Mark Haney: And now I'm here with Eva Shepard and she goes by Eva or Eva, which I'm kind of like I don't know which to call her.
Mark Haney: I'll call her Eva just for for the sake of the show, but she is doing a lot of the same work that the growth factory is doing at a different scale.
Mark Haney: She covers a really big area.
Mark Haney: She is the executive director of Chico Start, among other things, but you are helping entrepreneurs right, which is what I love, so I want to hear about that.
Mark Haney: But maybe just start with your background.
Mark Haney: What led you to this line of work?
Eva Shepherd: okay.
Eva Shepherd: So I was in the Bay Area doing any number of startups venture capital being on both sides of the table and venture capital and once I got a taste of startups first while I was doing VC, I went oh, there's my tribe, right, there's my people why?
Mark Haney: why are they your people?
Eva Shepherd: I'm utilitarian, you know you get to roll up your sleeves, do whatever, take your more of a less risk averse and their enthusiasm and passion was very attractive and actually in that back in the day when I was doing that you know, 80s and 90s that's also when I learned that the intellectual property really, really resided with the people.
Eva Shepherd: I'm not saying that we don't.
Eva Shepherd: You know there's a lot of value that's added by your intellectual property, that's a patent or things that.
Eva Shepherd: But I really kind of felt that that's what and learned firsthand that that was what it really was the people.
Mark Haney: I know the people.
Mark Haney: That's interesting because anybody listening or watching this it hasn't been around startups.
Mark Haney: Maybe you don't get it.
Mark Haney: They're a different breed.
Mark Haney: They are awesome, the hardest working people in the world they get.
Mark Haney: They make no money at the beginning and you know the chances of hitting it big or slim, but when they do it is.
Mark Haney: It is beautiful to watch and it's fun to live vicariously through their desire and their you know blood, sweat and tears yes, and you learn a lot about yourself when you're in, exposed to those teams and groups and in those situations.
Eva Shepherd: And you know it's kind of like if you're someone who's naturally curious, you're gonna stay curious when you're around those folks and you're gonna be on that.
Eva Shepherd: The visual that's coming to my mind right now is like being on a really fast treadmill.
Mark Haney: Yes, you know, I'm sure there's something more eloquent I could have said there, but that was a visual that came okay, so your Bay Area you're on both sides of the table and venture capital, so you must have been part of startups and then also your venture capitalist as well so I did corporate venture capital for a company that used to exist a long time code called 3com, and in that space we did licensing's, mergers, joint ventures, acquisitions etc okay, so yeah, yeah before that, the way before that I were also was an interspersed with startups and things, but before that I worked for a company called technology funding real straightforward name, right, and they were on 92 and I'll meet at us Pogos in Sumitail and I worked for the partners there and that's that was my first taste.
Eva Shepherd: And then I got to take my experience and startups and business development and other acumen when I was doing corporate venture capital for 3com oh, gotcha, okay.
Mark Haney: So then that led you.
Mark Haney: All that experience and understanding of the industry and the sector led you to Chico.
Eva Shepherd: I mean that's interesting, yeah there's a few jumps in between, so all the kids were out of the house and in college about five, six, seven years ago now and we already owned property up in county and we're like, hey, we're paying a lot of money for college, let's, let's regroup where our market, just, you know, cheaper.
Eva Shepherd: When I first bought property up in butte County, I could see the potential.
Eva Shepherd: I mean, it's a university town, you know.
Eva Shepherd: You're surrounded by ag.
Eva Shepherd: You have this really diverse population.
Eva Shepherd: I hadn't done any studying about the North States population, I just went oh, I'm near a lake, yay, you know, I just.
Eva Shepherd: But when we decided to regroup, I quickly applied all my due diligence, you know acumen, to that and I was started looking at who's doing venture capital, who's doing networking events, who's doing tech, you know, and started, you know, introducing myself to people and doing outreach, and that's how I met Monique at one point to and you know.
Eva Shepherd: So I could see that there were some huge gaps in the system right up there, the huge gaps in an quote-unquote ecosystem up there, whereas, being in the barrier for 30 years, you know you could throw a rock and hit a venture capitalister, go to a tech event, right anyway.
Eva Shepherd: So we just ended up there, after also managing a ranch for a year, and because we're both my husband and I are both the ag backgrounds and and then we regrouped there.
Mark Haney: Yeah, it was fun and so tell me about the work that you do.
Mark Haney: Maybe more specifically, you said you covered like 23 counties or something like that, out of, but based out of, the Chico area, correct?
