Life Along the Streetcar with Tom Heath from The Heath Team Nova Home Loans

This week we speak with Dre Thompson, Executive VP of Startup Tucson and their plans for funding new ideas, celebrating resiliency and bringing the remote worker to Tucson

Today is Feb 28th, my name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to “Life Along the Streetcar”.

Each and every Sunday our focus is on Social, Cultural and Economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban Core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to the U of A and all stops in between. You get the inside track- right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on DowntownRadio.org– we’re also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio app.

Reach us by email [email protected] — interact with us on Facebook @Life Along the Streetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife

Our intro music is by Ryanhood and we exit with Sugar Stains

We start today with the passing of a patriarch.

Idea Funding

Dre Thompson is the Executive Vice President of Startup Tucson and spent much of her career supporting communities and helping them tackle their most vexing challenges through innovative and research-based initiatives. She shares with us the details of a day-long digital entrepreneurial experience including Southern Arizona’s largest pitch competition, inspirational community Resiliency Awards, and powerful thought-leaders.

03/01/2021
LASC 140 SoundCloud
Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to KTDT Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson Community sponsored rock and roll radio station.

Tom Heath
This week. We speak with Dre Thompson, the Executive Vice President of Startup Tucson and discuss their plans for funding new ideas, celebrating resiliency and bringing the remote worker to Tucson. Today is February 28th. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life along the streetcar.

Tom Heath
Each and every Sunday our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between you get the inside track right here on 98.1 FM streaming on Downtown Radio.org also available on your iPhone or Android by heading over to the store and downloading the Downtown Radio Tucson app.

Tom Heath
You can get us on the show. No, [email protected]. Same URL get you to our past episodes. You can find us on Facebook, Spotify, iTunes all kinds of places or just simply ask your smart speaker to play Life Along the Streetcar podcast.

Tom Heath
We’re going to start today with news of the passing of a patriarch of a Fourth Avenue establishment. So let’s take you back to 1943. It’s February. And Davis-Monthan is on fire. Well, the mess hall is anyway after Navy bomber crashed in to the mess hall and it was burned to the ground. It took him seven weeks to rebuild it and one of their first events after reopening was to have the team at Caruso’s Italian restaurant come in and cook spaghetti dinner for the soldiers.

Tom Heath
We’re sharing this with you because you may have seen in the Daily Star recently that the patriarch of the Caruso’s Italian Restaurant here in Tucson on Fourth Avenue, Salvatore Zagona Sr, passed away recently at the age of 100. There’s no doubt that Caruso’s being a part of our community since 1938 has had an impact, but I just like to think about how much they’ve been intertwined within our community.

Tom Heath
1943 they were serving soldiers on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and now they are suffering through a pandemic like the rest of many of our small businesses here in Tucson on Fourth Avenue. So just encourage you to get out there and support them and thank the family of Salvatore just to let them know that you appreciate all they’ve done for our community.

Tom Heath
Our feature today is also about small business and the future of small business. Dre Thompson is the Executive Vice President of Startup Tucson and a person who has spent a large part of her career helping support communities and tackling very tough problems through creative solutions. She is now a member of startup Tucson who is hosting a day-long entrepreneurial experience on April 15th, and that’s going to include Southern Arizona’s largest pitch competition as well as an inspirational award ceremony for the Resiliancy Awards.

Tom Heath
We sat down with Dre, of course by phone and found out a little bit more about this event and what they’re doing to make sure that Tucson is as strong as possible during these challenging times.

Dre Thompson
I am Dre Thompson, the Executive Vice President of Start of Tucson

Tom Heath
You guys are getting a lot of press lately. So I feel like we’re Johnny come lately, but we did have this interview scheduled before all of your notoriety out there. You were a Hidden Gem when we when we scheduled this, but now you’re not you’re right everyone else what you’re doing, but tell us a little bit about the the history of Startup Tucson at what that has meant for our community over the last several years.

Dre Thompson
Yeah, so Startup Tucson is a nonprofit organization. We’re primarily focused on economic development through entrepreneurship Innovation. So we really that’s really our goal is to support more people, more diverse people, being able to build strong companies here in Tucson and in Southern Arizona, so we do a lot of different activities that are related to that.

