Female founders dominate Seed Spot fall 2015 venture class

You go guuurl! Was the common comment I had for the latest batch of ventures entering Seed Spot Fall 2015 class. Out of eleven ventures entering the program, eight of them are women-owned. At the monOrchid, Phoenix Councilman Daniel Valenzuela and co-founder Seed Spot Courtney Klein welcomed their startups to a crowd of Seed Spot alumni, … Read more

POTUS Demo Day promotes diversity, AZ companies recognized

Co-written with Tishin Donkersley Only 1% of America’s venture capital-backed startups are led by African Americans, and only 3% are led by women. This has to change. Today, President Obama is hosting the first White House Demo Day, promoting diversity across all industries for women and minorities. The event is giving 30 entrepreneurs and startups … Read more

Seed Spot launches nine new startup ventures

From the top of a rooftop overlooking downtown Phoenix, Seed Spot announced the nine new startup ventures who have been inducted into Spring 2015’s incubator program. To kick it off, Seed Spot CEO and co-founder Courtney Klein spoke briefly about her incubator, which has seen an 88 percent success rate of startups who have been … Read more

SEED SPOT kick-off party announces 11 new ventures

Seed Spot announced their 3rd class of hero ventures last night during a kick-off party held at their headquarters in Central Phoenix. Seed Spot is a nonprofit incubator that supports social entrepreneurs with their innovative ventures that intend to benefit the lives of people in our local, national, or global communities. Seed Spot works exclusively … Read more

Co-founder Chris Petroff steps down from incubator SEED SPOT

Chris Petroff, the co-founder of SEED SPOT, will be stepping down to pursue other ventures-the location is undisclosed at this time. Petroff is known for being a strong advocate for the entrepreneurship community and told AZTB that he will continue to nurture Arizona entrepreneurship. In December of 2011, Chris and co-founder Courtney Klein Johnson dreamed … Read more

SEED SPOT 2013 launches 15 new startup ventures

Last night, 15 startup ventures came together to pitch their business ideas to a full house at The Duce in Phoenix for SEED SPOT 2013. Seed Spot is a nonprofit incubator focused on supporting Arizona’s most innovative social entrepreneurs; those creating high impact ventures that improve the lives of people and communities on a local, … Read more

Seed Spot Is Growing Innovation In Downtown Phoenix's Warehouse District

There’s plenty of excitement brewing in Downtown Phoenix’s historic Levine Machine building (est. 1917) these days, as the one-time machinery repair building in the heart of the warehouse district is now home to several local startups, including the nonprofit incubator Seed Spot. AZTechBeat covered Seed Spot’s kick-off event in October, when the lucky 16 companies selected from 191 applications were … Read more

Meet AVA, the next ed tech superhero for school-age children

A child with the inability to see and hear well in a classroom setting has been correlated to poor performance in school. For Arizona schools, hearing screening tests for school-age children are mandatory. If a child fails a screening test, the current process is to send a flier home with the child and hope for the best, leaving … Read more

What happened in Arizona tech in June? Find out here

Arizona tech

June was another big month for tech in Arizona — everything from partnerships and grants to business milestones and expansions. Arizona Technology Council praises AZ’s 2022 fiscal year budget proposal The Council’s president and CEO Steven G. Zylstra said the proposal includes funding to keep Arizona competitive in tech. The proposed budget includes many of … Read more

Four new startups join CEI incubator

Contributions by Chloe Nordquist Four Arizona biotechnology and medical device startups will be joining Phoenix-based Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI) business incubator. “We see enormous amounts of potential with each of these companies, which is validated by the fact that several have already gone through other incubation programs in the Valley,” CEI executive director Jeff … Read more