Eva Shepherd: correct.
Eva Shepherd: So as a governor's office of business, go biz Cal, osba, california, office of small business advocate, we are an innovation hub and which was just recently rebranded to accelerate California innovation hubs.
Eva Shepherd: In that designation, my role is to cover the whole North State.
Eva Shepherd: So what is the?
Mark Haney: North State yeah right, it's this big space I've heard a nor north of California, but it's, it's not distinct.
Eva Shepherd: So I've learned it's distinct when it comes to allocations and congressional coverage and things like that.
Eva Shepherd: So basically the north, far north, is kind of around Yuba, but you know, if it's kind of you can't do a straight line across on the bottom but you can go all the way to the coast, all the way to Nevada border and all the way to the Oregon border, so it's pretty large.
Eva Shepherd: I also overlap, strangely, with one county, one or two counties south of that with their i-hubs.
Eva Shepherd: Based on previous work we've done, okay.
Mark Haney: So when I think of the North State and again, my geography is probably not the best, but big are there any bigger cities in that, in that, or it's because everything's kind of spread out, it's like yeah, so Chico is the largest population center in the North State.
Eva Shepherd: How many people?
Eva Shepherd: Are in Chico, about a hundred 11,000 is that call?
Eva Shepherd: Is that include college students?
Eva Shepherd: That does not include college okay so that varies right every year.
Mark Haney: Okay, I didn't realize it was that big.
Eva Shepherd: 110,000, is that 111, I think I saw on the green sign when I left town today.
Mark Haney: Yeah, okay okay, you knew interesting, I didn't realize it was that big okay yeah, but we are the last stop.
Eva Shepherd: Before you know, you hit a large town in Oregon, so we are the largest area, but it I saw.
Eva Shepherd: I cover approximately 50,000 square miles, but that's only about a million people okay so what you were.
Mark Haney: Where's your favorite?
Mark Haney: Like Shasta would be, like I'm thinking, the favorite place I would like to go if I.
Mark Haney: I mean Chico is cool, it's a party town for if you're a college student that's what they say.
Mark Haney: Yeah, okay yes, I have friends that went there and I'm I can validate well known for that yes, but so you got Chico, and then obviously you beside is include Marysville to, or no, I'm correct.
Mark Haney: Okay, and so what would be the next biggest town?
Eva Shepherd: Oh Reading, oh Reading, okay, so Reading, and then beyond that, you know you have your smattering of towns like Wairika, and you know Wairika and Eureka and right.
Mark Haney: And then what's along the coast?
Mark Haney: You said it goes all the way to the coast.
Eva Shepherd: Correct.
Eva Shepherd: So from from the top down, you have Del Norte County right and then you have Humboldt County and then you have Mendocino County and then you have Lake County right and then on the interior, the elbow I like to call the elbow that brushes up against Nevada is Lassen, sierra Plumas, nevada County.
Eva Shepherd: I also cover Placer and all the way down to Alpine.
Mark Haney: Oh, okay, I didn't know, you covered Placer, so you covered all the area too.
Mark Haney: Yes, okay, I didn't realize that.
Mark Haney: Yes, I do.
Mark Haney: Okay, so you do entrepreneurial ecosystem development work Right, and are you hands on with entrepreneurs, or who are these?
Mark Haney: What are these people?
Mark Haney: You know?
Mark Haney: Typically are they startups.
Eva Shepherd: So I'll break it into two.
Eva Shepherd: I'll break that question into two pieces.
Eva Shepherd: One, the entrepreneurial ecosystems, about bringing in partners that we may not have, so filling the gaps, yeah, and so sometimes I'm doing outreach all the way to the Bay Area for that, for, say, rapid prototyping, commercialization, etc.
Eva Shepherd: Things that we don't have in the North State.
Eva Shepherd: Other things that would include investors too, because capital is a huge hole.
Eva Shepherd: Right, although we just got a new oops sorry, I didn't mean although we just got a new venture capital group up in Humboldt, very happy to say Lascaux Ventures, that let's give them a shout out there, and a smattering of private and angels.
Eva Shepherd: But I mean it's nothing like what Sacramento's got going on.
Mark Haney: Okay, right, I feel like Sacramento and Placer County is part of this this is Sacramento region is turning a corner.
Mark Haney: Where we were, our image was maybe a little less of a great place to do a startup at least, but I mean it's got small business but now the startup community is strengthening quite a bit.
Eva Shepherd: Absolutely Between the growth factory, sea, sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy and other huge efforts, whether they're out of the SBDC and Capital Quarter, whether they're the surrounding counties.
