The Accelerator, announced in early 2019, also recently onboarded a new executive director. Andrea White-Kjoss, co-founder and chief operating officer at ExtraVallis, a seed-stage global funding platform that connects investors and startups, ascended to that role July 20. White-Kjoss is also a new member of the city’s Technology and Innovation Commission; her first term began Sept. 15. In an interview with Techwire, she said she learned of the opportunity through an associate who is also on the commission, and she pointed out that by starting her first technology company there, she was well-acquainted with the city.
“I want to say the city is big enough to matter but small enough to get things done,” White-Kjoss said. Among the takeaways:
- One of White-Kjoss’ immediate focuses, and that of the Accelerator as well, is standing up its first cohort of technology startups. The Accelerator announced it would begin accepting applications for the first cohort during the third week of October; the application period closes Dec. 15. Following a selection process that will run through mid-January, the inaugural cohort will begin in early February. Interested entities can apply at lbaccelerator.org. The first and second cohorts, she said, will remain “pretty small at five to seven companies” each, with the goal being to provide each successful candidate with “a lot of individualized attention.”
- It’s not yet known what startups will join the cohort but generally, the executive director said, the Accelerator will work to leverage “what have been and will continue to be strength areas and growth areas in the industries that we focus on,” including aerospace, health tech, supply chain logistics, clean tech, education tech and cybersecurity.” There’s a lot of “high-tech business-to-business (B2B),” she said, but officials will consider “a wide range of startups if we think we can add value. That’s the key.”
- The new executive director is, however, also focused on the larger task of building out the infrastructure or ecosystem necessary to move startups through the program to what comes next. White-Kjoss said she’s working to tap into the city’s resources around corporate partnership, and “helping connect our startup companies with those corporates where they might be able to develop pilots, use cases, that sort of thing. Maybe ultimately, ideally, customers and potential strategic partners.” There’s a lot more to build, she said, working with investors, corporate partners and innovators. Working somewhat separately from investment company Sunstone Management — the Accelerator’s third partner along with the city and Cal State Long Beach’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship — White-Kjoss said officials are looking at funding sources for the Accelerator that could include state and federal grants, earned income and corporate sponsorships.
- COVID-19, White-Kjoss said, has pushed back the Accelerator’s effort “probably at least six months,” but its work is “a really important initiative to push out during the pandemic.” In “normal times,” she said, small businesses “accrue” roughly two-thirds of net-new jobs and job creation, but after the 2008 recession, they accounted for about 75 percent of all net new job growth.
“So, that’s an interesting observation that small businesses appear to be more resilient and nimble and enable us to pick our economy back up more quickly than perhaps large corporates,” she said. In its publication Wednesday, on “The 2021-22 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook,” the state Legislative Analyst’s Office indicated stock markets are doing well, noting: “A key driver of rising stock prices has been the continued success of many companies in the technology sector — including several headquartered in California — throughout the pandemic.”
