San Jose State department sparks startup sessions

Yellow, blue and white paper airplanes with written notes of San Jose State entrepreneurs’ hopes and dreams flew through the air in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library Thursday.
It was intended as a symbolic flight toward the same direction and a starting point for the new SpartUp Incubator. 

The SpartUp Incubator programs provide a set of opportunities for those entering entrepreneurship including pitch practice and competition, mentor-to-mentee coaching and incubator cohorts, according to its website. 

Michael Ashley, SpartUp launch director and business professor, said the university’s Office of Innovation hosted the event as the first campuswide startup incubator program, which was designed for students, alumni, faculty and staff. 

“My intention was to just get something in place with a very strong foundation that could keep us moving in a direction to serve this very diverse and talented population we have,” Ashley said.

Ashley said there are a lot of incubators across Silicon Valley, but creating and supporting a more equitable prosperity across SJSU diverse demographics is a fundamental focus of the program. 

He said the SpartUp program will also offer the opportunity to SJSU innovators to participate in a California State University (CSU) startup competition in May 2023 for more than $250,000 in awards.

Ashley said the idea of the SpartUp program was conceived in June after Ashley and Mohamed Abousalem, vice president of the Division of Research and Innovation, began developing the idea. 

Abby Queale, director of innovation who joined the project at its very first stage, said she was very intrigued by “how seriously SJSU was taking innovation.” 

“The office of innovation was created in 2019 to support a culture of innovation here at San Jose State University,” Queale said. “So we made sure that we were the central hub of the resources that are available to SJSU students, faculty, staff and alumni.” 

Queale said when she was in an incubator program at Tallahassee Community College, she understood how necessary that support system is in starting a new venture.

Ashley said the safe-place aspect of the SpartUp program is an important way to establish support for SJSU innovators. 

“We want you to practice and fail,” Ashley said. “Because when you go out into the world, it’s not so safe, but we have created a safe place for you to try and do your very best and fail and then recover and get better and better.” 

Queale said although the “safe-place” concept is intended to help the community learn about entrepreneurship, another focal point of SpartUp is illuminating the successes of SJSU. 

“I think on the flipside of the ‘safe-space’ coin, we also want to shine the spotlight on SJSU,” Queale said. 

Xavier Verdú, an SJSU graduate student-athlete who joined the launch event, is part of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program and he presented “FutPlay.co,” his own app designed for amateur soccer teams. 

Verdú said SpartUp was a great opportunity for learning and building important business skills. 

“You can learn from absolutely anyone and that’s the beauty of it,” Verdú said. “The knowledge is infinite and the more knowledge you have, the more questions you have.” 

Verdú said SJSU has been in need of something like SpartUp, which enhances creativity– an essential attribute of entrepreneurs and innovators. 

The launch event showcased various entrepreneurs, some of which were SJSU alumni, who partnered with SpartUp.

“I truly believe that sparking imagination and allowing alumni and students and faculty to connect with each other in a way that helps bridge this imagination gap,” Ashley said. 

One of the entrepreneurs who participated in the event launch was Sameer Saran, an SJSU alumni and CEO and founder of ParkStash. 

ParkStash is a parking management platform that connects property owners who have unused parking spaces to drivers, according to its website.

“I’m really excited to share my experiences with them and see how I can help some of them grow their companies a lot in the future,” Saran said. 

Saran said over the past four years, he has gained a lot of experiences while working on his startup company and he is ready to share his knowledge for the innovators in the SJSU program. 

“I have seen the challenges that young entrepreneurs, right after graduation, or even during university will face,” he said. “I definitely think that I can impact my knowledge and how I solve those challenges to these young burning ‘Spartaneurs.’ ” 

Saran said he believes SJSU is one of the most important universities for providing a workforce to Silicon Valley and his vision is to create jobs in the territory through SJSU graduates. 

He also said there were different competitions in the business school, but he thought that SJSU had a disjointed community in terms of entrepreneurship.

“Now, SpartUp is bringing all of those aspects under one umbrella,” Saran said. “Building a stronger network and expanding your connection is certainly positive both for me and new innovators.”