Madison Aument
For 91.9 KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument. This is Economics IE. Today I’m talking with Rosibel Ochoa, who is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Partnerships at UC Riverside. Ochoa runs the Inland SoCal Accelerate Hub that is working to help entrepreneurs in the region. I want to start with, you know where the idea for the inland SoCal accelerate hub came from
Rosibel Ochoa
So the SoCal hub is a designation from the state of California. The state of California has an initiative that is called inclusive accelerate hubs, and in which they designate regions around the state in which they want to allocate resources and bring attention to those regions. So then these regions can grow and diversify their economy based on innovation. So the SoCal Hub… the idea came from an application that in my my office did to the state of California, so we can receive a designation from the state.
Madison Aument
Why did your office feel like this was an important thing for our region to have?
Rosibel Ochoa
Yes, that's a very important question. So my office has been working on building the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Inland Southern California now for eight years. So we have put together a whole portfolio of programs around entrepreneurship that helps community and academic, entrepreneurs and innovators start companies. And so for eight years, we have built that platform right in which you know you have an idea, you come to our office and we give you the resources that you need to grow your company, from mentorship, from capital, from training. So after eight years of working in building that infrastructure, we have seen some successes, and we have received traction, and yet I believe the region doesn't have the recognition and the visibility that it deserves as a place of innovation. So this designation means that you know…like we have arrived, right? We are here. We are a place that is full of creative people, entrepreneurial talent, and we deserve investment. And we deserve the visibility and recognition that we merit.
Madison Aument
Can you talk about some of the successes you've had?
Rosibel Ochoa
I'll give you several. So in general, and first, let's start with numbers, right? So since we started over years ago, we have worked with over 700 different technology startups in the region. Wow, we have worked with over 10,000 students from UCR that want to create ideas. We have helped our companies that we supported raise close to $90 million in capital, all from outside the region, primarily, and in terms of a now specific example, last year, we launched the commercialization of a new avocado variety called Luna UCR. And this avocado variety, launched by our office, was designated as one of the top 200 inventions in 2023 by Time Magazine. We also work with a company that is called Edge Sound Research. These are students that came from the School of Music and the school of business that are developing a new technology that, imagine, that allows you to feel sound, and this technology can be used in stadiums like the NBA and the, you know, the baseballs, so that the fans can actually feel what it's like to be on the arena, right? So that came out of us. And we have many more that we're working towards, some earlier, some later, but that's part of the exciting part of our job.
Madison Aument
I know there's some grants available. Can you talk about those?
Rosibel Ochoa
Yeah, so the so the access to capital, and in the article that that was published, it mentions that one of the top priorities for the hub is connecting companies to capital, and that's a major the whole community, which we have by now, 23 partners, have identified access to capital as a major challenge for our startups, and we agree. So there are grants, so there are two areas of focus for the hub. One is access and connecting the companies to the, what is called the Small Business Innovation Research grants. This is a $4 billion funding opportunity that the federal government has across multiple federal agencies in which you can receive between, you know, from 50 to a few million dollars. That's what we call non diluted grants. That is a grant that you apply. That's one piece of capital, but the other piece of capital is venture capital, investment capital, right? That that private investors, angels allocate into a company in exchange for ownership. What happens with these technology companies, and we're calling deep tech right, is that these companies need to raise multiples of millions of dollars through the development so a $50,000 grant can take you so far. You need to do this multiple rounds through the life of the company to develop and get to market. And that's what we want to really focus on. It's not just a little grant in the beginning. It's really the whole journey to market and and that requires staying power. It requires vision. Vision and strategy.
Madison Aument
Is the hope that one these entrepreneurs stay in the area and then to create jobs that maybe aren't just logistics jobs?
Rosibel Ochoa
Yes, that's the ultimate goal. Is it to create enough critical mass of those innovative companies that are here, that are growing here, that learning have then created jobs, direct jobs, for their companies, but also they have a spillover effect, right? That there's all these supporting all small businesses that around them that also are growing because of their presence. So is, if we have to go beyond one. It's critical mass. So it's about the numbers as well. And we are a big region, right? So we need to think about how we not only focus on a particular geographical area, but the whole of Inland.
Madison Aument
Well, is there anything I missed? Are there any questions I didn't ask?
Rosibel Ochoa
I think that for your listeners, especially if you listen to have ideas, right ideas, or they said, Well, I would like to find out more about, how can I start my own business? Because a small business I start my business is a Path to Wealth, creation and prosperity, right? So contact us. You know on otp.ucr.edu, and get involved, but also, if you are a seasoned entrepreneur, or a business person, or a person that already has a lot of experience in creating business, we would like for you to be involved. You know, we need mentors, we need advisors, we need investors. So this is a community, right? Enterprise. This is really all hands on deck. And if we could actually use the hub to gather and encourage people from the region to be engaged in this type of activities, I think that would be great.
Madison Aument
Join us again next Monday for Economics IE. You can find this segment and others on our website, at kvcrnews.org/econie. Support for this segment comes from the Nowak Family for KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument.