Long Beach Tech Week 2025: Highlights from a Breakthrough First Year
Long Beach Soars with Energetic First Tech Week
From the moment the first attendee walked into the Ampaire hangar on Tuesday afternoon until the last goodbye at the Long Beach Accelerator Investors and Founders Summit, the energy of the first Long Beach Tech Week was palpable.
“Long Beach Tech Week 2025 is our inaugural year to bring together our tech community with a focus on start-up tech in the region and Long Beach,” said Vivian Shimoyama, CEO of the Long Beach Accelerator, which hosted the event. “Leaders from throughout the region joined us to show their support and commitment to collaborating in growing resources for our region.”
The kickoff reception at Ampaire set the tone for the week. Ampaire is bridging the gap to the aviation clean energy world of the future with its hybrid-electric propulsion systems. “Think of it as a flying Prius,” Ampaire CEO Kevin Noertker said while welcoming attendees.
Deputy Mayor Lucius Martin followed with three CEOs of startups supporting the burgeoning Space Beach aerospace cluster in Long Beach. In a bit of synergy, all three worked at Space X before launching their own companies.
The experiences of Carrie Marshall of Rebel Space Technologies, Ben Schleuniger of Orbital Operations and Bala Ramamurthy of Critical Loop demonstrated the broad range of opportunities for such support companies. Rebel Space deals with computer modeling, Orbital Operations offers satellite boosting and repositioning in outer space and Critical Loop is solving industrial power problems with ever-more-efficient batteries.
Those successful companies offered great role models for the founders presenting at CSU Demo Day, the second day of Long Beach Tech Week. Sixteen startups, from 13 California State University campuses, offered explanations of businesses. The concepts ranged from life-saving medical breakthroughs to AI-enhanced vehicle inspections to a super foam that could protect athletes’ heads and delicate cargo.
“The combination of activities for the 1st Annual Long Beach Tech Week demonstrated that the P3 model is the model to create something impactful,” said Dr. Wade Martin, director of the CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and a professor at CSULB. The IIE organizes the Demo Day with sponsorship from Sunstone Management.
“The partnership between the Long Beach Accelerator, Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Sunstone, and the City (of Long Beach) shows the power of public–private partnerships.”
In January this year, the Long Beach Accelerator hosted its first Investors and Founders Summit.
The second iteration took place Thursday, Sept. 25, in front of a packed room. While the first Investor of the Year, Sunstone founder John Shen, was unable to attend, five awards were handed out by distinguished presenters. Winners this year were Founders of the Year Bill Beverley and Jakson Alvarez at Evolectric, Investor of the Year Naseem Sayani, and three Champions of the Year – Tyler Bonanno-Curley and Mary Torres of the City of Long Beach, and Jeanette Christian in LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.
Then a distinguished panel of investors took the stage to offer their insights to founders in the audience eager for assistance. Naseem Sayani, who has made a career of championing female founders, was joined by entertainment and futurist powerhouse OG Arabian Prince and Mike Stone, Chief Investment Officer at Sunstone. Longtime corporate leader Victoria Sassine guided the panel as moderator.
Shimoyama was all smiles after the event.
“After a successful Inaugural Long Beach Tech Week, the Long Beach Accelerator will again host Long Beach Tech Week in 2026,” she said. “Next year we will engage leaders from Long Beach’s key verticals of transportation, logistics, and supply chain, space tech, health tech, energy, and our creative economy. And it will be bigger and better than ever!”
SOURCE: Sunstone Management, Incorporated