CSUN Summer Accelerator

CSUN's Innovation ecosystem is based on taking students of diverse backgrounds and interests and uniting them to apply technologies to sustainably resolve commercial and social problems.

1. California State University, Northridge Summer Accelerator as part of a transformative Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

2. Why? Why are start-ups in LA distributed like this? Why does an area that contains about half of the cities population have so few start-ups? Reasonable correlation with University presence Strong correlation with income, ethnicity, & presence of start-up services

3. Funding follows the same pattern Best funded LA Metro Tech start-ups (7/17) CB Insights

4. Adapt or Die

5. For the good of our society and economy, the face of entrepreneurship must change; this requires a new approach

6. Solution: Progressive Engagement 3-Tier Ecosystem where every function is accessible to every CSUN student. Product/Market Fit Execution Inspiration Train students how use technology to solve a problem they care about Hands-on Entrepreneurship training & competitions Practical product development, financial planning and identifying funding sources for execution.

7. 10-Week Summer Accelerator 62 Applicants 24 unique departments across 5 schools Diversity reflecting CSUN students 8 teams selected for 16 paid student assistantships Key Pillars of Program Entrepreneurship Training Expert lectures, videos & Peer-led discussions Market interviews Mentorship Interdisciplinary Teams Patient assist Medical Device Symbolic language app for people with Autism Touchscreen kitchen device for coordinating meal prep Social Networks for improving academic engagement Homebrewer improved temperature control Ultrasonic Radar Blockchain for small business consulting Robot for training teachers of Emotionally Disturbed students

8. Program Deliverables Drive Product Launch Business Model Canvas: 9 Critical elements Weekly presentations of updated interviews Pitch deck Product video Competitive landscape analysis Who is there & what vulnerabilities exist MVP  operation plan  Financial plan Social media posts Satisfaction Survey

9. What is different about this program? How do we define success?

10. Building Emotional Resilience

11. Value Lost: $300 Billion 1 million businesses and 9 million jobs never created; $300 Billion income lost due to un-diversified investment* Racial Diversity at Facebook *Center for Global Policy Solutions 2016 “The Color of Entrepreneurship” Y Combinator reports 19% of their companies have at least one black or hispanic founder; 2018 CSUN Summer Accelerator was 88%

12. Open access drives participation Amazon Alexa Social Entrepreneur Workshop launching November 2018 2017/18 Event Participation