Day 1 Welcome Address

Good afternoon and good morning to some as well. I am Bailey devries, the Associate Administrator for the Office of Investment and innovation at the U.S. small Business Administration, and it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the second Federal Innovation Ecosystem Summit sponsored by the U.S. small Business Administration and America's Seed Fund to help entrepreneurs gain access to resources and talent and to develop ideas, create startups and commercialize innovative ideas. This Summit is so important and relevant at this very moment in history as innovators, investors, philanthropy and community organizers across our great country work to strengthen America's national and and local innovation ecosystem to fuel our economy and strengthen national and global peace and security. We are so thrilled to have attendees from all 50 states plus D.C. puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and the Trust Territories. Before we begin, I am so delighted that our fearless leader, the administrator for the U.S. small Business Administration, Isabella Casillas Guzman, will kick off the event. Isabella Casillas Guzman was sworn in as the 27th Administrator of the U.S. small Business Administration on March 17th of 2021 and she serves in President Biden's Cabinet as the voice and leading Advocate for America's 33 million small businesses and innovative startups. Administrator Guzman has made advancing entrepreneurship her life's work. Growing up, she worked beside her father in his chain of veterinarian hospitals where she gained deep appreciation for the small businesses that create jobs, open doors of opportunity, and define America's neighborhoods and communities. Family entrepreneurship inspired her to launch her own businesses across a range of industries and to advise other founders in paving their way to the American dream of business ownership. Guzman has also committed herself to public service to support small businesses. She served in the Obama Biden administration as SBA's deputy chief of Staff and went on to lead the California Office of Small Business Advocate prior to returning to the agency as its leader and administrator. Through this role, she has challenged the SBA to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses it serves and is committed to ensuring that all of our agency's programs and services are customer first, technology forward, and equitable. And under Administrator Guzman's leadership, the SBA has scaled to deliver critical financial support for small businesses to help spur America's economic recovery and transition to strong, stable growth, creating more than 5.3 million jobs and driving new business applications to historic highs. To do that, she has overhauled SBA's core and relief programs to better meet entrepreneurs where they are with funding, revenue, growth opportunities and technical assistance to start, grow and build resilient businesses. Supported by Administrator Guzman's work as Administrator, the SBA has delivered billions in historic small business grants, loans and other investments in the administration's first year that help small businesses and nonprofits across the country start, grow, recover after disasters and build resilience. She has positioned startups and small businesses to access billions of dollars in new research and development funding, international trade, digital opportunities and government contracts, including billions of dollars and new opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses. She has created the strongest SBA networks in agency history, including 100 million invested as part of President Biden's American Rescue plan and more than 70 million invested to expand women', including tripling that network's presence in historically black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions. As the Biden Harris Administration continues to lead America's transition from a globally competitive recovery to a stable economy that works for all of us, Administrator Guzman continues to push to ensure that small businesses can continue to drive competition, innovation and economic opportunity and continue to help lead the way to this reimagined economy. Administrator Guzman, thank you so much for joining us today in kicking off this amazing summit.

