Category: Blog

General Blog Discussion

New SoCal Tech Center to Promote Alternative Fuel & Advanced Vehicles

Posted on February 12, 2014 by - N-News, Blog, Partners, Press Coverage, Programs

Fresh off the wire, and a great win for SoCal…

The California Energy Commission has awarded funds to a consortium of Southern California-based organizations led by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) to establish a Southern California Center for Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Technology. The Center will consist of one virtual hub and two physical locations—one in San Diego, which will be managed by the California Center for Sustainable Energy, and one in Los Angeles, which will be managed by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. The Center will serve the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

“Southern California already boasts tremendous assets in driving the consumer-side of the advanced transportation market,” said Bill Allen, President and CEO, LAEDC. “Our goal with this critically important Center is to also leverage these assets to ensure that we’re a leading developer, designer and producer of these lower-emission technologies to add the high-value jobs and wages as well as the tax revenues that will result from a thriving advanced transportation cluster.”

The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE), a nonprofit organization that administers the statewide Clean Vehicle Rebate Project for the California Air Resources Board, will operate the San Diego Center.  “Southern California already leads the state in the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles, but we are a long way from where we need to be to reach the state’s ambitious goals for reducing petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions,” said CCSE Executive Director Len Hering, RADM, USN (ret.). “These two new centers and the online component will help municipalities, government agencies and industry partners better focus and direct their efforts to grow the market for cleaner transportation throughout the region.”

The Los Angeles Center will be managed by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) at the La Kretz Innovation Campus in downtown Los Angeles. “LACI is thrilled to leverage its incubation programs and state-of-the-art campus to further advance the commercialization of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies in Southern California,” said Fred Walti, Executive Director of LACI. “The deeply committed and capable partners cooperating in this initiative represent an economic development powerhouse.”

“This project will be a great asset for our region,” said Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee. “Not only will they be developing alternative fuels and clean technology, they’ll be creating jobs that will drive economic growth for years to come.”

Additional partners receiving funding include the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center and the Luskin Center for Innovation, Advanced Sustainability Institute, California State University-Los Angeles and the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

The California Energy Commission contract is scheduled to begin in June 2014. The project will also use $1.6 million in matching funds from advanced transportation industry leaders. For more information about the Center, visit www.AdvancedTransportationCenter.org.

About the LAEDC

The LAEDC, the region’s premier economic development leadership organization, is a private, non-profit organization established in 1981 under section 501(c)(3). Its mission is to attract, retain, and grow business and jobs for the regions of Los Angeles County. Since 1996, the LAEDC has helped to retain or attract over 190,000 annual jobs in Los Angeles County with an estimated labor income, including wages and benefits, of approximately $12 billion. Learn more at www.laedc.org.

About the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

LACI is a private nonprofit that accelerates the commercialization of clean technologies in the Los Angeles region. Located in the center of the City’s Cleantech Corridor, LACI offers flexible office space, CEO coaching and mentoring, and access to a robust network of experts and capital. Incubated companies operate in a range of sectors including Smart Grid infrastructure, energy efficiency, energy storage, transportation, and materials science. LACI works closely with the region’s utilities, universities, business community, government institutions and capital markets to foster innovation and to grow the region’s green economy. Learn more at www.newlaci.staging.wpengine.com.

About the California Center for Sustainable Energy

The California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) is an independent, nonprofit organization that accelerates the transition to a sustainable world powered by clean energy. CCSE helps consumers, businesses, governments and others adopt energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transportation technologies. Learn more at www.energycenter.org.

Zen and the art of e-motorbicycle maintenance: creativity, meditation and innovation

Posted on February 2, 2014 by - Blog, Top Menu, Programs

I’d like you to meet the latest addition to the LACI family, Juicer Fine Electric Motorbicycles a talented designer tapping into the growing global electric chopper trend. Certainly all the Silver Lake hipsters hanging at Handsome Coffee Roasters down the road will now have something new to lust after, but beyond it’s obvious Made-in-LA street cred and how incredibly cool we think it is, this is an opportune moment to segue to the topic of creativity and innovation in technology.

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The essence of successful entrepreneurship is defined by creativity (and hard work). Coming up with new ways to solve problems is often the initial impulse to found a startup, and then once underway finding creative ways to marshal the required resources and overcome the obstacles encountered at every turn is what differentiates the winners from the unemployed. However, surviving the Valley of Death and then excelling beyond requires more than just solid intellectual horsepower and analytics, it requires true creativity. Which brings us to the $10,000 question: what is creativity and how do we cultivate it, especially under the high stress conditions a startup entails?

