Timothy Sharkey

Chicostart is the center of the startup and small business ecosystem for the North State. Covering 15 counties, we exist to remove the barriers for startups and small businesses to thrive, and serve businesses owned by racially and ethnically underrepresented individuals. We have created an ecosystem that networks the resources, support and technical assistance to help business. As central liaison for this regional ecosystem, we connect them to industry, funding, agency, education, makerspaces, workforce development, grants, mentoring, events and more. We host a startup incubator, coworking space and drive industry-to-industry partnerships for economic development. We help you START, GROW AND THRIVE!

OUR VALUES
Entrepreneurial – we are problem solvers, creators, and bravely determined
Passionate – we do what we love and do it because it makes the world a better place
Human – we respect each other and our humanity, and are proud to be in this movement together
Authentic – we are doing this for a reason, we are transparent, honest, and accountable to our mission
Tenacious – we get things done and pick ourselves up at every fail and pivot in order to move forward and succeed

OUR MISSION!
We support and enrich Northern California’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and provide startups the resources they need to succeed.

THE PLATFORM
Our platform includes shared office amenities, mentoring, workshops, internships, tech talks, student to business projects, entrepreneurial events, think tanks, satellite office programs and anything else that helps our core mission of helping startups succeed.

THE ECOSYSTEM
The Chicostart ecosystem includes but is not limited to investors, technologists, entrepreneurs, students, educators, support organizations, local businesses and mentors. We partner with many other entities that support budding entrepreneurs in not only the tech space but also clean energy, clean tech, sustainability, smart cities, nanotechnology, agricultural technology, etc. Some of these partners are The Vine, CleanStart, The Venture Hub, Davis Roots, AgStart, and Glenn Grows,

OUR HISTORY
We launched at the end of 2013 as an initiative of Innovate Northstate to nurture our entrepreneurial community and jumpstart our local economy. We happily thank our partnerships with Quorum Technologies, City of Chico, NM&R and CSU Chico, who helped us launch. As of Jan. 1st 2016 Chicostart has been operating as it’s own 501c3.

Our incubation programs have helped over 80 startups in the past 5 years and we are proud to have had 14 startups graduate to an acquisition event or commercial office space in Chico. Over 135 jobs have been created so far!

We are also the Northern CA designated GO-Biz iHub. This allows us to leverage the State’s help toward innovation and entrepreneurship in our communities. Learn more here!

Historically Chicostart has been a technology startup incubator. While our incubation program is still focused on tech startups we support the entire entrepreneurial community through our participation in Ag, tech, healthcare, and manufacturing industry partnerships and 1 Million Cups Chico!