Our primary purpose is to provide early stage startups with:
Space to locate in Long Beach
The Long Beach Accelerator has secured inspiring, collaborative workspace in downtown Long Beach that is available for cohort members and alumni, including conference room space.
Access to operating capital
While you’re building and growing, it’s nice to have the bills taken care of. The LBA, in collaboration with both equity funders and non-dilutive sources, helps you with the extra runway so you can focus on your business.
Mentorship and coaching to develop an exit strategy
Leverage experience and networks to supercharge your trajectory. Mentors will provide continuity and constructive feedback, and help hold you accountable to you and an intensive program designed for your success.
Preparation to approach investors
Pitching investors doesn’t come easy to most. But with preparation and practice, you’ll have the confidence in your business plan and pitching skills so that your product and execution abilities will shine through.
Strategic Partnerships and Revenue
Perhaps the most important person to a business is your customer. During your time at LBA, you will have opportunities for introductions in your industry with a focus on finding early partnerships to grow into lasting customer relationships.
And much more
Not every startup is alike and we’ve put together a package of resources worth over $500K that is as unique as your idea. Contact us with any questions, or register here.
Our History
The Long Beach Accelerator is a growing tech accelerator in the state’s seventh largest city. It is a public-private partnership between the city of Long Beach, Sunstone Management, and CSULB.
The three founding members are John Keisler, Director of Economic Development for the city of Long Beach, Wade Martin, Director of CSULB Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and John Shen, CEO and Founder of Sunstone Management.
The LBA is an idea that was spawned from the city’s Economic Blueprint released in 2015. The city created a vision and economic development plan to transform Long Beach into a thriving community where every neighborhood in the city can experience economic growth with every resident and student of local colleges having at least one job opportunity within the city of Long Beach that provides both higher salaries and a better quality of life.
The vision included creating an innovative tech ecosystem for entrepreneurs to have access to the markets and resources they need to build their business within the city of Long Beach. As a result, CSULB launched a tech incubator program on campus providing opportunity for any interested entrepreneur to participate in their program on how to take their ideas and make it into a reality, build a product and company to provide the services or product that customers can use and want to buy.
After thorough discussions and interviews with the community, there was a question of what else is needed for Long Beach to thrive. It was determined Long Beach needed to complete the tech ecosystem with an accelerator program to help these new emerging tech companies gain traction, grow their customer base and obtain the resources and expertise they need to expand their companies.
Equipped with this knowledge, John Keisler, serendipitously met John Shen, an entrepreneur and member of the Long Beach economic development commission.
In their encounter, John Shen expressed his interest and passion for supporting innovative entrepreneurs. John Keisler arranged a meeting with John Shen and Wade Martin to discuss possibilities and the idea of the public-private-academic partnership to form the Long Beach Accelerator solidified in that meeting.
Long Beach Mayor, Robert Garcia, along with CSULB President, Jane Conoley, and John Shen made the public announcement of the formation of LBA at Long Beach’s Economic Forum in April 2019.