10:30am Steel A Breakout Room – Inclusive Design – Intentional, Everyday DEI – Life After Patriarchy
Notes provided by student volunteer Viswanath Chilakala
On Friday, June 14th, Steven Joiner from Life After Patriarchy presented at the 2024 CleanTech Innovation Showcase about inclusive design for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG).
- 62% of employees are not engaged according to a Gallup report from 2024.
- $8.9 trillion or 9% of the global GDP, is lost because of employees not engaging.
- Inclusion is an overlap between decision-making and communication.
- One tactic discussed to increase inclusion in the workforce is to communicate about the type of decision-making process employees are participating in:
- Input – ex. Employees providing feedback on a decision that’s already been made
- Influence – ex. Employees providing feedback on how a decision will be implemented
- Impact – ex. Employees provide ideas for a new program that they will also have a hand in developing
- More inclusive workplaces strive to include employees in impact decision-making and not just ask for input.
If you would like to learn more about the companies or get connected with any of the speakers, please email info@cleantechalliance.org.
11:00am Steel A Breakout Room – Regional Resources for early-stage clean technology startups – NWCIN
Notes provided by student volunteer Viswanath Chilakala
Michael Pomfret, Leo Ochoa, and Rachelle Ames from the Northwest Cleantech Innovation Network (NWCIN) presented at the 2024 CleanTech Innovation Showcase about resources available for early-stage startups.
- Washington Clean Energy Testbeds: Industry-focused prototyping and testing facility at the University of Washington. User facility, which means there are not typical university intellectual property entanglements.
- The facility can support startups in energy storage, siloed materials and devices, battery materials and devices.
- They can also do additive manufacturing.
- Newer program through the NWCIN is the CleanTech Hardware Innovation Prototyping (CHIP) program. Startups apply for funds for use at the Testbeds facility and for staff time. Up to $25,000 if selected.
- VertueLab is a non-profit focused on supporting climate startups in the Northwest. There are three pillars to VertueLab’s work.
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship. They partner with organizations to implement programs for early-stage entrepreneurs. The Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator with CleanTech Alliance and 45Camp programs with Tabor 100 are some examples of cohort programs.
- Federal Funding Assistance. They provide support for startups interested in SBIR, STTR and other federal grants and contracts from grant opportunity identification to proposal review and development.
- CleanTech Alliance works with the NWCIN on the Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator and Lab2Launch programs.
- Selected accelerator participants are connected to industry mentors, funding opportunities and pitch coaching.
- The Lab2Launch program provides startups and entrepreneurs access to research institution resources and programs.
If you would like to learn more about the companies or get connected with any of the speakers, please email info@cleantechalliance.org.
11:30 Steel A Breakout Room Recap – Leveraging CleanTech Export Opportunities: U.S. Government Support to Increase Your International Sales – EXIM
Notes provided by student volunteer Frank Lin
Mitsutaka Saito from Export-Import Bank of the US (EXIM) presented at the 2024 CleanTech Innovation Showcase about export financing solutions for American businesses.
- The EXIM Bank has export credit insurance and financing options for American businesses to compete with China, as well as clean energy financing options for small businesses.
- Mitsu Saito emphasized the importance of supporting US-made goods and services for job creation per their mandate.
- Additional export finance programs are available for US businesses, including SBA loan guarantees and US Commercial Service support.
- Speakers discussed trade strategy, financing, and development projects with a focus on US government agencies.
If you would like to learn more about the companies or get connected with any of the speakers, please email info@cleantechalliance.org.
1:30pm Steel A Breakout Room – Find, Get and Keep Customers – 3Create Session #1
Notes provided by student volunteer Mingcan Huang
Catherine Lindner, Coco Inoue, and Barbara Christine from 3Create presented at the 2024 CleanTech Innovation Showcase about how to find, get, and keep customers.
- 3Create provided tips for those beginning to track their customers and how to use customer data.
- “Start small, scale smart.” Start with collecting historical data, performance measurement and tracking.
- “Who are your customers and are they ideal?” Profile the gap between current and ideal customers.
- Think about the “Data the story tells” and how your customer experience changes with your product broader effect?
- Additional tips were provided for the customer experience – keep section:
- Align your business and marketing goals, sales revenues, and customer tracking through website, social media and other channels.
- Tell the story from the perspective of your customers. Why should they buy from you?
- Customer tracking and feedback. SEO (people find you on the web), SurveyMonkey, blog, etc. all the possibilities online and offline.
- Customer journey mapping. Need leads to purchases leads to post purchase, but awareness comes before all of that.
- Education raises awareness. User guide, tutorials, etc. during the purchase spotlight program (user experience) seller-customer experience. Surveys interviews with customers. Outcomes are greater than features. Keep it simple.
If you would like to learn more about the companies or get connected with any of the speakers, please email info@cleantechalliance.org.
2:00pm Steel A Breakout Room – Find, Get and Keep Customers – 3Create Session #2
Notes provided by student volunteer Mingcan Huang
Catherine Lindner, Coco Inoue, and Barbara Christine from 3Create presented at the 2024 CleanTech Innovation Showcase about how to find, get, and keep customers.
- 3Create continued their presentation after a recap of last session.
- Tactics discussed were:
- When to get a CRM (customer relationship management) and what to do in early stages before a CRM.
- Ask for minimal information name, contact; interest of product then link to longer to survey to continue to gain more information.
- Be wary of the bias of responders if you have a low response rate. This will likely be distorted data (too far on either spectrum).
- Behavioral surveys – what did customers do – instead of what they answered in a survey
- Attendee numbers, time of staying, etc.
- Historical data and research tools: Seattle library B2B, B2C
- Focus on the key factors/customers at the beginning. People make the switch when they see the comparisons. How do those features help the problem you’re solving with your product?
- Types of marketing – Public relations (PR) media stories, video publications (YouTube, TV channel), tradeshows. Find how your ideal customer gets their information or makes their buying decisions.
If you would like to learn more about the companies or get connected with any of the speakers, please email info@cleantechalliance.org.