Creativity is the production of something new and original. In general, creativity comes through when we’re relaxed, when the active, analytical part of the brain is superficially focused elsewhere, or obscured/numbed/diverted as so often happens with consciousness altering drugs (alcohol, marijuana, etc), during exercise, when driving or listening to music.  But hard as you may try, you can’t think your way into creative inspiration, it just happens in a flash, a torrential downpour of pure original thought, sometimes as a coherent whole and other times as the seed of an idea that must be nurtured and cultivated and perfected. Lest you think it stops there, though, just having a creative idea isn’t enough, it’s a two part process. After the initial burst of inspiration, there is the hard work, the blocking and tackling, the nuts and bolts labor of fleshing out the idea, fully realizing it, improving and perfecting it, and bringing it to fruition (well articulated by Steve Jobs).

However if creativity doesn’t come from the mind, where does it come from? Where is that “other” part of consciousness within which it resides? And how does it get there? The short answer is that it comes from other parts of ourselves, from our subconscious, or depending on your philosophical bent, from other planes of reality – what quantum physics might term, the Unified Field. But regardless of your belief in its origins, one indisputable fact is that training your active mind to relax and get out of the way enables you to access the intuitive, creative part more easily. And meditation is a healthy tool (with lots of other benefits) that can be used to enable high levels of creative flow. David Lynch is a big believer, and Norman Seeff has documented it amongst hundreds of world renowned artists, engineers, businesspeople and others.

What does this mean for you as an entrepreneur? How can you learn these techniques and put them to use in your own life to make your own dent in the universe? Well, let me tell you. LACI is launching a new program called Zen Bootcamp: Meditation for Entrepreneurs. Is it just about Zen? No. It’s a survey of a wide variety of different meditation techniques, their physiological impacts (think brain wave patterns) and an overview of some of the most powerful creative processes out there to help you get your bearings and navigate the landscape. What will it do for you? Hopefully make you the next Apple, but if not, at least catapult you forward Chuck Norris style into the sustainability beyond and help you conquer our planet’s most challenging and vexing problems.

We’re certain this is a global first for incubator programs, and think it’s apropros that LA is where it’s all beginning. So watch for the details on our website soon, till then, order your own Juicer motorbicycle (or come see it at LACI) and make all the snarky coffee chugging plaid shirt wearing mustachioed hipsters falter in their relaxed cool affectation as they furiously fume with jealously while you’re whistling by on battery power…

– Ian

How vs Why? it matters….

Posted on January 6, 2014 by - Blog

yum!Having a five year old daughter is great – not the emotional roller coaster of which skirt is right with which shoes, or the protracted negotiations over how much Holiday sugar is “enough,” but because one of her favorite words is “why?” And in a world where we always have just more to do than we can ever complete (and are addicted to the adrenaline of always striving to get there), pausing to consider why we’re doing it at all is a question that often gets overlooked.

We have evolved into a techno-obsessed work culture fixated on optimizing the “how” of our daily existence: how to deliver the lowest cost, highest value, least problematic set of goods and experiences. We’re so focused on faster-cheaper-better that we rarely stop to consider the underlying question of “is this a good idea?” We are a society that idolizes Super Bowls and iPads, not philosophers and wisdom. And especially for the entrepreneur, perennially resource constrained and vision bloated, a laser focus on the “how” of getting to the next milestone leaves little room to consider anything else. But the why is important, and the Holidays provide a culturally sanctioned moment to turn off the processing and plotting and planning, and let the frontal lobe settle down and consider the bigger picture.

I make it a point to take at least one long break (3-4 weeks) each year to completely disconnect and get my bearings. Last year it was a month long trip to Myanmar to spend time with Buddhist monks and hermits. And these couple weeks are always my most productive, from a creative sense, and have an enormous impact on my professional life after I return. When the brain and the attention aren’t 100% focused on figuring out how to get things done then the mental energy turns inward and pushes the creative ideas out of the subconscious. This is important stuff, it’s what enables you to find creative solutions to Gordian problems when time is working against you.

One of  the things I make a point of reflecting on is why I’m doing the things that occupy my days.

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How do my work and priorities fit with the overall goals of my life? With my beliefs about my purpose? With my spiritual aspirations and intentions? Is my life aligned from top to bottom or am I just staying busy, running around in circles unconsciously and wasting days and air? At the end of my career, when I look back at what I accomplished, will I be happy with what I have done? Will I have made a difference? Every day that passes is one that can never be regained, and we each have a finite number to work with, so if you have any inkling that there’s more important stuff out there than what color your Tesla is going to be, thinking about these things is worth doing. There’s a great book about this if you’re curious, it’s called The Diamond Cutter.

