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| Chicostart employees work in their downtown office.
Chicostart, a local nonprofit tech-startup incubator, has started a partnership with Chico’s local tech businesses called Growtech.
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The program aims to bolster the local tech industry in Chico by pulling businesses together and helping them communicate their ideas to organizations capable of providing them with resources.
Chicostart Managing Director Wendy Porter describes the program as a “fertile ground for startup success.”
Growtech wants local students to stay in Chico, taking jobs in our tech industry. It also hopes to ensure that school faculty teach students the right things to get those jobs.
Its website displays all the local businesses that are currently hiring, making it a “one-stop shop to know what is going on in the tech industry,” Porter said.
Growtech has five major goals in Chico:
- Recruit tech talent.
- Showcase our local tech industry to outsiders.
- create a networking community within our tech industry.
- consider infrastructure challenges that affect our tech industry.
- explore emerging tech markets elsewhere.
The leaders of local companies involved in Growtech meet quarterly to define issues and opportunities. For example, in the future, Growtech hopes to push local and state governments to fix broadband issues. It also hopes to use its collective voice to help Jet Chico to open up more air travel.
Once the organization defines its areas of focus, teams are formed to tackle specific tasks.
In the future, Porter said, she hopes state-funded programs will have an easier time meeting the needs of the tech industry.
-- Grant Schmieding