My Birthday Wish & To A Great 2020

December 28, 2019

On the last Friday of 2019... and my birthday... my wish is to express a huge slice of holiday gratitude to all our partners, colleagues, affiliates, supporters and underwriters.

Once again we've surpassed our mission of graduating a minimum 60% women-owned businesses and 50% minority owned businesses. As a 501 (c) (3) community development organization, your support and solidarity enables our continued mission to level the entrepreneurial playing field for all.

The IBA turns $5K into $10K. In 2020 we are bringing no equity, no interest and no fee growth capital to our network. In 2020 the IBA is a Kiva Trustee. If the IBA refers you (or any founder) for a 0%, 0 fee Kiva loan, you'll enjoy a 1:1 dollar matching program by our friends at the LA chapter of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). That is, for every dollar raised/borrowed, LISC will match it up to $10,000.

Stay tuned for big 2020 announcements with a leading university, implementing our accelerator into a foreign government and revitalizing the Global LAVA group for a cross-border perspective on venture capital.

As we head into 2020 we look forward to collaborating with everyone on some key projects:

1. IBA's Online Course. Have expertise to share? Let us know. Know founders ready for cross border growth? Ask us for a friend and family discount.

2. IBA's 2020 Startup Global Conference. Join us in galvanizing the SoCal entrepreneurial ecosystem in global growth with partners including the US Federal Govt and other regional innovation programs.

3. IBA's ScaleUp interchange with Africa and the Americas. If you're eager to tap into innovation from traditionally overlooked markets, we're starting with Ghana, Egypt, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaraugua and a few others.

To recap our 2019, we're particularly grateful for the following:

1. Suli Kenyatta, our newest team member, who is helping our high-growth companies with his Chinese and Arabic and experience from the AmCham in Singapore and the US-China Business Council in DC.

2. Our VIP partners like KPMG, James B at USC Marshall, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Amazon Web Services AWS, Google Startups, the International Education team at Cal State Dominguez Hills, the law offices of Louis Esbin and Fox Rothschild LLP.

3. Our regular industry gathering of Accelerator, Academia & Public Sector program leaders including LACI, Make in LA, Stubbs Alderton's Precellerator, Cross-border Labs, PledgeLA, the SoCal Alliance for Innovation, Incubate USC & the Blackstone Launchpad, Pepperdine's Peate Institute for Entrepreneurship and other program leaders, graciously hosted by Fox Rothschild LLP.

And congratulations to our 2019 portfolio of founders chasing their dreams of global operations. From Pasadena based WanaFam's acquisition of a London competitor, to LA based iPill's purchase offers in the tens of millions to Australian based BBQ in the Park for its US market entry via LA, it's an honor to help accelerate everyone we interact with.

From our recent 2020 Economic Forecast for Global Startups to the below recording of our February 2019 presentation at Innovate Pasadena's Friday Coffee Meetup, we always here to help:

IBA @ Innovate Pasadena: Six Critical Steps to Global Growth & Profits

Here's to a great and global 2020!

- Michael, Chris and Suli