The impact of SBDC’s mentors can be significant

 

The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has become the administrator for the Alameda County Small Business Development Center (acsbdc.org), whose mission is to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs succeed in their ventures.

SBDC has a team of professionals with decades of real world experience who mentor businesses in all functional areas – sales, marketing, manufacturing, venture capital, web design, government contracting, SBA loans, and government grants.

The impact of SBDC’s mentors can be significant, as demonstrated by Cool EarthSolar, an innovative start-up company located in Livermore, which won more than $2 million in government grants.
Only at the prototype stage with its technology and with tight budgets, Cool Earth needed grants that would help it complete product development and deploy systems for field trials.

As a technology company, Cool Earth required advisors with specialized knowledge and experience. Cool Earth applied to the Tech Futures Group (techfuturesgroup.org), a new initiative of the SBDC that has assembled a team of technology specialists with expertise in technology commercialization, raising equity capital through angels and venture capitalists, intellectual property protection, and special government grants, such as SBIR.

Cool Earth met with two SBDC advisors, Charles Eason and Gerry Barañano. Eason is the SBDC expert in Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants that provide funding for research in specific areas. Barañano is a technology commercialization expert with deep knowledge of all aspects of technology companies.

Both advisors helped Cool Earth improve the quality of their grant applications. Following Eason’s advice, Cool Earth won two $150,000 SBIR phase 1 grants and is line to win much larger amounts in subsequent phases.

Barañano recommended that Cool Earth reach out and develop a strong relationship with
Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL), and also write a white paper geared to first customers. Using their LLNL relationship and the body of the white paper, Cool Earth won a $1,732,000 grant from California Energy Commission.

“We owe much of our success with these grants to the experience, knowledge, and cheerful assistance of these two gentlemen,” exclaimed Tony Chen, Cool Earth’s director of business development.