STUDENT & FACULTY
VENTURE INCUBATOR
Our venture incubator provides assistance to students and community members with promising business ideas, as well as faculty looking to commercialize their research or technology, to stabilize their minimum viable products (MVPs), delivering a combination of teaching, coaching, and mentoring to “solve problems” and then conduct outreach with, and provide referrals to, various partners and funding sources necessary for turning the MVP and the venture overall into a sustainable, healthy new business capable of significant revenue growth and job creation after its exit from the incubator. Over the past year, our virtual incubator has provided assistance to over 30 ventures and helped bring in nearly $100,000 worth of in-kind support and seed funding.
Startup Weekend
We recently hosted a 54-hour, marathon venture competition on campus, sponsored by Bank of America in cooperation with Techstars, featuring roughly 50 entrepreneurs divided into teams working on 10 new business ideas. The top three teams - all comprised of CSUB students with the help of a handful of key BC students - won over $35,000 worth of products & services from local law, accounting, branding, coworking, and tech companies, with the other seven teams also winning a combined $5,000+ in prizes.
59 Days of Code
Last fall we helped to organize a local software development competition, sponsored by Fresno's Bitwise, featuring roughly 75 entrepreneurs divided into teams working on 15 new software apps. The top six teams - two of which were comprised of CSUB students - won $35,000 in cash prizes.
Current Top Ventures
We try to focus on ventures which leverage student & faculty research to solve problems for Kern County's trio of leading industries: Aerospace, Energy, and Agriculture. However, we're always looking for good entrepreneurs regardless of industry who are passionate, outside-the-box problem solvers but are also humble, coachable, and diligent. Please contact Incubator Chair Hector Ocampo (hocampo@csub.edu, 661-240-0928) or club Faculty Advisor Dr. Jeremy Woods (jwoods7@csub.edu, 213-400-0829) for a complete list of ventures, for more information on the ventures below, or for application criteria to get your venture into the incubator. We are committed to helping all students, educators, and community members in Kern County fully self-actualize, and we won't stop until all Kern County citizens & residents have achieved that goal!
Venture Name: Aerospace Valley Futures
Industry: Aerospace
Brief Description: Social media community and economic development/branding initiative to recruit top-level aerospace engineers to relocate to, and thrive in, Aerospace Valley (the East Kern communities surrounding Edwards AFB, China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, and Mojave Air & Space Port).
Venture Name: U Bites
Industry: Software App
Brief Description: Dating app which focuses on driving Millennial and Generation Z singles to patronize local bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Currently standing up a restaurant delivery app to help struggling restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Venture Name: Corner
Industry: Software App
Brief Description: Software app which tracks the geographic location of food trucks.
Venture Name: Where You At
Industry: Software App
Brief Description: Software app that allows students coming and going to campus to meet up and swap parking spots.
Venture Name: Tagfolio
Industry: Software App / Hardware Device
Brief Description: NFC chip-enabled keychain accessories, cell phone popsockets, and other products with AirDrop-accessible business card & other contact information.
Venture Name: Energizing Waters
Industry: Energy / Agriculture
Brief Description: Commercialization of faculty research on new filtration technologies to purify produced water (water extracted from the ground as part of the oil drilling process) for use in agricultural irrigation.
Venture Name: Sylvstrr
Industry: Software App
Venture Name: SAIF Industries
Industry: Aerospace
Brief Description: Inventory management software for the worldwide military aerospace spare parts sector.