Eva Shepherd: Outgrow, oh my goodness, love, outgrow and love what they're doing.
Eva Shepherd: The city's invested Right.
Eva Shepherd: Yes, I keep sending.
Eva Shepherd: So I know Louisa and he sends me the updates.
Eva Shepherd: Oh yeah, I keep sending to my city.
Eva Shepherd: Say this is what you should do.
Mark Haney: He gets it.
Mark Haney: He understands it.
Mark Haney: Yeah, okay, so you work with economic development people.
Mark Haney: Louisa's economic development leader over in Elk Grove Right, darryl Doane.
Eva Shepherd: I don't work with Darryl directly, I know that name.
Mark Haney: Okay, yeah, so you work with those people to help them drive economic development and, predominantly, entrepreneurship.
Eva Shepherd: Correct.
Eva Shepherd: So, and that's more about answering it in two parts.
Eva Shepherd: So, yes, we are pulling together as many partners as possible to help support the North State and then fill in the gaps.
Eva Shepherd: And again, it could be from the area.
Eva Shepherd: A lot of times, as we know, it has come out of the area and then separately.
Eva Shepherd: I do do work Is that good English?
Eva Shepherd: I do do work one-on-one with entrepreneurs as well.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Eva Shepherd: So one-on-one counseling, technical assistance, and we do help support a handful of industry sectors as well through Chico Start.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, we have initiatives that pay us to do that as well.
Mark Haney: How much of this you know.
Mark Haney: When I think at Chico Start, I don't think about the whole North State.
Mark Haney: It's interesting, it's okay.
Mark Haney: Yeah, so interesting to know that.
Mark Haney: I know you have you as Chico Start, but you cover a huge territory.
Mark Haney: What's the impact that you're making All?
Eva Shepherd: right.
Eva Shepherd: Well, so I just took over about three years ago, but Chico Start itself is enjoying its 10-year anniversary this year.
Eva Shepherd: Thank you very much.
Eva Shepherd: You can dub in some applause here.
Eva Shepherd: And with that we have been keeping our metrics pretty tight for the last three years.
Eva Shepherd: So we've helped over 300 companies, We've created over 450 jobs and we have had a boat.
Eva Shepherd: If I was to talk about investments in capital funding for in divisions, I would say that 30% has been like huge grants and then 70% has been a division between Friends, family and Fools and VC, and we've had a couple of them already this year.
Eva Shepherd: In fact, as well get accepted into accelerators, okay great yeah, you work with Fourth Wave Accelerator.
Eva Shepherd: I assume yes, cheryl, nancy, yeah, great people over there.
Mark Haney: So, thinking about this, you talked about the gaps and I think it's probably changing Sacramento.
Mark Haney: How has it changed in the rest of the area that you covered, like Chico and Ubus City?
Mark Haney: Because I you know other than when I see what you're posting on LinkedIn and stuff, it's kind of out of sight, out of mind a little bit, even though it's part of you know, it's not far from Sacramento, even though, well, it took you an hour and a half to get here, but it's kind of all part of a big part of your territory is really us?
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, actually it is, but I don't have to work as hard in this area because you've got such a great ecosystem already in place Sacramento startup scene, Cameron over at, who's also my peer at CSU, right, so it's Sac State and then I at Chico, and then, you know, there's also a handful of people I've worked with to find out what they're doing in their areas, whether again, I'll mention the SBDC or if it's people are doing their own startups, really focused on helping underserved and people of color, etc.
Eva Shepherd: So, like Nicholas Hastings, who he's well I don't know if you guys have ever interviewed him or talked to him.
Eva Shepherd: If you haven't, you need to have him on Fabulous Guy, I also know from my work.
Eva Shepherd: I also did a little work for the SBDC in the past as well.
Eva Shepherd: So I know people like Chris Horton and others in the area.
Eva Shepherd: You know it's.
Eva Shepherd: You've got a lot of effort going on here.
Eva Shepherd: That's already kind of how it's.
Eva Shepherd: The engine's been running already.
Eva Shepherd: The engine hadn't been started where I was, you know, and so it's taken me three years for people to take us seriously.
Eva Shepherd: Take us seriously.
Eva Shepherd: But it's really about what you're doing.
Eva Shepherd: What you're doing is elevating the story, right.
Eva Shepherd: You're celebrating the story right, You're getting the story out there.
Eva Shepherd: We had to start that kind of at a ground level, and so we started that in about 2019.
Mark Haney: Okay in terms of getting the story out.
