SPCC.1

Never build alone! It's easier to call all of the shots, to win or lose based on your own merits, but it's so much sweeter to do it with a team. And when you have the right team, you are able to multiply your productivity, your profits, and your purpose. This weekend at West Valley College TEDX I had the support of the people I've been building with the past many years... this is my dream team! My team begins with my wife, Rita Mathew, who I owe everything to. Since she came into my life in 2010... it's been nothing but up... because I have a sounding board... someone who loves me and needs me and puts up with me and believes in me... who can provide health insurance when I'm starting a new business and common sense when I'm too far from the ground! Ben Wanzo and Martha Hernández, SHRM-SCP are my co-founders at ESO Ventures, and together we built a business bigger than we could have alone. When I worked myself into the hospital nearly 3 years ago, my business partners carried the business forward... a humble lesson... you do not really have a business until it can operate without you... and now ESO has a life of it's own. I am grateful to have their continued support as I explore new markets and new models, and ultimately expand our entrepreneurial ecosystem. Amy Chan and Alfred Solis are the founding team for SPCC.1, my new business focused on creating a network of shared service cooperatives I call community corporations... so that groups of small businesses in fragmented industries can work as a group to go after multi-million dollar contracts and growth capital... and compete against monopolies. When I sent them the text last Spring, they each said yes... knowing this was a concept that needs to be made real... ambiguity that needs definition. It's incredible to have talented people around you who make you better... and have fun doing it. A special thank you to Eric Grabiel, Dean School of Professional Studies and President Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza, Ph.D. at West Valley College for the opportunity to present one big idea worth sharing. WVC was one of my first clients when I launched Working World LLC and a great partner for ESO with our community college cohorts over the past 4 years. It is a great school with a talented staff... thank you for having me. We never have to build alone... and if we do... the vision ends when we end... If we want legacy we need to give up control, we need to share the prosperity, and we need to build for the next generation. I am very grateful to have such good people in my corner! #teamwork #legacy #sharedprosperity #startupecosystem #tedx

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” - Pablo Picasso From SPCC.1 to you and yours, wishing you shared prosperity, good health, and abundance in the new year! The A-Team: Alfredo Mathew III, Amy Chan, Alfred Solis

America’s 33 million small businesses are giants in our economy, and we have had an incredible champion in SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman. Small businesses deliver nearly two-thirds of net new jobs, employing nearly half of our private sector workforce, and producing over 40 percent of the Nation’s economic output. Under Administrator Guzman’s leadership at the SBA we have seen tremendous gains: Entrepreneurs have applied to start more businesses in the last 4 years than any 4 four-year period on record… 440,000 businesses a month, a rate 90% faster than pre-pandemic levels… I started 3 of those 20M new businesses in America… The SBA provided $56B in lending to over 100,000 small businesses last year alone - a more than 15-year record… The SBA provided over $1 Trillion in loans and grants through PPP and EIDL to help us navigate the largest societal disruption of our lifetime… And yet, we know, starting businesses is not the same as achieving product-market fit, and creating employer-enterprises in higher growth markets that have potential for true wealth building and asset creation. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend my morning with Administrator Guzman to share my experience in entrepreneurial ecosystem building over the past decade and the importance of new models that allow public and private investment to reach underinvested communities. Economic mobility and community benefit are intimately intertwined, and we need an entrepreneurial public sector to embrace the everyday dreams of the American people for business ownership and shared prosperity. Thank you for your service, your leadership, and passion for America’s small businesses to continue to add value, grow and thrive in the decades to come. U.S. Small Business Administration ESO Ventures SPCC.1 #ecosystembuilding #capitalaccess #businessownership #smallbusiness #sharedprosperity

In Fall 2024, SPCC.1, the ESO Foundation, and Startup Champions Network gathered over 100 entrepreneurial ecosystem builders from 18 states and 45 cities for the?Building Community Power Summit?in the Bay Area.?Over three days, we created space for critical conversations on the challenges and opportunities for fragmented entrepreneurial networks to create economic onramps for broad shared prosperity. Inspired by systems & organizational leaders, local entrepreneurs, and diverse communities of the East Bay, we collectively reflected on how we are often socially rich but economically poor, connected by strong community bonds yet lacking ownership over the systems that shape our lives. True community power comes from transforming these systems so that everyone can participate in and benefit from shared prosperity.?We need to think bigger, be bigger! Learn more www.spcc.one

