First Look West
FLoW was created in October of 2011, and the first mentorship program and competition took place in the spring of 2012. As a result of that first operational cycle, we were able to leverage limited government support from the DOE into a vehicle that has attracted widespread stakeholder support and partnerships of benefit to young entrepreneurs, the cleantech workforce and ultimately the economy. Some numbers from the first year of the competition best illustrate our organization’s achivements:
- The competition drew 83 teams from 34 universities throughout the west coast, including more than 20 from Southern California
- Young entrepreneurs developing energy from waste water treatment, robots for cleaning solar panels and solar cell films with 20% more efficiency took the top prizes at the regional finals competition.
- Fifteen teams continued after the competition to form new companies
- Four raised additional money, as much as $250,000, directly from their connection to FLoW.
- Jobs created: based on the first year exit survey, 23 of these early stage ventures, intended to add 1-10 jobs over the following 18 months, according to a survey.
- Teams from Flow have proceeded to join in regional and national business development programs, including the LA Cleantech Incubator, the Cleantech Open, and the UC Davis Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy.
- The program established a dual track program embracing Business Ready and Transformational Idea Award tracks to ensure great student ideas don’t get lost for lack of support
- The program achieved a partnership with the Southern California utilities, who are looking for technologies and talent
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1 Submitted Idea
- 2013 Grants Challenge
Jobs for LA’s Cleantech Future: the FLoW Multiplier Program
We propose the creation of the First Look West (FLoW) multiplier program, to harness the boundless energy of the entrepreneurial university youth who care passionately about the environment and the city they live in to anchor an apprentice type of job creation program. This program would reach across the cultural and economic divide, and target their young and ambitious counterparts in the underserved communities.
First Look West (FLoW, http://flow.caltech.edu) is a program for developing college students into the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. As such we actively support the formation of cleantech companies in Southern California, particularly LA County. This business plan competition reaches out to students throughout the region, asking them to identify the biggest challenges in clean energy or the environment, and to create innovative solutions that will grow fast and disrupt the marketplace. We provide these teams with mentorship and training to define the technical and business aspects of their ideas, and so form viable companies. We also connect these companies with entrepreneurial and apprenticeship programs, as well as potential investors, partners and customers. All entrants receive this mentorship and education, but the winning teams receive up to $100,000.00 in cash as well.
The FLoW multiplier program will be run as a pilot involving start-up companies in two sectors: sustainable environmental products and solar energy, two target areas that have a good mixture of engineering/manufacturing and marketing needs that can provide a foundation for the apprenticeship program. This consists of two parts: providing job opportunities in fast growing new start-ups, and supporting education and mentorship/training for these young people.
The Job Opportunities element will involve competitive grants (potentially with matching grants from local, state or federal government agencies) to support one apprentice per company enrolled in the program as a part-time employee. They will join the team as an intern, but could graduate to becoming a full time employee over time, perhaps eventually receiving an equity share in the company.
The Mentorship/training component focuses on imparting practical entrepreneurial skills to both the university innovators and the apprentice employees. The FLoW multiplier program will provide access to boot camp training run by our partners, and will host training events at local colleges and universities. For the first, we will offer entry to excellent boot camps such as the UC Davis Green Technology Entrepreneurship Program or Draper University, and access to the well-established Cleantech Open program and award fellowships for individuals to travel and attend. FLoW’s own program of mentorship and training will feature a series of practical workshops, given by experienced experts on topics such as company formation, marketing, team building, and product development.
This program will have a direct impact on the LA 2050 income and employment indicator by creating new companies in the region, and a framework for placing cleantech jobs that impact multiple points of the LA economy, including manufacturing. Therefore, it will also have a significant impact on the education and environmental quality indicators, perhaps as important as the effects on income and employment.
The First Look West program began as a partnership between USC, UCLA, and Caltech, and has expanded to include colleges and universities throughout the Southern California region and the west coast. The FLoW Multiplier program will significantly strengthen FLoW’s capability to help new companies form. By anchoring this initiative in the Los Angeles region, we are creating a hub for cleantech entrepreneurship that will lead bright young entrepreneurs from many backgrounds to remain in the area.