This Holiday Season, amidst all the family and gifts and feasting, take a few minutes to find a quiet spot, maybe a long walk alone, or after everyone has gone to bed, and look inward. Turn off all the technology, make a cup of tea, and just sit and reflect and ponder. Give yourself the time and space to not do anything. Close your eyes, listen to your breath and the sounds of the room and world around you and just relax. Ask yourself a few questions: “What is this all about? Am I doing things that matter to me? Is this the right use of my time here.” Then just be patient, don’t have expectations, just be. Just wait. Just try to enjoy the uncomfortable, awkward, new sensation of nothing going on. And see what happens. Maybe what you find will surprise you…..

Happy Holidays, from all of us at the LA Cleantech Incubator….

– Ian Gardner

 

Video Highlights – 2013 Global Showcase

Posted on December 11, 2013 by - N-News, Blog, N-LACI-Events, Partners, Top Menu, Press Coverage

Thank you to everyone for making the inaugural 2013 Cleantech LA Global Showcase such a great success with 25+ companies, 70+ presenters, and 400+ attendees from 20+ countries.  See the video for highlights from the event.




LACI Receives $200,000 from JPMorgan Chase

Posted on November 4, 2013 by - Blog, Partners, Press Coverage, Programs

Fresh off the wire…

The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) announced today that it will create more than 1,000 jobs over the next five years with the help of a $200,000 grant from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The grant will fund key programs focused on advancing sustainable technology development and adoption in the Los Angeles region.

Since launching two years ago, LACI has incubated 25 companies that have received more than $24 million in investments.  LACI and those companies have helped to create more than 100 direct jobs and an estimated 180 indirect jobs, while bringing innovative products and services to market.  Incubated companies operate in a variety of sectors including energy generation and efficiency, water conservation, electric transportation, recycling, waste management, sustainable materials and food production. LACI has provided these start-up companies with office space, executive coaching and mentoring and access to a network of experts and capital sources.

“On behalf of the City of Los Angeles, I would like to thank the JPMorgan Chase Foundation for their generous support of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “LACI plays a key role creating jobs, building a stronger cleantech industry cluster and generating opportunities to train Angelenos in tomorrow’s green careers, today.”

LACI works closely with the Mayor’s office to identify, attract and accelerate the growth of businesses with clean technologies that will support the city in meeting its environmental, renewable energy, energy efficiency and related goals. In addition, LACI holds a close strategic relationship with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, acting as a scout in the region to identify and accelerate technology that supports their pursuit of innovative clean technologies for water conservation and renewable power.

“We’re thrilled to have a true partner in JPMorgan Chase, whose global reach, deep capability, and strong corporate responsibility will help strengthen and extend our efforts in the Los Angeles region and beyond,” said Fred Walti II, Executive Director of LACI.  “The substantial support of one of the world’s leading financial institutions is symbolic of the effectiveness of our programs and confirms that we’re collectively headed in the right direction.”

“JPMorgan Chase recognizes that economic growth and rising living standards fundamentally rely on the abundance and vitality of the planet’s resources and ecosystems,” said Alice Rodriguez, Chase California Region Business Banking Manager.  “Our strong commitment to furthering these mutual goals fits perfectly with our support of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, which is setting new standards with innovative ways to help promising cleantech companies grow and thrive.”

The JPMorgan grant will enable LACI to expand its core training and educational programs and launch a feasibility study on establishing an Innovation Fund to provide early-stage funding to start-ups.

Construction of LACI’s permanent home – the La Kretz Innovation Campus – is now underway in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District.  Once the campus opens in 2015, LACI is expected to accelerate the growth of dozens more promising companies and entrepreneurs in world-class facilities that include wet labs, dry labs, prototype manufacturing space, workforce training and strategically aligned partners, all in one location.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.4 trillion and operations worldwide. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management and private equity. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

About the LA Cleantech Incubator

The LA Cleantech Incubator is a private nonprofit that accelerates the commercialization of clean technologies in the Los Angeles region. Located in the center of the City’s Cleantech Corridor, LACI offers flexible office space, CEO coaching and mentoring, and access to a robust network of experts and capital. Incubated companies operate in a range of sectors including Smart Grid infrastructure, energy efficiency, energy storage, electric transportation, and materials science. LACI works closely with the region’s utilities, universities, business community, government institutions, capital markets and utilities to foster innovation and to grow the region’s green economy.  Learn more at www.newlaci.staging.wpengine.com.

