Closing Remarks, Day II

And just like that, two days, over 50 speakers and 2400 registrants, all with the mission to build a more inclusive innovation ecosystem where there's equitable access to federal funding opportunities and other sources of capital as well. What an amazing way to close a summit. But this does not mean we are close to closing SBA support. So on that note, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce SBA's deputy administrator, Delaware said. Deputy administrator said comes from SBA, comes to SBA from the State Department where he championed American businesses as Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs. As the State Department's top commercial diplomat, he advocated for US Companies to compete and win abroad and helped ensure US Competitiveness in markets across the globe. Before joining the Biden administration, he led an AI healthcare company as well as occupied senior roles in major technology companies. Deputy Administrator Said has driven civic efforts at federal, state and local levels focusing on economic growth and entrepreneurship. As the Founding Chair of the California Entrepreneurship Task Force with the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, he was a strong promoter of inclusive entrepreneurship. We are thrilled to have him at SBA and here to close out today's summit.

Deputy Administrator thank you so much Brittany and thank you. For you, for you and the entire team on amazing work with our third Innovation Ecosystem Summit. And congratulations everyone for being part of this and in all ways that you are partnering with us and that you will partner with us going forward. As Brittany mentioned in her intro, I come to public service from entrepreneurship route. I'm a tech, entrepreneur, public servant and I know firsthand the importance of a supportive, dynamic, robust ecosystem in helping entrepreneurs like myself. When you're a first time founder of a startup, your playbook is often others who are around you who have gone through the journey of hiring, you know, the first sales rep or thinking about how to negotiate a contract. And all that mentoring and advice comes from your circle of trust. These are folks who are often non transactional in giving you advice and mentorship. So the role that organizations that many of you are online today play, advisors, angels, investors in supporting these entrepreneurs who are often going on uncharted territories, is absolutely critical. In fact, if I may say, it is an act of public service, just as it is an act of public service as I have the privilege to serve at the SBA today, now at this moment of our economic recovery, and in fact I would say incredible economic growth, this role becomes even more critical. Last quarter, you know, our economy grew 5.2% GDP growth. That's incredible given the size and scale of our economy and that is on the, on the, on the, on the top of investments that the President has made in a country last year with ira, the Gypsum Science act, the bipartisan A bill. We're investing at a scale and level and depth in building industries of the future in a country that we haven't done frankly, since the New Deal some 75, 80 years ago. And with that major investments or industrial policy, we going to see, and we already are starting to see now, a new class of startups, small businesses that are emerging. So your role in supporting this next generation of companies that will emerge as ecosystem stakeholders, as mentors, as advisors is again absolutely critical. So we know that SBA partners with many of you. We hope that we will partner with more of you on the call and that you will sustain that partnership. And I personally am looking forward to getting to know some of you as I travel around the country. So just want to thank you for all that you do. Wish you all the best as we deepen our partnership. And of course, happy holidays.

Thank you so much, Deputy Administrator, for your support of this community, for that encouragement and that challenge for us all. Looking forward to next year. All right. Well, there definitely is something about the energy in this room, in this place, and the passion the group has been sharing. It's definitely created an irresistible and motivating experience. Jen?

Absolutely. It's truly amazing and it's been such an honor to be part of connecting so many strong organizations and thought leaders. This morning, our associate administrator, Bailey DeVries, hosted a fireside chat with Erica Fuchs and Jared Evans where we learned more about the role of small businesses in supporting the Department of Defense's critical technology areas, as well as tracking equity and impact when new technologies are implemented. Next we had Shailey Holloway, Didi Zaker and Mary Grove, who dove into the small business capital journey and discuss the importance of intellectual property and the place of venture capital in that whole capital spectrum.

Yes. And then we covered equity and entrepreneur ecosystems with Maddie Stokes, SBA's Jackson Brasi and Joanne Hill, where we learned about SBA's tribal college business Achievement Program and how SBA and MBDA programs are working together to deliver resources to entrepreneurs. Today's concurrent breakout sessions were again very engaging and inspiring. Allison Evans led an open discussion around gaps in federal support for esos, where she heard directly from esos on how to spur cooperation, not the competition, within the innovation ecosystem.

And then another breakout session provided lessons learned from organizations and businesses that were able to grow through federal funding opportunities. Ross Bush, Rohit Shukla, Bridget Weston and Tricia Compass Markman shared their experiences and best practices for building coalitions using data and stories with emotional impact in order to build trust and relevance within their community of entrepreneurs. Then there was also a great discussion on Lab to Market and how to Support entrepreneurship at HBCUs and MSIs with Kiana Stewart, Erin Horn McKinney and Donna Harris. They delved into how to help entrepreneurs transfer technology from the university setting to the commercial market and what that requires.

Well then, our last session of the day end of this year's Summit emphasized the importance of quantifying impact as an eso, Charles Ross, Tammy Charles, Tracy Dudenhoff and Krista Covey shared actionable ways they are improving their organizational capacity and the capacity of their local ecosystems by tracking and utilizing metrics for important policy work and even narrative changes. Really thinking about what you want to achieve as an organization and what we want to achieve through this collective impact. At the end of the day, we Hope that the 2023 Innovation Ecosystem Summit is just a beginning or a refresh of an ongoing conversation throughout our Innovation Ecosystem and SBA as a whole. As Jen actually shared yesterday, the great Pavel would say, ecosystems are interconnected networks of organizations, resources and people working towards a common goal or sharing a common identity. Our vision really is to build up those interconnected networks so that we can see more stronger entrepreneurs building all kinds of technologies in all kinds of places.

In the coming weeks we will share videos and resources and we also want to hear from you. We want to hear your feedback. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy week to choose to be present with us. We really want to know what you appreciated about the summit, what you would like to hear more of, and any other thoughts around how we can collaborate and best empower all innovators from anywhere in the United States from all backgrounds.

All right, we have one more happy hour and we would love for all of you who are still here to meet each other. You actually might end up crossing paths with each other again if you join in our monthly calls. They are not as big as this summit, but they are a rare space where you can show up and hear from your peers across the country while accessing curated information from across our federal partners. We will be following up with more information. We really want you to know that the community and connection is incredibly vibrant here and it's more important than ever for all of us to be participating. So thank you for your dedication. We look forward to seeing all of you again and diving deeper at one of our other events or again at next year's summit.

Thank you.