Our good friends at CoFounders Crunch helped us poll the group and crunch the numbers, and what we found, was that our group’s economic impact on the region is even more significant than we realized. See the infographic we created below, and join us on 9/3 to talk about it!
Hi, Friends!
I’m excited to announce the amazing community leaders we’re honoring at the next event. See their info below and please support everything they do! They are an impressive group of folks on all accounts, but also please remember that they are being honored because of their amazing work in OUR community. For that reason, I included a link to each of their local groups they run. Please join and support their groups!
Tweet: Community Leaders Being Honored at next @805startups
Honoree Bios:
Kyle Ashby – StartupSB
Kyle Ashby is an entrepreneur, community builder, startup advisor and avid explorer who never sits still. The founder of Kaldera, an advisory firm that focuses on strategy, innovation, growth and community building, Kyle works with other entrepreneurs, startups, companies and organizations. He is also the Co Founder of the Impact Hub Santa Barbara, a creative workspace for entrepreneurs making change (opening at the end of 2015), and the fire-starter behind StartupSB, a 1500+ member entrepreneurial network that connects central coast entrepreneurs, startups, investors and resources. He also founded Travel in Central America, a company providing unique travel experiences (like baseball team tours) in Central America. He was part of the founding team of BrandLive (an interactive video platform) and Mobile Corporation. He’s also worked in executive, marketing and project management roles with a number of multinational companies and technology startups. As a Startup America Champion and Startup Weekend Global facilitator, Kyle has visited and interacted with 100’s of startup communities in the US and the World and has coordinated events from Australia to Aspen as well as all of the Startup Weekend Santa Barbara events. Kyle has also taught classes in marketing, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the Technology Management Program at the University of California and at Antioch University Santa Barbara. He has an MBA from Babson College and undergraduate degrees in Film Studies and Geography from UC Santa Barbara.
Daniel Ball – Westlake Village Lean Startup Meetup
Daniel Ball is an expert in early-stage product development and strategic marketing, and teaches a variety of programs in the startup community including entrepreneurship at UCLA Extension and 3 years of running intensive programs for entrepreneurs in Santa Monica through the Startup Next organization. Startup Next is a global, pre-accelerator program affiliated with Startup Weekend, Google for Entrepreneurs, and is now part of the Techstars global brand. As the Los Angeles City Coordinator for Startup Next, he has personally worked with over 50 startups to develop their product or business ideas and help prepare them for pitching to investors or accelerator programs, bringing in mentors from the startup community. He has an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a Bachelors of Science in Business from UC Berkeley.
Vanessa Ting is a former corporate executive and now an entrepreneur and leader in women’s venture development.
As a former Retail Buyer for Target Corporation and marketer for Neutrogena, Vanessa Ting now helps consumer brands strengthen their appeal to major retail buyers nationwide through two businesses, Buyerly.com and Retail Path. Over her career, she has brought dozens of products to market for brands such as Neutrogena, Listerine, Church & Dwight, as well as items sold at Target, Walmart, CVS, Kroger, and more.
Her companies are guided by her passion for cultivating women-led businesses. Her work in venture development advances women entrepreneurship by supplying resources and education to foster long-term growth, as well as to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs. She leads women in STEM initiatives in Ventura County and is an advocate of the Conejo Valley startup ecosystem.
Vanessa holds a BA from University of Southern California and an MBA from Georgetown University. She has 16+ years of marketing and retail experience and now operates two companies – Retail Path, a retail consulting firm, and award-winningBuyerly, a B2B website that connects retail buyers and emerging consumer brands for product feedback and wholesale orders.
Sean Bhardwaj is the Founder and CEO of Aspire 3 where he creates programs and partnerships between education, business, government, and community organizations to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. He is also the Executive Director at the Ventura Ventures Technology Center, a business incubator dedicated to growing technology based companies and jobs in Ventura. Sean’s background is in Product Management and Market Development and is the Chair of the Social Justice Fund for Ventura County, and involved with the Ventura County Civic Alliance and the Youth Council of the Workforce Investment Board of Ventura County. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Global Marketing and Consumer Behavior from the University of Southern California.