LA Cleantech on Stage: Chase and SCE Host Global Forum November 4-5

Posted on October 29, 2013 by - Blog, N-LACI-Events, Partners, Press Coverage

On November 4-5, 2013 in Downtown LA, the inaugural Cleantech LA Global Showcase will bring together leaders from Industry, Government, Finance and Academia with some of the region’s leading clean technology startups in an effort to drive innovation, investment and business.

JPMorgan Chase is the presenting sponsor for this important event that features over 70 presenters from 15 global markets and over 20 presenting companies, many of which are LACI Portfolio Companies.

“In addition to being one of the top start-up friendly cities in the world, LA is also one of the most environmentally conscious,” said Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles. Our support of important initiatives like Cleantech LA, that grow green jobs and support innovative solutions to climate change, are at the forefront of creating a clean energy economy.”

Additional support for the event comes from Southern California Edison and California State University Northridge, as well as a host of other organizations, that enable discussion about three main topics:

  1. How can you take your cleantech-venture global?
  2. What are the new models for financing cleantech companies?
  3. How is Los Angeles leading the way?

Here’s what some participants have to say:

“At JPMorgan Chase, we know that supporting a more environmentally sustainable global economy is a challenge with real implications for every sector of modern society, including financial services,” said Robert Lagace, market manager for Chase Middle Market and Commercial Banking. “That’s why we are employing our knowledge and capital to help clients, customers and the communities we serve to respond to the environmental sustainability challenge. We’re also helping our clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by the transition to a more sustainable global economy.”

“New models that give capital markets renewed confidence to invest in cleantech sectors are emerging, and gaining traction,” said Jim McDermott, Managing Partner of US Renewables Group. “This Global Showcase will be a great opportunity to share ideas and examples of what is working and where the market is moving across the globe.”

“The CLA Global Showcase provides a rare forum for countries and companies from around the world to present and discuss their respective markets, capabilities and ambitions in the clean/green tech arenas. The positive reaction of the international business and diplomatic community to the Showcase underscores not only the value of the event, but also the role of Los Angeles as a leader in supporting and fostering the growth of clean/green tech industries worldwide”, said David Nahai, President of David Nahai Consulting Services, Partner at Lewis Brisbois, and former General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Financial Times highlights benefits, challenges of cleantech incubation

Posted on October 22, 2013 by - N-News, Blog, Press Coverage

Ross Tieman of the Financial Times highlights the challenges cleantech startups face, and the important role incubators can play.  Here’s a short excerpt:

Fred Walti, executive director of LACI, says one of the key lessons since the incubator was set up in 2011 is that “clean tech isn’t media, the Internet or software. This is ‘deep tech’, with serious science and difficult problems. It is difficult to demonstrate market traction in a short period of time.”

For the full article, please visit FT at  https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c3b17b8-2c26-11e3-acf4-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2iaTO8Cyd

The New (Profitable) Model of Cleantech Innovation

Posted on September 10, 2013 by - Blog, Programs

Innovation is easy, right?  

Software/Web innovation has their model nailed. The wham-bam-thank-you-Y-Combinator process combined with caffeine and electrons rapidly ramps companies, creates whole new sets of things consumers never knew they needed (but now simply can’t live without), and delivers market index +3 returns to LPs who continue pouring money into the space. It took a market crash and 15 years to get there, but hats off, it works. Software creates money.

But Cleantech creates jobs , and the kind of jobs American cities need most. It’s also species-survial-mission-critical, unless you think all the crazy weather (and mounting insurance and ancillary costs) are just a rogue anomaly.  But building stuff is hard work, and the Valley of Death is a lot longer and more treacherous.  We’re still figuring out the money part, but that’s progressing by leaps and bounds.

What is the right model for Cleantech innovation?

It’s one that fosters technological breakthroughs, efficiently grows companies, ensures investment returns commensurate with risk, and delivers deployment where most needed. The key lesson from the last 7 or 8 years is that the push model that Software/Web utilizes just doesn’t work very well in this sector. We aren’t dreaming up new wants. By and large, the problems Cleantech solves for are understood: use less energy, use less water, create less carbon, etc, and the conditions bounding these problems are pretty well understood too. Even the markets they encompass can be projected with relative accuracy. What is more difficult, however, is the time it takes to get the solutions developed and manufactured, the challenges of deploying against legacy systems and incumbents, and the unforeseen role regulations can play in market structure and economics. All doosies compared to apps that let you blow up smirking pigs.