Oh, Bailey, thank you so much. Now I'm fired up after all that because it's just amazing what this team across the SBA has accomplished. You know, I know that our Covid relief programs help save millions of small businesses, but there is so much incredible work happening at the sba and so that was an incredible reminder. Thank you, Bailey. And it's wonderful to have you on my team at the sba. And I am really proud that you, you asked me to help deliver this program today. I mean, valuable programs like this 2022 SBA Innovation Eco Summit really produce valuable insights for our networks. And so I'm very thankful to the highly talented team at the Investment and Innovation office at the sba. You know, the SBA has convened many of the nation's top innovation ecosystem builders here to collaborate and build an inclusive ecosystem. That's the charge in the Biden Harris administration because we want to make sure that we can advance America's STEM and R& D based small businesses. Access, I say, is oftentimes more about awareness as well as trust. And that's what this event is all about. Leveraging SBA resources and expertise to push you all of our incredible innovation ecosystem builders forward. One of our accelerators in Philly once told me that they are basically social workers for entrepreneurs, connecting them to all the different resources to succeed. So today we want to help you do just that network and level up your powerful navigation strengths even further to better serve entrepreneurs working on advanced Technologies learn to build an inclusive network that reaches into underrepresented communities and share and exchange proven techniques to leverage federal lab to market programs and grow America's equitable innovation economy. As the time is now for America to lead that core to our founding at sba, our mission, which was a part of our founding nearly 70 years ago, is all about helping entrepreneurs achieve their American dream of business ownership so that our economy would strengthen with competition and innovation. That's what small businesses deliver. Entrepreneurs bring new technologies and industries to market. They make our lives and the places that we live in better. And you know, the Biden Harris administration recognizes. President Biden recognizes and has shared with me that he's concerned that unequal barriers and disparities for entrepreneurs limit this country and our economy. His great ideas come from everywhere, but opportunity and access and awareness have never been equal. President Biden asked me to help fix that with the SBA's incredible programs. And the President's economic agenda focuses on building an economy that restores our global economic leadership, invests in all of America so that we can be ready and more resilient in the future. And the early returns of those investments and the President's agenda are promising. Under. Under the Biden administration, we've created 10.5 million jobs. I know that you've heard recently, the labor market remains strong. We're seeing signs that inflation is moderating as well. And since January 2021, when the president started, we've had over 9 million Americans apply to start a business. Those rates are 70% faster than the historical averages. So we now must position our innovators and entrepreneurs to be a part of the opportunities that the Biden Harris administration is building through its legislative achievements. And those include, as many of you have already heard, the biggest infrastructure commitment since Eisenhower with the Infrastructure Investment Jobs act, the most significant investment in manufacturing and R and D in history with the Chips and Science act, and of course the Inflation Reduction act, which not only lowers health care costs and it is open enrollment and Small Business Week of Action. So I would be remiss not to mention that. But in addition, it really represents an opportunity to build a clean energy economy in the future and fight climate change. It's the most comprehensive set of actions to fight climate change. And so we need a strong innovation ecosystem to be able to reach and seed early stage science, technology and research startups in every corner of our nation and make sure that they're part of historic investment. And that means we need all of you. We need to build an entire ecosystem Together. And SBA will be your partner to help small businesses capitalize on opportunities in the Biden Harris Administration. SBA capital programs. As I know you're all familiar with, our capital programs around lending and investment are the leading edge of these investments. And we are in the midst of transforming our lending and investment products to better meet businesses where they are and better meet our partners, our lending partners, our investment partners, where they are. Especially when we think about the long development timelines and capital intensive industries that so many of you work in. And we do remain committed to ceding capital and having and having secured recently the reauthorization of America's seed fund, we are well on our way our way in this regard. SBIR and sdtr, as you know, are really critical in our economy. We've extended that $4 billion a year in non dilutive capital thanks to that reauthorization. But you know, funding those businesses is not the only answer. It's also the support of great networks like yours. And I am proud to have some of our Growth Accelerator Fund competition winners joining us here today and for the next couple days. But I'm also very proud to be announcing the launch of SBA's 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund competition. Since 2014, the SBA and federal partners have awarded nearly 400 prizes to accelerators and incubators in 52 states and territories. Investments that really are intended to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. My team has improved this year's competition, taking important learnings from prior competitions, but as well from success models that we've been implementing as part of the American Rescue Plan and specifically through SBA's Community Navigator Pilot program. But most important, it reflects our listening to our resource partners on the ground who support entrepreneurs every single day. You all know what they need. And those improvements in this program will help us catalyze even more partnerships, build more connections and bring more resources to bear for those underserved communities and those under capitalized industries and critical areas that we need to advance our economy and our nation. You know, I think the challenge is on for all of us and I can't wait to see the exciting outcomes of the next group of Growth Accelerator Fund competitors. But as well all of you around the table today. And I know that the many impactful convenings that we are having now and will have in the future will definitely help benefit and advance our ecosystem in this country. So thank you all for joining us and for everything that you have done and we'll be continuing to do to build this national Innovation ecosystem that works for everyone. Thank you as well to my team at the Office of Investment and Innovation doing a stellar job bringing us all together. Enjoy the summit, everybody.

