GEM Prepares Former NVC Participants in Summer Accelerator

BizHawk: Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet Prepares New Startups with Summer Accelerator

The Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet — a partnership between the city of Goleta, the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce and UC Santa Barbara — is taking a group of six startup businesses and preparing them to get off the ground with its G2 Summer Accelerator program.

“The primary goal is to try to give, really, entrepreneurs a foundation to start, launch, run and scale their businesses,” GEM executive director Dave Adornetto told Noozhawk.

The program’s startups are DermaChill, EV Match and Vibe, which formed at UCSB; Dog Spot and SoundCrunch, which originated at Santa Barbara City College; and Urbavore, started by graduates of UC Berkeley and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

The startup teams, which Adornetto said are at different phases of their development, are given a wide-ranging curriculum two days a week and have access to professional mentors from a wide variety of fields, from law to manufacturing to fundraising.

The seven-week pilot program, which kicked off June 27th, is effectively a full-time job for the teams, who are preparing to showcase their businesses Tuesday at a “Demo Day” at the Bacara Resort and Spa at 8301 Hollister Ave.

By Sam Goldman, Noozhawk