CSU Demo Day Powered by Sunstone Showcases Young Entrepreneurs

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--University-level entrepreneurial teams from all over California will converge on the California State University, Long Beach, campus Friday, Nov. 3, for a day of pitching startup business concepts.

It’s called the CSU Demo Day Powered by Sunstone, and this is the second annual event. All 23 CSU campuses have been invited to send teams from their respective entrepreneurial programs to present their cutting-edge technology or products, looking for connections and support.

“We already have 40 teams signed up to pitch,” said Wade Martin, director of the Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Cal State Long Beach, and one of the founders of the program. “That’s more than double what we had last year.”

With a week to go before the event, there could be more than 50 teams participating. Martin said the diversity of concepts is impressive, ranging from biotech to commercial products.

Investors are invited to come hear the pitches, and the day is open to the public. It takes place in the CSULB Student Union, with two concurrent sessions, in order to hear from all the teams between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 3^rd.

Sunstone Management, Inc., through the Sunstone Community Fund, is sponsoring the event. Sunstone also sponsors the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Competition in the spring when student entrepreneurs from the 23 CSU campuses compete for $200,000 in prize money. CSU Demo Day is open to all founders from the CSU system including faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

“We are honored to help bring together so many amazing minds found in the CSU university community,” John Keisler, CEO and managing partner at Sunstone, said. “These young founders are the future of technology and business in California and beyond.”

Martin also is a founding board member of the Long Beach Accelerator, a nonprofit accelerator for startup companies. He said this university-level Demo Day is an important step in the journey to a successful business.

“We created the CSU Demo Day Powered by Sunstone to allow the public and investors to recognize and appreciate the creativity and passion of entrepreneurs coming out of the CSU university ecosystems,” Martin said. “Part of the reason for shining a spotlight on these founders is to demonstrate how important the CSU system is for economic development.”

Tickets to the event are free and available here. For more information, go to csulb.edu/institute-for-innovation-entrepreneurship.

About Sunstone Management

Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital management firm with headquarters in Southern California that provides a range of early-stage venture capital, real estate, and fixed income funds to qualified and accredited investors. The firm delivers new and exciting options for economic growth through innovative public-private partnerships, making use of its unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row. In the second quarter of 2023, PitchBook ranked Sunstone the seventh most active early-stage venture capital firm in the country, and 18^th overall.

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