We are going to close the Building Community Power Summit this week at Oakstop with a fireside chat with Debra Gore, President and CEO of The Greenlining Institute, an organization who for 30 years has been building a Just Economy, working at the intersection of closing the racial wealth gap and environmental justice. We are seeing a generational opportunity to unlock capital for community benefit as the public and private sectors are converging around climate investment with 40% of the benefits focused on disinvested communities. The clock is ticking and we have until 2030 to make it happen. Large corporations and institutions are preparing for this shift, but if we do not engage community and have a bottom up strategy nothing will change... not for the environment, not for the economy. This means novel approaches, new coalitions, and multiple initiatives with incredibly strong leaders and organizations are necessary to help the State of California and the United States of America make the?Green Transition while also creating real shared prosperity. We will be discussing the last mile delivery of capital into the community, GGRF, moving from policy to implementation, and the importance of designing new economic engines to build community wealth. We'll also be sharing the $100M Capital in the Community Ecosystem initiative Greenling and a coalition of our starting 5 organizations submitted to the MacArthur Foundation for their 100&Change challenge last month. Hope to see you this week at the Startup Champions Network Summit hosted by the ESO Foundation. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gz9ATVTs #Justtransition #Greeneconomy #Buildwhereyouare #Communitypower #GGRF #publicprivatepartnerships #capitalaccess #SCNBayArea #sharedprosperity

We've been debating this question since the French Revolution? What's your response? #sharedprosperity #economicvitality #aynrand #economicengines #smallbusinesses

I really enjoyed writing this piece... and the truth it reveals... our most undervalued asset is our nation's 33M business owners... "The value creation is in the hands of the 33M entrepreneurs, not the platforms we use to operate our businesses and build our dreams." Hope you don't just enjoy it... you take action like your livelihood depends on it, because it does... and learn more at SPCC.1 #buildwhereyouare #startupecosystems #sharedprosperity #businessownership #platformcooperative #capitalaccess #publicpolicy #ownershipeconomy

Broad economic expansion is more lucrative and sustainable than winner take all economies. Let’s build it!

"ONE unifying theme was the critical importance of?NEW FORMS of COLLABORATION?that can drive systemic change... it is important to EVOLVE community and economic development approaches to expand wealth-building opportunities" The Brookings Institution makes these great points about inclusive economic development in small and mid-sized cities that are true for all innovation ecosystems: ? People need to get out of their comfort zones and work together... across siloes, sectors, zipcodes... build?new and sustained relationships... ? Place needs to balance the regional and the neighborhood scale... the mistrust between people in community and government/powerful institutions like philanthropy/universities etc... community needs a seat at the table where the resources are allocated and plans are made... ? Policy shifts require less top down decision making... more inclusive processes and outcomes... ? Practice needs to move beyond the anti-poverty measurements created in the 1960s and 1970s that have not worked in 50 years, and are not responsive to a highly technological and financial power structure... Innovation is not going to come from the center... it comes from the edges... #inclusivegrowth #economicdevelopment #sharedprosperity #research #communitywealth #newmodels #nexteconomy https://lnkd.in/gQmamiJY

"Mondragon is an inspiring and successful experiment. Will it ever be repeated?" We think it's time we tried... in the largest economic engine in the world... the United States of America. Because fragmented industries and small businesses cannot compete against large corporations for public and private contracts. Because the average SBA loan is $500,000 and most small businesses... and over 27M sole proprietors in the US have less than $1M in annual revenue and are not served by the traditional financial markets. Because the more we spend, the faster the divide grows... between monopolies and everyone else... We need New Models for the Next Economy... and we need to repurpose what already exists... we need to pool our resources and work together as a group, at an enterprise level... and we need broad ownership of our platforms, our data, and our capital. MONDRAGON Corporation is a great place to start... you can learn more from this article in the New Yorker "How Mondragon Became the Largest Coop in the World": https://lnkd.in/ePBFfGE8 #NextEconomy #Cooperatives #Smallbusinesses #startupecosystem #communitywins #businessowners #sharedprosperity