Interested in starting your own business? This could be your chance to do so and win cash.
The Yolo Business Ascent Challenge, which will begin on Mar. 12, will be an opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their talents and their projects.
The challenge is sponsored by Golden Capital Network, a company whose purpose is to introduce innovative entrepreneurs to capital, expertise and resources.
The challenge kicks off with a business and networking information session on Mar. 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the West Sacramento Civic Center Galleria.
Anyone in Yolo County interested in entrepreneurship or innovation is invited to attend, the release said.
Four innovative Yolo companies, including Vitalea and Puroast will make short presentations about their successes and challenges.
This challenge could be a great opportunity for students or recent graduates to showcase their creativity, said Jim Mikles, vice president of Golden Capital Network.
“We’re encouraging previous competitors of the Big Bang business plan competition on campus to participate,” he said. “It’s a way they can continue to grow their companies.”
Aside from the cash prize, the winner of the competition will receive statewide exposure for their company, Mikles said.
“The Yolo Business Ascent Challenge is part of a statewide initiative to find the very best innovation companies,” he added.
While Golden Capital Network has been sponsoring business competitions for many years, this is the first time they have conducted one on a statewide scale, Mikles said.
Also, if students are interested in entrepreneurship but don’t have their own company yet, they can still attend the challenge kick off, he said.
“The launch is open to the public and free to attend; students can go find out how they can participate if they wanted to, and to hear from successful companies about how they became successful,” Mikles added.
One of the companies who will give a short presentation at the launch is Vitalea Science, a company owned exclusively by women that is devoted to the scientific research of human data.
“We are innovative,” said Le Vuong, co-founder of Vitalea. “Our core values are efficiency, humanity and creativity.”
These values are crucial to any person wanting to start their own business, she said.
Vuong and other members of the Vitalea team believe they will have good advice to present to aspiring entrepreneurs at the launch.
“Efficiency is the main thing,” she said. “In everything you do you must think about how you can get the most output from the resource at hand.”
Efficiency is important to any start-up company, she said. A lot of start-ups run into the common problem of trying to build too fast and inevitably using up their resources before they are able to make a profit, she said.
More information about the event can be found at yolo.businessascent.com/.
CAITLIN COBB can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