Mark Haney: How do you get the story out?
Eva Shepherd: Well, first I'll start with my philosophy.
Eva Shepherd: My philosophy is a community is only as strong as a story it can tell, and if it's focused on the negative and not focused on the positive.
Eva Shepherd: You know what people say if you're not growing or dying.
Eva Shepherd: We see a lot of that in the noise state, when we think about poverty levels, when we think about lack of opportunity, lack of planning, post-lumber, like nobody had a plan right SSDD, if you know what that stands for.
Eva Shepherd: Right and lots of attrition.
Eva Shepherd: And so getting the story out includes working with local champions, because there are people who have hope and energy and really want to see things change too.
Eva Shepherd: So it can be described as a hub and spoke model, right.
Eva Shepherd: So I'm trying to leverage my relationships throughout the North State to grow that and have them tell their stories too, and we give them a platform to do that through multiple different ways, whether it's our newsletters, whether it's our entrepreneurial conference that we have every year, or other avenues.
Mark Haney: Okay, so can we talk about some success stories.
Eva Shepherd: Sure.
Mark Haney: How do you and how is there if I'm a startup?
Eva Shepherd: or an entrepreneur maybe some.
Mark Haney: How does my life change?
Mark Haney: Well, I don't know if it gets any easier.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I don't think.
Mark Haney: Entrepreneurship it takes you while it gets before it gets easy, yeah, I mean.
Eva Shepherd: So there's some.
Eva Shepherd: In some cases every case is so unique, right, and in some cases I'll use one success story where she actually took off pretty quickly and then I'll use another success story where it kind of builds a longer tail.
Eva Shepherd: So the company's name is Hexus Biomass.
Eva Shepherd: The name of the founder and CEO is Wendy Owens.
Eva Shepherd: She's headquartered out of Washington but has a North State office.
Eva Shepherd: She is focused on a proprietary rhizome called I should know what this is called Xanogras, and it is a regenerative grass.
Eva Shepherd: If you took know what, if corn and bamboo had a baby, that would be this.
Eva Shepherd: So it could be harvested twice a year and, depending on how it's processed, it can be anything from biofuel, like a biodiesel, to pet bedding.
Eva Shepherd: So it's kind of this amazing thing, right, that she decided to make a business out of.
Eva Shepherd: She approached me about two and a half years ago and needed some planting sites, so I hooked her up with a couple different counties.
Eva Shepherd: Like I said, she also has a North State office now.
Eva Shepherd: From that, we also contributed to her getting a NSF, sbir, which is a for those of you who don't know what that is, that is the National Science Foundation, small Business Initiative, research, something or other, but it's a grant which means you're not giving away equity, right.
Eva Shepherd: I'm big on grants and so she got an initial phase one for 250,000, and then, because of that, got to do a proof of concept.
Eva Shepherd: That proof of concept then won her the opportunity to go after the phase two, which was 1.2 mil.
Eva Shepherd: She went for that, got that, continued to do other plantings, proof of concepts and partnering.
Eva Shepherd: Got some very large contracts with people like Continental Energy and others.
Eva Shepherd: And then she, literally just last month, was I don't know if the words voted, but she was appointed first place in the Cartier Cartier's in jewelry, cartier Climate Fellow, so which is a global competition.
Eva Shepherd: So that's a huge success story and she's going like investors.
Eva Shepherd: And then there's some people who have to slog at it for a really long time, but they believe in what they do and they have the passion to make it happen and sometimes they just need a little help, like Wendy just needs a little help, right.
Eva Shepherd: And so we have received outreach from several companies that might have had a patent, but no team might have had a great idea but weren't developers.
Eva Shepherd: So we have been doing a lot of that kind of partnering Making contacts and introductions and making the partnerships happen to then therefore go forward.
Mark Haney: Yes, engineering the win, if you will, yes engineering the win.
Eva Shepherd: I like that.
Eva Shepherd: I'm like that.
Eva Shepherd: I don't know who you stole from, but I like that.
Mark Haney: I know who I did, so thinking about that so you have these success stories summer slow, summer more fast.
Mark Haney: Why do some so many not succeed?
Eva Shepherd: Well, the statistics are not in startups favors, right?
Eva Shepherd: I mean, we can all quote those statistics.
Eva Shepherd: It's like I think it's forever.
Eva Shepherd: People just rattle off.
Eva Shepherd: It's one in 10, right?
Eva Shepherd: But yet during COVID, there was more business starts than any other time in history, right?
Eva Shepherd: So, and the end of that?
Eva Shepherd: I think 48% to 50% were women, Right?
Eva Shepherd: So it's like, yeah, it's opportunity, or what's the other word?
Eva Shepherd: What's the opposite of opportunity or adversity?
Eva Shepherd: Right, it's gonna push you in one way or the other, right?
Eva Shepherd: And so I thought I saw a lot of people taking advantage of having that downtime, in a way, to say, hey, what do I really want to do?
Eva Shepherd: So from an opportunity mindset.
Eva Shepherd: And others were like, oh crap, we have to have some income and maybe this is the time to start my business right.
Eva Shepherd: Why do I think some fail, or so many fail Overall or in my area?
Mark Haney: Well, yeah, either probably similar, don't you think?
Eva Shepherd: It is.
Eva Shepherd: It is People are the biggest variable, and I think people are the biggest variable in almost any situation.
Eva Shepherd: But I think that picking the right teams, picking the right partners, picking the right people to outsource with those all can create friction or they can be just a godsend, right?
Eva Shepherd: I think Often also that entrepreneurs are stubborn and I don't need any help or I'll figure it out myself.
Eva Shepherd: Or and then when they get that letter from the IRS and they wish they had hired that accountant.
Eva Shepherd: Or when they get that letter from the government saying, hi, you forgot to file with the DOJ for your nonprofit status again, oh yeah, I mean, I think that when you may have to make trade offs, like entrepreneurs do that, sometimes it's hard to pick which one and I'm not sure that they always have the kind of mentoring that they need or that they realize that they need.
Eva Shepherd: So part of what we do in the North state is make sure that there's a mentoring program but also advertising a program.
Eva Shepherd: And when I'm meeting with people one-on-one and doing kind of initial intake and assessments and things like that, I try to make sure that I share awareness of all the resources that we can bring to bear, how they can get access to that, maybe fill in holes in their education with different partners.
Eva Shepherd: But mentoring, I think, is a huge tool that people don't use enough.
Mark Haney: You mentioned COVID and how the world changed, and obviously Zoom.
Mark Haney: That must have helped your job a lot in terms of the big geographic area that you cover by an automobile.
Mark Haney: All of a sudden you don't have to drive as much.
Eva Shepherd: Funny you mentioned that.
Eva Shepherd: So before COVID I did not need any grants to keep my doors open or my lights on my co-working space, and incubators were filled.
Eva Shepherd: Busy People were getting on each other's nerves.
Eva Shepherd: That's how much, because I have an open space, that's not individual offices like you have here.
Eva Shepherd: So after March, I think by May, I could roll a bowling ball through the place and not hit anybody.
Eva Shepherd: There was still only a handful of us coming in, and that's only because I instituted protocols in February, knowing what was coming and having been involved in whatever that flu was in Europe.
Eva Shepherd: At one point I was just like you know, let's just get ahead of it.
Eva Shepherd: One more question, question, we'll go back by quickly.
Eva Shepherd: Two-fifths, five hour line Ready.
Eva Shepherd: I had to take a hard look at my business and say, okay, what would I tell my students?
Eva Shepherd: I would say, okay, what makes you unique?
Eva Shepherd: What's the one thing you can do that no one else can do?
Eva Shepherd: What is it?
Eva Shepherd: And not that no one else can do it, but what is it You're, what's your unique offering?
Eva Shepherd: Cause, anybody can build a co-working space, anybody can Seeing it happen, right, but does that mean you have everything that the coworkers need or the entrepreneurs need?
Eva Shepherd: So I was thinking about how much entrepreneurial resources we had and how could I then put it all online Right?
Eva Shepherd: So forcing me to look at.
Eva Shepherd: So I kind of did my own lean business canvas model about read how do I pivot my business and and that's what I decided to do.
Eva Shepherd: And then I started to take it a step further and borrowed from the nineties the content aggregation model right and started aggregating content and packaging it and putting together landing pages, and real time video is in, as well as archive video for our rural areas so advanced.
Eva Shepherd: So examples are in paradise we have a co-working space called Ridge Start, powered by Chico Start, and then we have a landing page that has the mirrors almost ours, but it's specific to the Ridge communities.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, same with Yuba.
Eva Shepherd: So the work hub.
Eva Shepherd: We also have the same relationship there, so we're franchising right Art.
Eva Shepherd: So that's how I chose to approach it.
Eva Shepherd: That's now working really well.
Eva Shepherd: We have an additional two other sites that we recently done deals with, so Indian Valley Innovation Hub, which is Plumas County, and then also advancing Modoc out of Modoc County, and then we have about five more in the pipeline.