Cleantech entrepreneurs have the same challenges as others:

  • What to do
  • When to do it (collectively, “experience”), and
  • How to acquire the resources and expertise required (“relationships”)

These are similar challenges to what software entrepreneurs also face, the difference is the time and cost of pivoting. Retargeting Yelp is different from retargeting Solyndra, a kayak turns faster than a tanker, electrons rearrange faster than iron atoms. The end result is that there is a lot less room for error for Cleantech entrepreneurs.

What do they spend most of their time doing? A couple of core things. Learning about their industry, performing market analysis, perfecting their solution and developing networks of contacts. In cleantech you’re generally not creating entirely new markets, you’re fracturing existing ones and that bedrock is dense. Overall, it can be a grossly inefficient and capital intensive process, especially as it’s currently done. So, what’s a better way?

It takes a village to raise a Cleantech startup.  

It takes a village to profitably raise a cleantech startup, which is why a new tough-love-make-a-wish approach is necessary. There are two pieces to the equation.
  • Incubation involves wrapping a team of seasoned mentors, advisors, service providers, and domain experts around the startup, plus a dose of targeted training, office/lab space and technical resources for little or no cost, that provides non or low-dilutive value and is cash efficient. The incubator provides this by being regionally supported (by visionary civic and industry leaders!) and aggregating and coordinating the various components of the ecosystem. It’s like the startup getting an entire team working on their behalf for very nearly free. And free is about as capital efficient as it gets.
  • Market Pull (our Wishlist™ program) involves turning the traditional innovation model on its head. Instead of researchers/entrepreneurs coming up with cool new ideas then trying to find markets that will enable them to make money, we go directly to the market itself and figure out what it needs, then pull the solution across the Valley of Death. As a case study, a large regional utility has identified three technology areas that are critical to their long term growth and sustainability. As part of the project they have: bounded the current problem set (e.g. it costs us $$ per XX to deliver XX), identified the sought after solution set (e.g. needs to produce XX per XX for $$), approximated the addressable and global markets, committed to demonstration testing of promising technologies, committed to provide investment capital ($1M), and promised to deploy the solution broadly within their territory. Our job? Research the verticals globally, figure out the most promising solutions, vet the technology, recruit the entrepreneurs to LA, fund them, incubate them, and help them set up manufacturing locally and go to market. Making the entire process much more efficient for everyone.

What makes this a better model?

In a nutshell, it’s faster and light years less risky. We’ve significantly removed many of the uncertainties around each element of the company’s growth and development:

  • Market Risk: by having the end user define the economics of the problem AND the targeted solution, as well as their own addressable market and the estimated macro market, the entrepreneur has a target to work against and a clear understanding of the economics. No more guessing about what is required for the solution to be successful.
  • Customer Engagement Risk: the end user agrees UP FRONT to demo, test and deploy the technology if it works to spec. All the entrepreneur team has to do is execute against the technology development strategy.
  • Sales Risk: understanding and cracking the sales process and replacement cycle for utilities, large industrials and government is expensive and time consuming. Under our model the entrepreneur is guaranteed access to at least one large customer, and also is able to get an insider’s perspective on how to ramp up sales to others in the sector.
  • Product Validation Risk: the end user provides affirmation to investors and other buyers that the technology is sound, driving growth in other areas of the market.
  • Regulatory Risk: large end users have the resources to track regulatory trends and plan strategically. By defining their core focus areas they are able to give the entrepreneur and investors comfort that the regulatory environment will remain aligned as the technology comes to market.
  • Startup Risk: by embedding the entrepreneur within an incubator they vastly increase their odds of success. 85% of incubated companies are still in business 5 years later.
  • Financing Risk: all of these factors combined contribute to a much lower risk profile, significantly increasing the odds of investor support and favorable terms
How’s it going so far? Curious how we make it happen? We’re going to devote a whole day to talking about it. Come to our November conference to learn about all the details….

Cleantech LA Global Showcase 2013

Posted on August 22, 2013 by - Blog, N-LACI-Events

A conference that brings the cleantech world to Los Angeles to do business

November 4-5, 2013

at the Ritz Carlton/JW Marriott in Downtown Los Angeles

Cleantech Los Angeles (CLA) fosters clean and sustainable technology innovation and adoption in the greater LA region.  An important component of this work includes the promotion of international cooperation and trade. CLA, together with the City of Los Angeles, is producing the inaugural Cleantech LA Global Showcase, to facilitate international green business collaboration.

This two-day conference will cover market dynamics, best practices for conducting international trade, presentations from US and international cleantech companies, and global networking and workshop opportunities.

Who Should Attend

This conference is for organizations and individuals interested in doing business in international markets and learning how to penetrate US markets, including: entrepreneurs, scientists / researchers, investors / capital markets, policy makers, companies, infrastructure players, and government at all levels.


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