SPARK Saratoga, an entrepreneur incubator and early stage company accelerator developed by Saratoga Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), announced its first Summer Speaker Series for entrepreneurs ready to grow their businesses.
The series features established professionals who have sold their company to Time Inc., led Microsoft new product rollouts, called shots on brand and marketing for Fortune 500 companies, wrote checks as investors and much more.
Invitations to the series are reserved for SPARK Saratoga’s admitted business project teams, representing 17 Capital Region businesses to date and SEDC member investors. New project teams having undergone SPARK Saratoga market opportunity analysis and having accepted mutually agreed action plans supporting their development will also receive invitations.
Interested entrepreneurs can visit www.SparkSaratoga.com to initiate review of their idea or existing early stage business status.
“When we announced our aggressive five-year growth plan to Advance Saratoga jobs and investment, a key element was boosting local entrepreneurs capacity to grow here,” said Dennis Brobston, president of SEDC. “With the help of area talent on our Advisory Team, we framed its objectives and rolled out SPARK Saratoga in April.
“With this series of workshops, we are now implementing a critical element to help our project teams develop by aligning them with talented professionals motivated to support our community and its next generation of innovators. That’s a value to families looking to keep young people here, second and third career skilled workers and retirees ready to get into business for themselves, and to our current investors competing to build on their legacy for more future success.”
The SPARK Saratoga Summer Series includes workshops in e-commerce, marketing, legal topics for business, capital markets, women entrepreneurs and feature inspirational stories of the failures frequently encountered that can lead to future success. Community partners at the Universal Preservation Hall of Proctors Theater and Saratoga CoWorks will host the workshops.
“Proctors is committed to the continued growth of the Capital Region creative economy,” said Proctors CEO Philip Morris. “We’re glad to host SEDC’s workshops and support its efforts, through Spark Saratoga, to create opportunities and educate innovative young entrepreneurs.”
“We have already benefited from the expertise of SPARK Saratoga and dozens of hours of preliminary business analysis and planning support,” said Maria Messier, co-founder and managing member of ExtendHer. “Without SPARK Saratoga’s support to date, we wouldn’t have been as competitive in the InnovateHER competition we just won. The experience led to our $1,700 award, but more impactfully, our recognition of needed gaps and ways to close them to boost our future growth.”
The sessions are:
• Marketing & the Culture that is Your Brand, 4-6:30 p.m., July 17 and 18 at Saratoga CoWorks. It features Jamie Butler Binley, principal, Brand 21, co-founder of FingerPaint; and Scott Erickson, principal, Manufaktur, formerly general manager of Microsoft HoloLens.
• Women In Business—Leveraging Passion & Skills as an Entrepreneur, 6-7:30 p.m. July 25 at Universal Preservation Hall, with Angela Beddoe, publisher of Herlife magazine and co-founder G-Force Consulting; and Dr. Tobi Saulnier, CEO of 1st Playable Productions.
• The Entrepreneur Experience—From Startup to Multinational Acquisition, 6-7#0 p.m. Aug. 1 at Universal Preservation Hall, with Matt Scarchilli, CEO of Sandler Training, co-founder of SI Play.
• Capital Markets—What Are Your Options and Being Prepared For Investors, 6-7:30 p.m. at Universal Preservation Hall, with Mike Kocan, managing partner, venture capital at Trend Discovery Capital Management; and John Cococcia, venture partner, Armory Square Ventures.