Mark Haney: Oh wow, yeah, Exciting stuff is do you still have your co-working in Chico too?
Mark Haney: Yes, sir, you still have that.
Mark Haney: Yeah, so are people coming back into the office now?
Mark Haney: Yes, they are using it, okay.
Eva Shepherd: Yes, they are.
Eva Shepherd: It's not full, and I honestly don't feel like it's.
Eva Shepherd: It'll be a while till it is, and so I'm looking at other avenues in which to bring more people in, and that's working with the college, ironically right.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, what are you doing?
Mark Haney: with the college.
Eva Shepherd: So I'm the director for the center of entrepreneurship there, similar to Cameron here at Sox State.
Eva Shepherd: And, but I also teach, so he doesn't have to teach, lucky guy.
Eva Shepherd: And as part of that, I run an experimental class.
Eva Shepherd: And that experimental class, thanks to donor Scott Bedford big claps for Scott Bedford.
Eva Shepherd: Scott's donation has made it possible for me to have students start companies with no equity, back to the school.
Eva Shepherd: Oh, wow, so it's a grant.
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, it's fabulous.
Eva Shepherd: And so they have to start their own company, do their own structure right, get a lawyer, you know file taxes, have a bank account, you know all that stuff.
Eva Shepherd: And so we have a small group, that's a startup team, and they start a business together.
Eva Shepherd: So they are in college at this time.
Eva Shepherd: Yes, sir.
Mark Haney: They're in college and they're starting a business.
Mark Haney: It doesn't have to be a tech company, it can be any.
Mark Haney: It can be selling t-shirts.
Mark Haney: Yes, okay, and they get one semester to break even.
Eva Shepherd: Oh okay, so you got to make sales, that's right.
Eva Shepherd: What a concept Fire hose, that's great.
Mark Haney: So many startups that I see they decided that they want to take their time on getting revenue going.
Mark Haney: I love good job on that.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I'm all about pushing.
Mark Haney: Hey, prebook your sales.
Eva Shepherd: Yeah Right, prebook your sales and you're going to find out much quicker who your customer, your MVP, excuse me, your minimum viable customer, right?
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, that has been a blast.
Eva Shepherd: So we're.
Eva Shepherd: It's actually a unique program.
Eva Shepherd: I did my research and no other colleges doing this.
Eva Shepherd: They all want equity or they all want you know.
Eva Shepherd: So it's been a blast.
Eva Shepherd: Um, it's been a blast, and then I've already got my next cohort picked for next semester.
Mark Haney: So this donation gives them like the seed capital to get it going.
Mark Haney: How much is each one?
Eva Shepherd: Oh, so there's a very large donation, but we only take $5,000.
Mark Haney: $5,000 per company.
Eva Shepherd: Per yeah semester.
Mark Haney: Per.
Mark Haney: Oh, okay, per.
Mark Haney: How many go through this the class in the semester?
Eva Shepherd: Well, I experimented with nine.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, Cause but can you imagine how hard it is to get nine people to make a decision?
Mark Haney: Yeah, so this is just one company, then nine people to do.
Eva Shepherd: Yes, and they're all co-founders, so you're doing one, okay, right.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I can imagine it yeah.
Eva Shepherd: So next semester we're going to try it with seven.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, we'll see how it works.
Mark Haney: That's interesting.
Mark Haney: And does somebody become?
Mark Haney: Do they decide who's in charge?
Mark Haney: Is that part of the process?
Eva Shepherd: Um, actually we didn't.
Eva Shepherd: I've been very careful about that.
Eva Shepherd: So one going back to my comment earlier about it's the biggest variables, people, right?
Eva Shepherd: So I was very picky about the personalities that I pick, because I want to make sure that no one's sucking up all the oxygen out of the room.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Eva Shepherd: And that no one is pushing other people's ideas out of the way.
Eva Shepherd: Right, but these are real companies?
Mark Haney: Yeah, they're real companies, and in any real company you've got a CEO.
Eva Shepherd: Yes, but that's one thing we didn't choose to do.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, we did task teams like who's?
Eva Shepherd: Here's your sales team, here's your social media team, slash marketing team.
Eva Shepherd: Here's your customer service team, here's your product team and we let people's natural leadership abilities in their different areas.
Eva Shepherd: It was really great experiment.
Eva Shepherd: I mean, that's the best way to put it.
Eva Shepherd: I didn't want people to get lazy by saying, oh, it's really all going to be on CEO's shoulders, or on the vice president.
