Welcome Address, Day I

Welcome everyone to our third annual Innovation Ecosystem Summit brought together by the US Small Business Administration. I'm Brittany Sickler, Director of Ecosystem Development in the Office of Investment and Innovation.

And I'm Jennifer Shih, Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Investment and Innovation. Thank you so much for investing time with us these next two days. It was just a couple years ago, back in 2021, when Brittany and I were on stage kicking off the inaugural event. Now, we've been so excited to be able to continue to grow this community.

Thank you, Jen. The Innovation Ecosystem Summit was created to bring together ecosystem builders who are supporting the current and future entrepreneurs moving toward the economy of our great nation. Whether you represent a university or are running an accelerator, whether you invest in founders or run an organization that educates them on funding opportunities, we are thrilled to have you here virtually with us as we work together to build a more inclusive and sustainable innovation ecosystem.

Throughout this 2023 summit, we will listen, share and learn how we together together can raise the collective potential and success of the innovators we work with. And we're going to dive deep into ways that state, regional and federal programs can empower and assist the work that you, all of the support organizations are doing for us entrepreneurs.

And a critical component of our two days together is your participation. We've set up a time in the afternoons to have breakout sessions that allow for smaller groups to converse around specific topics. And we also have an open happy hour rooms at the end of each day where you can get to know each other a little better. We have a packed few days, so let's get to it. It's our great pleasure and honor to introduce Bailey DeVries, Associate Administrator of SBA's Office of Investment and Innovation. Bailey leads the agency's portfolio of private investment partnerships and innovation funding programs. These include the Small Business Investment Company SBIC program, the Small Business Innovation Research and technology transfer programs, SBIR and STTR, and SBA's innovation ecosystem support organizations, ESO development programs including the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program, in addition to the Regional Innovation Clusters. She comes to SBA after a private sector career in the asset management defense industries. Has served in leadership and executive roles while at T. Rowe Price, Greenspring Associates, now Stepstone, Trail, Mix Ventures and Sotera Defense. And she began her career at the strategy and management consulting firm ceb, now Gardner Research. It is through Bailey's continued support that we are all able to be here today.

Bailey, welcome and thank you. Well, Brittany and Jennifer, I can't thank both of you enough. I am just so impressed every day by your leadership and passion for the work that we are doing. It is a pleasure to serve alongside you every day. And I cannot believe this is our third, third Innovation Ecosystem Summit. And wow, the interest and enthusiasm around the event is just so incredible. So I am tremendously excited about the day that we have ahead of us and the day that we have tomorrow. But before we get into all that, it is my great honor to introduce the 27th Administrator of the U.S. small Business Administration, Isabel Casillas Guzman. She is a tremendous leader and it is an honor to serve and support her every day. Administrator Guzman is the 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 alongside her father in his chain of veterinarian hospitals, an experience that she says has shaped her understanding of entrepreneurship and its transformative effect on customers and communities. She went on to launch her own business across a range of industries and advise other founders in paving their way to the American Dream of business ownership. And she served as SBA's Deputy Chief of Staff in the Obama Biden Administration and then led the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. In early 2021, President Biden requested that she lead the U.S. small Business Administration, and her nomination was quickly confirmed by a bipartisan vote in the U.S. senate. Under Administrator Guzman's leadership, the agency has now managed over $500 billion in funding programs and deploys 40 billion in funding annually to America's small businesses and startups. She has also implemented very effective strategies that help small businesses and innovative startups gain unprecedented access to capital through federal programs, contracting professional networks, technical training, digital tools, and disaster support. It is impressive. As a result, more than ever before, millions of America's entrepreneurs have the resources that they need to start, scale, grow and build resilient businesses. So please join me in a warm welcome of Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman.

