Mike is the Regional Director of the Orange County and Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network, which assists aspiring entrepreneurs and current business owners throughout Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. Before this role he was the director of an SBDC office in Long Beach for 5 years.
He has been and is a business owner and entrepreneur himself. He started with a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in LA, and then opened a second location in Long Beach, eventually employing 20 people including managers at both locations. He eventually sold the LA store and took minority position in several other locations. He has the retail bug, though, as he has another store in Long Beach now called Sugar Daddies Sweet Shoppe. We had a good discussion about starting as a franchisee and then developing his own brand.
Mike is an entrepreneur, working with other entrepreneurs, and managing a critical support system that our government provides to small businesses here. He sees so much activity that I was excited to hear his important perspective and input. I learned a lot about trends in small businesses in Orange County.
When Passion Meets a Market Need - Nicky Senyard, Co-founder & CEO of Fintel Connect
Launching a Startup within a Bank - Nathan Baumeister, Co-founder & CEO of ZSuite
Building a Personal Brand and Enjoying It - Teddy Mitrosilis of The Mitrosilis Group
Community-building as a Path to a VC Career - Rex Salisbury, Founder & GP at Cambrian
Charles Potts - Chief Innovation Officer at ICBA
Eric Sprink - President & CEO of Coastal Community Bank
Wayne Miller - SVP Innovation Programs at ICBA
Brent Jackson - Founder & CEO of Torpago
Ron Shevlin - Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone; Senior Contributor at Forbes
Howard Makler - Founder & CEO of Innovation Refunds
David Wexler - Co-founder & CEO of PortX
Zack DeFord - Co-founder & CEO of Smerf
Cat Berman - Co-founder & CEO of CNote
Jason Yeh - Founder of Adamant, Teaching Founders To Be Better Fundraisers
Bradley Leimer - Co-founder of Unconventional Ventures, Author of Beyond Good
Kiah Haslett - Managing Editor of Bank Director
Mark Forbis - Former CTO of Jack Henry; now Board Director & Fintech Investor
Alice Frazier - President & CEO of Bank of Charles Town (BCT)
Doug Holte - Founder & CEO of Agile Workweek Investments
Fred Thiel - CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings
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