Eva Shepherd: So, and even though I'm not always the biggest fan of a flat organization, I'm not.
Eva Shepherd: For purposes of the fact we only had a semester where we're really looking at okay, you guys, you guys all got to get some work done.
Eva Shepherd: Nobody can let their ego get in the way.
Mark Haney: So what was the company they built?
Eva Shepherd: Fusion NFC, which I didn't pick the name.
Eva Shepherd: They did, and it is this it is a digital business card.
Eva Shepherd: Oh, okay.
Eva Shepherd: So I will share links with you after this.
Eva Shepherd: But yeah, so it doesn't replace the business card.
Eva Shepherd: If you need a business card, like real estate, people need paper, but if you're at a trade show, or if you're used to QR code.
Mark Haney: Is that what it is?
Mark Haney: No, no.
Eva Shepherd: I would just tap your phone.
Mark Haney: Oh, got you.
Mark Haney: Yeah, and I get the contacts.
Eva Shepherd: You would decide whether you want it or not, to, which is also nice.
Eva Shepherd: We don't keep anyone's information, because they program it themselves.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, so, and it takes like a minute to program it and you can change whatever is on there, like right now I have a survey on there.
Eva Shepherd: I have links to both the center of entrepreneurship and Chico start.
Eva Shepherd: I have my LinkedIn link and I have just my contact card, whereas some teachers have used it to put their online calendar for booking office time or artists put their gallery like an example gallery and things like that.
Eva Shepherd: Other people I know put their white papers on there and when you're at a trade show, it just oh yeah, so much easier.
Mark Haney: That's great Good idea.
Mark Haney: Yeah, is the business still operating?
Eva Shepherd: Yes, so the end goal I shouldn't talk so much about this class, but the end goal each semester is for people who want to continue with the business to continue and then buy out those who don't.
Eva Shepherd: So of the nine that were in this particular class, six decided to stay on.
Eva Shepherd: Wow, yeah.
Mark Haney: That's great yeah.
Eva Shepherd: And they get pro bono space inside Chico.
Eva Shepherd: Start as well, because it would be incestuous if I was to take any receipt of any money right?
Eva Shepherd: But, they need to have a space to work 24-7 and at school that that's doesn't happen.
Mark Haney: That's great, okay, so what did I not ask you?
Mark Haney: What did what?
Mark Haney: What do we want to make sure we cover about you and what you're working on?
Eva Shepherd: Well, let back to Chica start.
Eva Shepherd: So we've really grown our footprint, obviously, but not just regionally, I'm.
Eva Shepherd: So we work really well with the CSU Fresno wet center and their VC Valley Ventures.
Eva Shepherd: We also Are doing great work with CSU and B.
Eva Shepherd: So you're saying, well, why is Chico start talking about CSUs?
Eva Shepherd: Well, because in those areas they're also doing really innovative things, and those kind of things they're doing Help support our area.
Eva Shepherd: For example, we are a blue tech valley hub and blue tech valley is an initiative paid for by the CEC and, and that initiative is focused on water, energy and ag tech.
Eva Shepherd: Well, that's great, because I live in an area my whole region, right is needs those kind of technologies coming down the pike, right.
Eva Shepherd: So that's something I'm very involved with and I host Informational things Cal seed, cal test, you know work with clean start who's also one of you guys as local partners, you know Um and things to that effect, and we also host the two events a year that focus directly on that.
Eva Shepherd: We're also Working with a, the Monterey Bay drone and robotics technologies Initiative, but called Dart for short, and so we're mapping assets in the North State, say, airports that are not being used for Commercial purposes, and looking at how OEMs in the drone space can leverage out for either ag or other kinds of testing wildfire testing, things like that.
Eva Shepherd: So I'm like, oh gosh, the list goes on.
Eva Shepherd: But my primary focus is really on bringing more investors and more Industry to the North State.
Eva Shepherd: So self-appointed on that last point.
Eva Shepherd: So no one asked me to do it, no one gave me a grant to go through it.
Eva Shepherd: Um, but, like I said, if you're not growing or dying, right.
Eva Shepherd: And so we've worked very hard in getting new industries to our area.
Eva Shepherd: Since there wasn't a big plan post lumber, I couldn't find it anywhere.
Eva Shepherd: They kept saying you know health care and manufacturing, but Wasn't really seeing a lot of you know it was static to minimal growth in those areas.
Eva Shepherd: So we brought in a Biotech company that's focused on adult human stem-style research research.
Eva Shepherd: We brought in a robotics company that does haptics like so the fine motor skills, what hands would do?