Dre Thompson
We do a lot of education, so one of our kind of core things that we do is start at fundamentals and if you’re someone who has never started a company and you’re just curious about okay, what do I what do I not know about this whole process? What do I need to learn is a you know, a six-week course as five weeks but six six modules and we take you through the basics of building a company. We give a lot of mentorship, a lot of support, a lot of coaching, if you just have quick questions on what do I do about Marketing? What do I need to think about from a legal perspective? Financial perspective?

Dre Thompson
We have on tap tons and tons of experts and everything that we do is really low cost and we and Free by and large and so that we really try to make sure that it’s accessible for the community. So that’s kind of that’s kind of our bread and butter we do that a lot. We have tons of just kind of free events that you can join. We do that all throughout the year. We also have idea funding and Tenwest. In the before times, we had Tenwest impact Festival, but we do we are doing idea sending this year’s the digital event and its southern Arizona’s largest conference for entrepreneurship and southern Arizona’s largest pitch competition for for early-stage companies. So that’s those are kind of some of the things that we’re doing but have a lot of things that we’re even working on this year. Obviously small businesses really struggling through the pandemic. We’ve had an opportunity to jump in as a team and try to think about how can we help?

Dre Thompson
So we got a big USDA grant that has been supporting agricultural producers and small business in the food entrepreneurship space and helping them in the new digital economy and really transfer transferring a lot of e-commerce skills and and helping them sort of transform their revenue models. Now the in a place where we don’t have as many farmers markets and restaurants have really changed their orders, so that’s kind of a son some of the things that were working on?

Tom Heath
Just just a few? Now your organization. I don’t know if this is by Design or just by the demographics but it seems to be geared towards that that young professional mindset. Is that accurate or are you are you working with all spectrums or do you focus on the Young new entrepreneurs?

Dre Thompson
You know, what’s interesting is, you know, people have this sense that startups must be you know, young guys with hoodies and that’s actually not at all the face of Entrepreneurship in Arizona. So, we actually we find that we have a huge broad range of ages. So we have a lot of folks who have our our maybe this is their second career. They’ve had a career successful career in corporate and they’ve always had this idea that they’re like thinking about and they Always wanted to launch it. So we have a number of folks who are in that space. We have a number of folks who are just coming out of college. We do have younger people that participate if it’s a really big range something we’re really proud of it. Sort of Tucson is we have one of the most diverse ecosystems when as compared to other kind of national ecosystems in terms of 65% of our Founders are companies have a female founder. We have 45 percent of our companies are led by bipod Founders.

Dre Thompson
So we really have a a wide range of folks and they’re in all stages. It’s kind of about 30 greater 33 percent thirty percent thirty percent early early stage growth stage and then we have a small percentage to that have actually successfully exited their companies to so it’s really we’re kind of at the front of the funnel we’ve in terms of how folks get engaged with entrepreneurship. So a lot of people find us first and then we can hook them up with are many Partners who are might, you know might be a perfect fit for the you know a tech company that they’re building or for the stage, but they’re out that they’re really building. So we really try to see ourselves as industry agnostic really open-ended kind of that first front door to thinking about a business. We’re here to support that and then really kind of help help you through that whole process. So it’s a wide range.

Tom Heath
It is and I think that’s why sometimes when people look at Startup Tucson or the Tenwest Impact festival and all of the programs that are out there. Sometimes it’s hard to get a grasp on on exactly what you’re doing is because you’re doing so much and it you know, I’m talking to you now, I get the sense. It’s not just Startup Tucson. It’s almost like like a restart Tucson Post pandemic.

Tom Heath
it’s all yours. And I want to talk about idea funding. I want to come back to that. So I’m going to put a pin in it. But what I thought was a pretty unique way to promote Tucson and a lot of the generate a lot of that entrepreneurial Spirit here, you know for years we had this concept of the brain drain where people would go to the University, they would leave and they take their education their talents elsewhere and you your organization has been part of trying to keep them here. But now with The pandemic you are actually recruiting people to Tucson in and you guys came up with what I thought was a pretty Innovative program that called Remote Tucson and wonder if you just kind of touch a little bit about what that looks like and oh yeah where we are with that.