Thank you so much, Bailey. I really appreciate that introduction as well as your leadership. You know, as Bailey shared, small businesses and innovative startups are my life's work. It's my passion and it's why I am so proud of the work that Bailey and her entire team at SBA's Office of Investment and Innovation have delivered. You know, that includes the team's hard work bringing us all together for this Innovation Ecosystem Summit. You know, these convenings matter, as you all know, in enabling our better delivery of services. And for the past three years, they've doubled attendance. This is just a remarkable group of leaders who share my passion. And so I want to thank Jennifer, Brittany as well as their team members who have joined us in trying to elevate this work. Allison Evans and Ricky Jones. You know, we are all committed to building that thriving national innovation ecosystem that our country needs to be globally competitive. And that work begins with partnerships and the great work on the ground of your organizations or universities or investment firms. And we need you to be empowered with information, connections to the capital and resources that we provide and provide across the whole of government, and strategies to build inclusive networks. America is a startup nation and our programs, the sba, are emulated worldwide. I see it in my travels globally. And our strength as a nation really relies on our ability to ensure that all of our innovators, those with great ideas, solving problems and making our lives better, are supported from idea to market. You know, entrepreneurs, of course we know, deliver jobs, the competition, innovation and resilience in our economy. And the SBA focuses on improving their success outcomes. It's what strengthens our global economic competitiveness and our national security, the advancement of innovation in our democracy. One of my favorite quotes that captures for me that criticality of inclusion in this country is from Alan Turing, of course, the father of the computer. And he said it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine. And that's why President Biden says that ideas come from everywhere and anywhere. And truly our innovators can be in all corners of this nation. You know, like, I mean, I've met so many of them across the country, but I love to use the example of Core. This is a second generation waste hauling company in Portland, Oregon. And this, the son reimagined his father's company as a sustainable venture because he saw climate change disproportionately impacting the Afro Latino communities he grew up in. And he knew there must be a better way to determine construction waste recyclability than piling it up and approximating it, which is what he told me they do. And one EPA SBIR phase one grant later, they have a product concept to measure it. And this is a business that exists today that is innovating. Ideas are out there, from established firms like Core, multi generational to new starts. And it's our job to reach out and support our innovators to accelerate their growth. And our work is definitely in demand because since President Biden took office, we've experienced this small business boom over 14.6 million American have filed new business applications. Over a third of those are high propensity businesses, meaning more likely to create jobs and scale. We are seeing that growth across underserved communities as well. We've doubled Black entrepreneurship, there's been a 50% bump in Latino entrepreneurship. Women and people of color continue to lead startup rates in this country as they have for the past decade. So we need to ensure that barriers and marketplace challenges don't limit the huge potential, potential impact. Our small business starts from rural communities, from underserved communities, from, you know, those started by women and people of color. You know, they have such an opportunity to have an impact on our economy. And especially at a time when the Biden Harris administration is investing in America at record levels. From infrastructure to semiconductors and American manufacturing and R and D to the clean energy economy of the future. And it is why I have been so committed under this President and Vice President to lead transformation across our capital programs at the SBA to ensure equitable access to funding alongside your great assistance out there to take advantage of these opportunities. And across our programs, I've asked my team to be customer first and tech forward and equitable in everything we do. But it's about simplicity and speed and certainty and an expanded distribution network. You know, in our core lending programs we've simplified eligibility so ownership by control doesn't impact businesses, especially our VC backed firms out there. You know, we've cut red tape, created certainty in our decisioning and simplified underwriting on small dollar loans to just encourage that network of lenders that, you know, powers more than $34 billion just last year alone into our economy. And we've expanded our lender network as well. We know that we need to be able to meet our businesses where they are. We've lifted a 40 year old moratorium on small business licensing companies, you know, finally allowing permanent access to our loan programs by those mission lenders, the community development financial institutions, the community development corporations and other non depository institutions who are filling gaps in underserved communities going after those small dollar loans. Those opportunities in the marketplace help serve our small businesses. And you know, last year we saw increases for startups, rural communities, women and people of color as a result of our transformative regulatory changes and the expanded networks, the expanded reach through organizations like the ones you lead and through our Community Navigator program. Really trying to connect the dots for our small businesses out there. But it's beyond our core loan program. Last fiscal year, this incredible team of the Office of Investment innovation helped SBA support over $8 billion in investments in small businesses through the SBIC program, leveraging federal funding and private capital to advance the American dreams of so many growth oriented and innovative firms. And we have reimagined this program as well with transformative regulatory reform in August as well of last year. Just like our loan programs to really drive vent and growth capital across America more equitably. And those finalized rules are leading to the expansion of our SBIcs, of course, under the larger authority that the President has continued to advance in his budgets. And we are now processing and implementing new license authorities to incentivize patient and growth capital for capital intensive long duration investments and allow for fund to funds as well. We want the check riders to look like the changing face of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and reach all the far corners of this nation. And so we have also reimagined our licensing process to ensure that diversification of our portfolio and access for emerging fund managers, smaller rural investment firms. You know, President Biden was really steadfast when he laid out his vision at the last State of the Union, which you know, I love to quote because it speaks to his heart and what he's communicated to me from day one when he asked me to take this job and he said that every time someone starts a small business it's an act of hope and he wants to ensure that small businesses have access to capital. This is a whole of government approach and we definitely don't stand alone funding our innovation economy. The 11 federal agencies and the SBIR STTR programs or America's Seed Fund stand with us supporting $4 billion in non dilutive funding every year. You know, and it's entrepreneurs that I've met around the country, like Dr. David Noye, who's Atlanta based but an African immigrant, founder of Nano Research Incorporated who is using his SBIR funding to develop next gen advanced battery materials and battery manufacturing processes. And it's not just the capital, but it's the know how, the connectivity. Which is why of course we're here today at the summit. You know, the SBA has reimagined our entrepreneurial support networks and scaled funding under President Biden's leadership for our Growth Accelerator Fund competition. You have gone from 2 to $10 million annually focusing it on regional collaboration. And that expansion enabled SBA to support a range of networks and many of you hopefully in the audience today, like Accelerate Health in Kentucky that's doing national security and agtech Innovation alliance in California focusing on manufacturing and the Black Innovation alliance in Georgia, delivering equity across Multiple industries and SBA's accelerator expansion is complemented by the move of our clusters into our innovation programs. Better aligning and supporting organizations like Shadow Ridge analytics, that's out in Montana setting up Smart Sensing cluster and we intend to stay on the cutting edge and I always challenge my team to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses we serve means we have to be adaptive to fill those gaps out there in the marketplace. It's why the SBA was founded 70 years years ago. Innovation in America is in our DNA. Entrepreneurship is as well and diverse. Entrepreneurship is growing at a record high and we are investing in America and that's why President Biden says he can define America in one word possibilities, which I think is so appropriate for the work that we do every day with entrepreneurs. So I thank you for your partnership and your engagement with the SBA to help us deliver on all of those possibilities for more entrepreneurs across this nation. Thank you again for being here and thank you to my team because this is incredible work. What you do every day matters. Your impact is profound and I'm so proud to have you on my team and advancing the SBA's mission. Thank you everyone. Have a great summit.