Thank you, Administrator Guzman, for those wonderful remarks and for your leadership every day. We're so appreciative. Well, with that, let's get on with the business of the summit. So today's event and tomorrow is curated for those who work with and support entrepreneurs from high tech startups in research and development and in the lab to market space. The Innovation Ecosystem Summit will connect esos around the country with great opportunities to build inclusive innovation ecosystems and leverage federal funding programs. The summit sessions are going to touch on the state of American entrepreneurship across regional economies and predict effects on on esos. We'll talk about successful tactics and resources to build and implement a startup network inclusive of underrepresented communities and under capitalized industries, and value of collaborative partnerships and government funding programs specific to esos and that Frontier Tech and Deep Tech Entrepreneur available via SBA's America's Seed Fund. This summit is so important because the SBA is working day in and day out to strengthen America's national and local innovation economy, as are so many of our ESO partner organizations, to fuel our economy and protect our national security. As Administrator Guzman said, great ideas come from everywhere, but opportunity and access have never been equal. So we need to be intentional about solving these issues. And we believe that intentionality, in our words and action, is vital to our ability to innovate, vital to our national security, our global competitiveness and economic prosperity. Events like this bring focus and intentionality to our support for American innovation and our new innovative American businesses, small at infancy, are more vital and more in need of America's intentional support than we've known as a country for many, many decades. So thank you for joining with us today. Thank you for rowing in the same direction together and seeking to find more opportunities to collaborate so that way we can continue to advance innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.

Hello. Thank you so much, Bailey. And thank you, Administrator Guzman for your leadership and recognition of the importance of having an ecosystem and systems level view and of the connective tissue and all of the individuals who make up that connective tissue that really allows a system to thrive.

Jennifer.

I'm Jennifer Shih. I'm the Director of Ecosystem Development here in the SBA Office of Investment and Innovation. And I'd love to introduce, I guess you know, she might show up in one side or the other, my wonderful partner in crime here and nc, Jamila Corbett, who serves as engagement director from our partners at Established. So you're going to see a lot of us over the next couple days and hear from us over the next couple of days. Some of the common themes you're going to be hearing are about our nation's resources, whether they're private or public, and the need to really increase that reach into the underrepresented communities so that we can kind of work ourselves out of a job there.

Right?

We don't want anybody to be underrepresented. And what I really value about the administrators, one of the things I value about the administrator's remarks in talking about, you know, that awareness and trust in terms of accessibility is needed. And so highlighting the trust aspect and going back to something Bailey just said about intentionality, you know, we really are trying to be very intentional about bringing many different perspectives and voices together, and that includes you. So wonderful to to have all of you here today. And Jamila, what would you like to say?

Yes, thank you, Jennifer. Hey everyone, I'm Jamila Corbett, Engagement Director at Established. On behalf of the sba, I'm really, really, really excited to be with you here today. Checking in virtually from Washington D.C. where are you checking in from? Let me know. In the chat earlier, I saw Robin from Georgia, Joshua from Texas, Inez from Cali, Rose from Orlando, Angela from North Carolina, Diane from Virginia, Shantay from Miami, David from Tennessee, and many others. I wish I could shout out all of you, but I will be hopping in and out of the chat throughout the day. So please engage with us while you are letting me know where you're located. Need to go over some housekeeping to ensure we all enjoy our time together first. Your input is really valuable to us, so if you have a question, just simply type it in the chat and we'll make sure to get you an answer. There are. There are no dumb questions. We're here to help. Don't be shy, just ask. I see Jamal from Harrisburg.

Hey.