Dre Thompson
Yeah, you know remote Tucson is very interesting. It’s a pilot program. We ran this year. It’s different than a lot of the other economic development that we do just like you’re pointing out most of the economic development work that we focus on focuses on building our Grassroots talent pool here really investing in growing companies that are already here, but that’s not the whole story to Economic Development. It’s really kind of like a both and opportunity right now. During during the pandemic we are we are seeing a massive shift in our Workforce and there is an opportunity where millions of people are rethinking work and they’re really wanting to work where they want to live and they want to work where they want to play as remote workers. So so this is kind of like a once-in-a-generation shift that we’re seeing where folks are leaving really densely populated Urban centers and looking for a higher quality of a life.

Dre Thompson
They’re looking for communities that they can really invest in and build routes into and and so Tucson is really well positioned to to capture that that that that demographic of people. So we launched this program is called remote Tucson. It’s an incentive program where we were just kind of getting the story out there that Tucson is an amazing place to work and live and play and we had a small incentive package that too. You know sweeten the pot about thinking about moving to Tucson. They are all fully employed at really amazing National companies and they’re going to come here work here remotely and really just become embedded in our community. We had a spot for we had we have room for 10 people.

Dre Thompson
So we were really keeping it limited and we were hoping to maybe get a hundred fifty applications. We had a really lean budget. We didn’t have, you know full National coverage. Marketing campaign. We had a lean budget. We are a hundred fifty would be good. We ended up getting a hundred and fifty in the first week and we ended up getting over 600 overall. I highly highly qualified people that are super passionate about moving here. Many of them are kind of what we’ve considered boomerangs who are from Tucson or what to college in Tucson is always had it kind of back in their mind that they love to live here. And this was kind of that program to knock it over the edge and get them really excited. You could move back. So we ended up with 10 amazing participants. There was just a story in the Arizona Daily Star kind of highlighting a couple of them. We’re going to continue to introduce them to our community because they have such high skills that are referred started to thumbs perspective. They’re amazing mentors. They’re amazing coaches. They really add so much value to our community. And so we were super happy with how that that whole program really rolled out.

Tom Heath
Wow, that is tremendous response saying and I did read the the article you reference mentioned that you were getting calls from across the country on how to duplicate this. Are you sharing that information? Are you just saying? Nope. It’s all for us. Everyone’s going to move here.

Dre Thompson
Well, there are some cities that are not in our that are not competitive with us. And so the reason that we were not the only city in the world that’s done. This is there’s a number of cities that are doing this. We took a really different approach than a lot of other cities and this is what’s really been prompting a number of cities to reach out to us. So a lot of other cities focus on just cash incentives, you know, you can get ten thousand dollars up to $20,000 to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but we We were really trying to attract people that were just interested in getting the cash and then leaving and going to some other City. We were really really trying to focus on people that for Community oriented. That would be a huge asset to to our to our city. And so we really focused on kind of the perk packages and ways to plug people into communities.

Dre Thompson
So making sure that they were getting you know memberships if he’s on young professionals memberships to the Rialto to MOCA. Getting them involved with nonprofits getting them really plugged into our city. Each of them is has an ambassador that helps them navigate The Experience. So that was kind of our focus and that made us really different and unique from other cities and we did that very intentionally because you know, we wanted to be really mindful of growing smart and and really thinking about how the direction that Tucson wants to grow and and so that was that was a conscious choice. And so that’s kind of been very different on the national scene of the approach that people have been taking this type of program.

Tom Heath
This is Dre Thompson with Startup Tucson with back with the second half of our interview in just a moment. I want to remind you that you’re listening to Life along the streetcar on Downtown Radio, 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org.

Tom Heath
All right, we’re going to finish up with Dre Thompson Executive Vice President of startup Tucson.

Tom Heath
Seems that Startup Tucson is known for taking a fresh perspective. The Tenwest Impact Festival was a different way of putting together the type of event that we had seen in other parts of the country, but nothing in the in the way that you created it here in Tucson with that same sort of holistic approach to the day and obviously 10 West. Thank you festivals not happening in 2021, but you are doing the the pitch competition the Idea funding we get touched on that earlier. Can you tell us a little bit what that what that looks like?

Dre Thompson
Yeah, I mean, I really appreciate that Tom. I feel like I feel like Tucson doesn’t just want to try to repeat the other cities. We don’t want to be the next author. I don’t know if we want to be this. I think we want to be our own thing. And so I think we really try to be that’s very intentional to so like what feels right for Tucson what feels like us what feels authentic to the community that we’re really trying to build. So I appreciate that. Yeah. So 10 less impact Festival is a in the you know, if you’re not aware of It’s a 10-day Festival that really celebrates the intersection of Entrepreneurship technology science sustainability, the creative arts and education and then we’ll have tons of food and music and different types of community events that are all kind of packed into these 10 days last year or the in 2019.