Administrator Guzman, thank you. Your leadership is invaluable as we strive to build this this thriving national innovation and investment ecosystem. And thank you to Bailey as well. Now I would like to welcome Jamila Corbett to the stage, who will be your wonderful emcee for these next two days. Jameela. We welcome your energy, passion and cannot wait to have you guide us through a very dynamic slate of speakers and topics. So I will turn it over to you.

Thank you. Brittany hi everyone. I'm Jamila Corbett, Engagement Director at Established. On behalf of the sba, I hope you enjoyed the programming thus far. I'm excited to be here with you all today. Checking in virtually from the Washington, D.C. area. Where are you located? Let me know in the chat if you haven't done so already. Earlier I saw Dee from Pittsburgh, Muhammad from Chicago, Patty from Rockville, Buck from Upland, Franklin from Sacramento, faith from D.C. and many others. So let me know if you haven't already. All right? While you do that, I need to go over some housekeeping to ensure we're all enjoying our time together. First, your input is really important to us, so if you have a question, just simply type it in the chat and we'll do our best to get you an answer. Also, closed captions are available. If you need it, just type. Just click the CC button at the bottom. If for some reason you're experiencing technical difficulties and can't see or hear what's happening. First try just refreshing your page. Take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. That usually takes care of the problem. If that doesn't work, please email supportst us. We also encourage you to share your learnings and aha moments and highlights from this summit on social media using the hashtag you're going to see me do that a lot. Hashtag ESL Summit2023 and hashtag see the future on LinkedIn and X. You can also tag us on X. Also, because we're in a virtual environment, I think it's important for us to find alternative ways to express ourselves as audience members because we can't even see each other's body language. So we're going to get creative today to compensate just a little bit for being in a virtual medium. That means we welcome you to express yourself using emojis or gifts in the chat. And after each panel, we usually give our speakers an emoji or gift. Round of applause. You know what, let's go ahead and practice that right now. I know some of you are like, how do I do a gift? Go ahead and click that lightning button on you see in the chat box. Click the lightning button and type like a word like happy or excited. Press send and then you can shuffle through and press enter on the gift that you want to share. So I'm going to pause for the calls and let you figure that out. All right. Love to see it. Love to see it. With that said, though, our team will be monitoring the chat closely to ensure this space remains a safe environment for you to express yourself. We're all professionals here and the expectation is that we conduct ourselves as such. That means no inappropriate language, no inappropriate gifts, no inappropriate link spamming, no hate speech. We have a zero tolerance policy for all of that. All right, we're good. I think we're all on the same page. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back at 12:30, we'll be discussing small businesses and the semiconductor industry. I'll see you soon.