UCI Beall Applied Innovation celebrated its 5 year anniversary and the Grand Opening of its new building!

On a typically beautiful Orange County evening hundreds of guests recently gathered on the UC-Irvine campus for the grand opening of the new and improved UCI Applied Innovation at the Cove building.

The new 100,000-plus-square-foot facility is in the UCI Research Park in buildings that formerly housed the corporate headquarters of Broadcom.  It offers specially-designed spaces to accommodate entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, startups and Orange County’s vibrant business and innovation communities.

The standing room only crowd was treated to tours of the new facility, videos on the massive video wall, snacks, and of course lots of mingling.

Executive Director Richard Sudek introducing the Cove

The activities and resources available at the new Cove were explored in speeches from Richard Sudek, Chief Innovation Officer of UC Irvine, Howard Gillman, the Chancellor of the campus, and Don Beall of the Beall Family which has donated so generously to support innovation and entrepreneurship activities at UCI.

UCI Benefactor Don Beall

UCI VIPs including an Aardvark

The building includes the new non-profit University Lab Partners, the first wet lab co-working style incubator space in Orange County for life sciences companies.  It is also home to the Wayfinder startup incubator for UCI student ventures and the regular meeting place of Orange County's well-known Tech Coast Angels startup investing group.

Scott Fox of OCSC with Richard Sudek, UCI Chief Innovation Officer & Executive Director of UCI Applied Innovation

Visitors to the new building were pleased and impressed.  Everything was shiny and new and there was obviously a lot of thought given to accommodating the needs of young companies and their supporters.  This includes offices and meeting rooms of many sizes and the very impressive event space called "The Beach".

The Cove's "Beach" theme was showcased in decor throughout the building, as well as by giving guests the opportunity to sign a commemorative surf board.

Highlights of the new 100,000 square foot innovation hub:

The Beach: A purpose-built event space that can accommodate over 300 guests and features 180 degrees of seamless display technology that can easily play content in any configuration.

Venture Cove (formerly the Screening Room): A dedicated pitching, screening and presentation space that features a high-resolution, wall-size screen and seating for up to 200 guests, combined.

Longboard Lounge and Tiki Bar: A relaxed space that can be used to entertain guests or serve as a space for poster sessions, complete with a wet bar and indoor and outdoor seating.

Makerspace: The Cove offers entrepreneurs the space and equipment to build prototypes. From 3D printers and laser cutters to soldering equipment and power tools.

Wayfinder Workspace: A large open coworking space – complete with desks and lounge seating designed to accommodate the 40-plus Wayfinder teams that conduct startup-related activities at the Cove @ UCI.

It was great a great party that highlighted how UCI is supporting our local innovation ecosystem.

Thanks to UCI Applied Innovation Executive Director Richard Sudek and his team for opening the building to the public for this gala event, and to the Beall family for its on-going generous support of entrepreneurship at UC-Irvine. 

UCI Beall Applied Innovation Receives $50K in Funding from U.S. Small Business Administration

UCI Beall Applied Innovation recently received $50,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in support of women-led startup companies. 

The funds will be used to help educate and encourage women entrepreneurs to apply for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) funds.

“The SBA is a strong ally to startups and an important partner to us in our goal to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the STEM field,” said Richard Sudek, UCI Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of UCI Beall Applied Innovation. “We’re thankful to the SBA, especially our local representatives, for these funds to support women-led startups and keep moving the needle forward.”

With the funds, Applied Innovation aims to implement training and educational SBIR/STTR programs to further support women-led startup companies, as well as provide personalized mentoring, review and feedback on proposal development, facilitate meetings with federal agencies and industry representatives to pitch to investors, among much more services.

“The awarding of these funds are the latest example of SBA’s commitment to collaborating with UCI Beall Applied Innovation,” said SBA Acting District Director Christopher Lorenzana. “We’re big advocates of their efforts to support job creation and economic growth through their numerous programs, including the SBA-powered SBDC @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation, and their relentless drive in leading the cultivation of a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem in Orange County.”

Applied Innovation is one of 60 growth accelerators who received a portion of $3 million in total from SBA’s Growth Accelerator Fund, which focuses on growing startup companies and STEM-focused entrepreneurs.

Read more about Applied Innovation’s programs.

This article reprinted with permission from UCI Beall Applied Innovation. Written by Jackie Connor.

The Tech Coast Angels latest Face to Face with Investors event was a crowded, educational success once again.

Last Wednesday almost 200 local entrepreneurs, startup investors, and friends gathered at UCI Applied Innovation for TCA’s semi-annual startup investing event.

The evening began with keynote speech by valuation expert and “Super Angel” David Berkus. He covered the basics of valuing early-stage startups month including some of the details of his world famous “Berkus Method” for valuing companies.

Organizing host Ray Chan then welcomed everyone to the event and outlined the agenda designed to maximize educational opportunities for local startup founders.

Grant Van Cleve, the Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels shared an overview of the organization's recent growth and success.  This included announcement of the organization hitting two impressive milestones recently:  400 members and over 400 companies supported with investments. 

Valuation expert Mark Goshgarian of KPMG gave a talk about 409A valuations, and the many pitfalls they can present to unprepared startup companies and their investors. 

Hicham Semaan, the President of Tech Coast Angels Orange County moderated a panel about valuation.  Seasoned investor experts Dave Berkus, David Friedman, Hans Imhof, Howard Mirowitz, and Tony Wang shared their opinions, war stories, and advice about startup investing valuations to help the many entrepreneurs in the audience.

That was followed by a lively angel investor version of “The Startup Price is Right”.  Hosted by OC Startup Council CEO Scott Fox, four Orange County startup founders were given the opportunity to pitch their businesses to the panel. After offering metrics of their success to date and future revenue projections, the panel weighed in with its opinions about appropriate valuation for the company.

The winner of the contest of the friendly contest was Mike Huck of SubSync, an early stage company based in Irvine that offers specialized staff scheduling software for the Health & Wellness Industry.  SubSync won because their valuation estimate was the closest to that offered by the panel of valuation veterans.

After the Price Is Right concluded the attendees split off into five different breakout sessions.  These small discussion groups were focused around different industry verticals and investing topics. They gave the entrepreneurs in the audience a chance to ask questions directly of the dozens of Tech Coast Angels members and investors in attendance.  

The breakout sessions included a well-attended one for women entrepreneurs hosted by female Tech Coast Angels members.

Thanks to the Tech Coast Angels, UCI Applied Innovation, and especially to volunteer host Ray Chan and his team from The Portal.io, including Ziling Jia, Kenneth Sann, and Justine Young, for a great event.

Entrepreneurs across Orange County are already looking forward to the next one!

For more information on joining Tech Coast Angels as an accredited investor go here.

For information about applying to Tech Coast Angels for funding go here.

To learn about joining the OC Startup Council go here.