Referrals are one of the most common services entrepreneurship support organizations provide. They're also one of the least tracked. Here's what that's costing you.
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Guest: Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director, California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA)
In this episode, David sits down with Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, to unpack SCALE, the state's network connecting small business support providers funded through SSBCI federal dollars and state appropriations. Clair came to public service through a Fuse Corp executive fellowship, landing in the City of Fresno's economic development office just as the pandemic hit, and has spent the years since building what she calls one of the signature accomplishments of the Newsom administration.
Clair and David dig into how CalOSBA turned a fragmented, siloed network of over 160 providers into a true ecosystem: one where competitors for the same funding learned to make warm handoffs instead of guarding their turf. They talk candidly about the "carrot and stick" of using both funding and convening power, the shift to requiring client-level (not just aggregate) data, and why that shift was a bigger mind-shift than anyone anticipated. Clair also shares why she believes a product management mindset, not just program administration, is the missing skill set in most government ecosystem-building efforts.
The conversation ranges from the coming "silver tsunami" of retiring small business owners and the opportunity in succession planning and employee ownership, to Gen Z choosing entrepreneurship over homeownership, to the $3.1 billion in capital and $4 billion in equity unlocked through the program to date. Clair closes with a story from Humboldt County that still grounds her work today.
In this episode:
Links:
Guest: Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director, California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA)
In this episode, David sits down with Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, to unpack SCALE, the state's network connecting small business support providers funded through SSBCI federal dollars and state appropriations. Clair came to public service through a Fuse Corp executive fellowship, landing in the City of Fresno's economic development office just as the pandemic hit, and has spent the years since building what she calls one of the signature accomplishments of the Newsom administration.
Clair and David dig into how CalOSBA turned a fragmented, siloed network of over 160 providers into a true ecosystem: one where competitors for the same funding learned to make warm handoffs instead of guarding their turf. They talk candidly about the "carrot and stick" of using both funding and convening power, the shift to requiring client-level (not just aggregate) data, and why that shift was a bigger mind-shift than anyone anticipated. Clair also shares why she believes a product management mindset, not just program administration, is the missing skill set in most government ecosystem-building efforts.
The conversation ranges from the coming "silver tsunami" of retiring small business owners and the opportunity in succession planning and employee ownership, to Gen Z choosing entrepreneurship over homeownership, to the $3.1 billion in capital and $4 billion in equity unlocked through the program to date. Clair closes with a story from Humboldt County that still grounds her work today.
In this episode:
Links:
Guest: Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director, California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA)
In this episode, David sits down with Clair Whitmer, Deputy Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, to unpack SCALE, the state's network connecting small business support providers funded through SSBCI federal dollars and state appropriations. Clair came to public service through a Fuse Corp executive fellowship, landing in the City of Fresno's economic development office just as the pandemic hit, and has spent the years since building what she calls one of the signature accomplishments of the Newsom administration.
Clair and David dig into how CalOSBA turned a fragmented, siloed network of over 160 providers into a true ecosystem: one where competitors for the same funding learned to make warm handoffs instead of guarding their turf. They talk candidly about the "carrot and stick" of using both funding and convening power, the shift to requiring client-level (not just aggregate) data, and why that shift was a bigger mind-shift than anyone anticipated. Clair also shares why she believes a product management mindset, not just program administration, is the missing skill set in most government ecosystem-building efforts.
The conversation ranges from the coming "silver tsunami" of retiring small business owners and the opportunity in succession planning and employee ownership, to Gen Z choosing entrepreneurship over homeownership, to the $3.1 billion in capital and $4 billion in equity unlocked through the program to date. Clair closes with a story from Humboldt County that still grounds her work today.
In this episode:
Links: