Professor Tanya Hertz, executive director of the REC Innovation Lab at San Diego Miramar College, has been nominated for the Startup Champion of the Year Award at San Diego's Startup Awards and Reception event held in late Oct. The Startup Awards and Reception was hosted by Alexandria and sponsored by AWS and Cox Business. At the event, high performance nominees were selected to win the awards of Investor of the Year, Startup Champion of the Year, Impact Company of the Year, Think Big Lifetime Achievement Award, and Startup of the Year.
The Startup Champion of the Year is given to an individual who values community collaboration in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Hertz continues to demonstrate this practice. Through the REC Innovation Lab, Hertz has assisted dozens of diverse, early startups to navigate through their entrepreneurship journey step-by-step to ensure the highest possibility of success. She provides her students with access to high end resources given through professional mentorship, product development, investor pitch competitions, and much more. Hertz is an active member of the San Diego Startup community and is constantly partnering with and promoting business within San Diego.
The Regional Entrepreneurship Center - REC Innovation Lab is a startup incubator on the campus of Miramar College focused on helping entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds to launch scalable, high-growth startups that use technology to solve problems.
There are many incubator programs in California, but often some groups are left out when it comes to joining them. Graduating students lose access to university-based programs, and many professional incubators are priced too high for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. Women and people of color are rarely targeted for inclusion and the focus is typically on later-stage companies that can show traction.
Startup San Diego is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting startup businesses grow and establish connections within the San Diego ecosystem. Their goal is to increase the quantity and quality of startups in the region. In addition, they aspire to build relationships between startups, universities, government, and enterprises.
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