Hi. Maura from Philly, Troy from Wichita, Kansas. I see you. I hear you. I'm going to be with you in a moment, so I just want to point out that there are two ways. Two ways you can chat with us on your screen. The event chat and the stage chat. Most of us are hanging out in the stage chat, so just look on your screen, click the stage chat and join the conversation. Also, closed captions are available. Just look at the bottom of your screen. You should see the CC button and just use it if you need it. And if for some reason you're experiencing technical difficulties. I know we're all at the mercy of our technologies. Just try refreshing your screen. Maybe you can see us but can't hear us or you can hear us and can't see us. Usually refreshing your screen takes care of the problem. However, if you're still experiencing technical difficulties, email us supportst us and we'll be. We'll do our best to guide you and make sure you're all squared away. We also encourage you to share your learnings with us on social media using the hashtag that's my hashtag symbol hashtag eso summit22 and tag us if you're on Twitter at sbirgov. So we're all here to network. We're all here to engage in meaningful dialogue and learn from one another. Our team will be monitored monitoring the chat very closely to ensure this space remains a safe environment for you to express yourself. We have a zero tolerance policy for link spanning and hate speech. So please govern yourself accordingly. All right, I think, I think I've about covered it. Jennifer, are we ready to get this party started?

Well, you know, We've got our 12:30 sharp fireside chat where Bailey Devries will be coming back and having conversation with Ali Burns from Village Capital and Kelly Burton from Black Innovation Alliance. Certainly I think we can have a little bit of conversation about who might be here today because we have over 1400 people who have registered for this event. So hoping that means there's greater awareness of this possibility and who who this event is for. So I know that we definitely have a number of startup innovators and small businesses that have joined us and you are definitely welcome here as well. I will say we have made this program specifically for the organizations who are out there to support you. So this is actually probably a good way to learn about who those organizations are. But the funding opportunities we'll be talking about are really more geared towards those kinds of organizations who are going to be helping you figure out how to connect up to the realm of capital.

Yes, and I also want to plug our go to hub for ecosystem builders like yourself, AmericaSeed Fund Us. Let me say that again. AmericaSeed Fund Us. Someone is going to share it in the chat so you can click that link and that is your go to resource for all things SBA Innovation Ecosystem where you can just immerse yourself. There's resources, different signups, join our ESL monthly calls. I don't know if you want to talk about that, Jennifer, which is super fun, might I add.

Yeah, well, so. And that's where you may have seen Jamila and maybe me in the past. Hopefully you've been joined us for our series of monthly SBA Innovation Ecosystem network calls. And that's actually where this summit grew from. You know, a number of years ago, Brittany Stickler, when she was here with the Office of Investment and Innovation team at sba, started off just having some more informal calls among awardees of the Federal and State Technology Partnership program. Just an opportunity for these like minded community or leaders to share information with each other about what they've been doing in their state, how things have been going. And it started to just grow because it turns out there are actually a lot of people who are interested in how we can best support startup innovators across the country. And the thing about the network, or any network really is that it's stronger when there are more individuals here.

Right.

Because we each bring these unique perspectives and skills and knowledge sets. And that's really the key here, is that if we can grow the network of individuals, then we have even more connections to be able to help an entrepreneur find the answer that they need faster for the answer that you need.

Yes. And so we do these ecosystem calls. Usually we have great conversation. We have different guests from our agencies with SBIR STTR programs. Sometimes we feature our are ecosystem builders like yourself. So if you want to join the ecosystem SBA innovation ecosystem, visit AmericaSeed fund us and there should be a link on there. Just click up sign and we'll get you all integrated into our SBA Innovation ecosystem. All right, with that being said, Jennifer, you have anything else to add before we allow our folks to take a quick coffee break?

Yeah, the one last thing I would say is if you are a small business innovator or thinking about starting a small business, definitely go to check out SBIR, that's Small Business Innovation Research, sbir.gov where there's a lot more information that's targeted towards you as the small business innovator. But if you do go to americaseed Fund Us, be sure to check out that introduction from America's Seed Fund Week back in July.

Yeah, that was super fun. We, we all enjoyed America's Seed Fund Week. So stay tuned because we may have another one coming up in 2023. But I'm not going to ruin the surprise on that. I think I just ruined it. So. All right, let's think our watches, we're on eastern time over here and we'll be back at 12:30pm sharp for fireside chat with Bailey Devries, Allie Burns, Kelly Burton, on your path to sustainability. Please don't go anywhere. Go ahead, get another cup of coffee. Or if you don't drink coffee like me, get enough. Refill your water cup and I'll see you back here 12:30pm sharp Eastern time.