KSBW SEASIDE, Calif. — At Cal State Monterey Bay, the college of business is hosting the 2020 virtual Startup Investment & Community Capital Expo. The goal of the event is to focus on inclusion of minority owned business leaders.
The event is three days long and is expected to bring equity to minority owned businesses by giving them the tools and leaders needed to help with funding and capital.
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“There are avenues that are blocked to certain groups,” said Shyam Kamath, the Dean of the CSUMB College of Business.
The certain groups in reference are minority businesses owners.
Kamath said, “bring both the policy issue in, bring the policy angle to bring real change to what is going on in the real world.”
The real, world problem, Kamath said, is minority-owned businesses are getting left behind. According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, minorities make up 32% of the population. When it comes to minority business owners that percentage drops to 18%. Despite the gap, minority owned businesses created 4.7 million jobs over the past 10 years.
CSUMB hopes its three day summit can help bridge the gap of minority and non-minority business owners.
“It’s natural for us to see how we can further extend and improve in the context of Black Lives Matter. And the goal of the expo is, of course, to find pathways to capital and for rejuvenating, restarting, reinventing the businesses that have been completely decimated by the pandemic,” said Kamath.
The virtual expo is free for students and $25 for the general public. Click here to purchase tickets. To learn more about the 2020 Startup Investment & Community Capital Expo, click here to be directed to the website.
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