. Currently he is the head coach of the self-awareness mastery series that he’s developed, as well as his own mastermind to work with executives and entrepreneurs. Steve has been coaching for over... Read more →

Orange County technology ecosystem entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply to the National Security Innovation Network's Defense Innovation Accelerator. This is an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to start "dual-use" companies with both military and commercial applications, based on IP from U.S. Department of Defense labs. The NSIN Defense Innovation Accelerator pairs technology developed in Department of Defense (DoD) laboratories with potential... Read more →

Welcome to Intellivision a new Sponsor of the OC Startup Council! Intellivision's mission is to use technology to bring family and friends back together by delivering simple, affordable, family-focused entertainment to everyone. Isn't it true that your fondest memories of playing video games are when you played together in the same room with a group of people? Much has changed... Read more →

A Thought Leader Guest Post from Andrew Chen of Andrewchen.co: Startups are cheaper to build, but more expensive to grow – here’s why: Startups should be getting cheaper to build. After all, the industry’s created several waves of innovation that’s supporting this across multiple layers in the stack: Open source software instead of paid developer tools AWS instead of your... Read more →

Niall McSheffrey is currently Managing Partner at Elementz Ventures, a new VC fund here in SoCal. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in startup investment, product management, application development, and creating digital product strategies and solutions. He moved to Orange County in 2019 and is in the process of raising capital for his first fund.... Read more →

Today we’re profiling VYRL, another exciting Orange County startup active in the local tech startup ecosystem (and an Executive Level Member of the OC Startup Council). Enjoy this exclusive interview with David Perry, CEO of VYRL and Jason Goldberg, President of VYRL to learn more about what they do and how VYRL is growing its business here in Orange County.... Read more →