Eva Shepherd: We have also brought in a nanotech R&D Arm the headquarters down in LA but the R&D arms up in Chica.
Eva Shepherd: And we've also brought in the biomaterials company was talking about Texas, right.
Eva Shepherd: And Lastly, right now we're working.
Eva Shepherd: Our newest acquisition, so to speak, newest industry to bring to the area is green hydrogen and, and so the headquarters are in Texas.
Eva Shepherd: But they just bought 15,000 acres in Tejama and they're looking at gasification and putting in refueling stations for hydrogen summites.
Eva Shepherd: Oh, wow, yeah, and so Tejama is more than glad to have this kind of Industry in their area and they're also working with Reading Rancheria in that area to build an eco village that will run off hydrogen and be not dependent on PG&E.
Mark Haney: What a concept right.
Eva Shepherd: So these are the kind of things I help support good for you.
Mark Haney: Well, we appreciate what you do and I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing what you do, and so I'll ask the final question.
Mark Haney: Advice to a startup, what Eva's wisdom to a startup?
Mark Haney: What's a?
Mark Haney: Give me a mic drop answer on this.
Eva Shepherd: Wow, okay, this one I wish I could have studied up on.
Mark Haney: I get.
Eva Shepherd: I could use the excuse that you know it's a case-by-case basis, because each startup needs something different.
Eva Shepherd: They don't all need same thing, but in some ways they all need same things.
Eva Shepherd: Okay, fundamentals, business fundamentals.
Eva Shepherd: If I could say anything.
Eva Shepherd: Take some damn financial classes, people, you know.
Eva Shepherd: If financial literacy is not one of your strong points, make it one of your strong points.
Eva Shepherd: I cannot emphasize that enough.
Eva Shepherd: Get a mentor, call Chico, start.
Eva Shepherd: Call growth factory, call yeah, and leverage as many free resources as you can.
Eva Shepherd: On the SBDC and I will mention them again we're also an SBDC tech hub, so we recently got that award as well, and that means we work with the tech futures group, which is an accelerator.
Eva Shepherd: I mean, you'd be surprised at what's in your own backyard Network, network, network, and I could say like a thousand other things.
Mark Haney: But Well, that's great information.
Mark Haney: I mean because I think so many people try to do it alone.
Mark Haney: And if you're if you're not good with Finance, maybe you should get somebody on your team that is good with finance.
Mark Haney: Yeah, you brought up earlier to to bring people in partner, and you know those resources are there.
Mark Haney: You just have to Be wise enough to know where your weak spots are and go get the help.
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, and that's you know, and I'll use that as a segue to say this is how we've also gone and worked with several partners and sponsors, I mean including banks.
Eva Shepherd: Five-star bank was one of them, in fact, john Gregory was one, the first to help start Chico, start back in the day, like ten years ago.
Eva Shepherd: I'm US Bank big supporter, mechanics bank big supporter, northern California National Bank huge supporter, and we and those are all in Chico, but they're also statewide and some are more than statewide, obviously.
Eva Shepherd: But really look at, you know, really looking at those for partners to help also bring those kind of Financial literacy and financial resources for workshops and other things like that for your area.
Eva Shepherd: So I mean, we're really blessed.
Mark Haney: Yes, well, great job on changing the the state, the North State.
Mark Haney: You made.
Mark Haney: You've made an impact, obviously, and appreciate what you do.
Mark Haney: Obviously.
Mark Haney: Entrepreneurship is near and dear to me, and so we definitely share that in common and look forward to Continuing partnerships and working together and helping one another Well, thank you.
Eva Shepherd: Thank you so much.
Eva Shepherd: Um, I'll leave on one last night with a plug, sorry, and that's for grow tech fest, Our annual entrepreneurship conference, as we are fourth year, and that is on October 11th and 12th, the week after alright alright, and it is the only one north of Sacramento and it's held at Sierra Nevada brewery and we'll have two you can't go wrong with that.
Eva Shepherd: Yeah, borough opens a new and it's two full days there and we'll include two keynote speakers, which I'm super excited about Jeff Spence of source capital, who's a global fund, and Andrew gazdeki of acquirecom.
Mark Haney: Wow, there's.
Mark Haney: There's some plugs.
Mark Haney: So October 11th, right after gfx, go up to Sierra Nevada, all right, and have something cold and wet to drink.
Eva Shepherd: That's right and and they're a good time had by all.
Mark Haney: I love it All right.
Mark Haney: Thanks for coming on the show.
Eva Shepherd: Thank you so much, mark.