Dre Thompson
The last time that we had 10 West it was fourteen thousand people. So it was really really growing and it was it was pretty heartbreaking to really think about it not happening in 2020. And when what would it really be an appropriate event to have for 2021? So after some soul-searching we really focused on okay, what does our community need right now and we just felt like we needed a celebration of the hard work that small businesses and startups and entrepreneurs have been and creatives as well have been have been doing they’ve been really so resilient. And so that’s what we really want to. Focus on is really focused on the entrepreneurial community. So idea funding is a 20-year conference that has that sort of got folded into 10 West. So for this year, we’re putting it on its own little platform and we have a big pitch competition like you mentioned.

Dre Thompson
So if you’re if you’re a startup company, you can win up to 25,000 dollars of goods and services to of cash and also services to to really launch your company overall their $65,000 for giving out awards. CIC is sponsoring and other Lambda Arizona prize for diverse founders. The Maguire centers is sponsoring a prize for young entrepreneurs. United Way is sponsoring a price for companies that have a really powerful social impact. So it we have a lot of different types of prizes.

Dre Thompson
There’s a lot of ways for people to be recognized within that and then something that’s totally new this year is we’ve actually added a community resiliency prize, and then we’ve added throughout the day a bunch of creative battles. So this is not going to be your typical Zoom conference. There is going to be a lot of things going on and it’s going to be really fun and the whole purpose is just celebrating innovation in all its forms in our community, from the creatives and makers to the high-tech bio companies that are really coming out of Southern Arizona.

Tom Heath
And this is this is an online one one day event. Correct. It’s not a multi-day event.?

Dre Thompson
And yes, it will be one day April 15th. It’s completely free to hop and participate in if you want to participate we have some really awesome prize raffle prize packages. So you can purchase a ticket and get raffle tickets. There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for audience members to vote and engage and actually select the winners that we have a battle of the bands. We have a battle of the poet. We have a battle of the mixologist. Some Battle of The Comedians and so you’re going to be able to really participate and select your favorite. I posted it did it’d be a lot of fun. It’s all happening April 15th, and and you can learn more about that from StartupTucson.com/ ideafunding

Tom Heath
And the the people that are involved with the idea of funding. That’s that’s going to be selected by the time this time airs, but you are still looking for nominations for that Resiliency Award, correct?

Dre Thompson
Yes, absolutely. So the pitch competition applications will close February 22nd. So that’s that passed. The Resiliency Awards. So we have what we’re really trying to do is pull out those stories of people that have been exceptionally creative have demonstrated leadership Innovation and grit and so we have we have specific awards for people that are kind of brick and mortar small businesses. And then we also have awards for people that artisanal makers creatives. And so you can go and you can nominate your favorite brick and mortar or your favorite maker creative artists and and really tell their story of resilience. And this is just an opportunity to elevate those people that have been at the Forefront of thinking creatively about how to survive and how to really thrive in a pandemic and then also those like behind-the-scene Heroes. So we also want those people who have been those second-in-command or just demonstrating active. Courage and kindness and creativity that might not be visible.

Dre Thompson
So that’s really the goal is since we’ve been so isolated. We haven’t really had that transforms a lot of collective storytelling. And so this is our way of really encouraging people to to highlight people that have have been working really really hard during this time and they’re so valuable to our to our community and our recovery as a community.

Tom Heath
And the nominations can be submitted through your website Startup Tucson.com.

Dre Thompson
You can submit them to the website some kind of really cool things about this is that anyone who submits a nomination will receive raffle tickets to participate and idea funding like I mentioned and then all five semi-finalists and this is really really exciting. So hopefully McCoy is going to give a free staycation to anyone who is a semi finalists. So even if you don’t win the cash prize, oh, I should mention there’s a cash prize for these it’s $1,500. So whoever wins that talk about, you know.

Tom Heath
The winner burying the lead you got to leave you got to start with $1500.

Dre Thompson
So anyone who is a semi finalists will also get a free nights vacation from the Hotel McCoy. The Hotel McCoy has been so amazing to this time and just really keeping a safe environment for folks to really be able to have those kind of staycation moments. So we are so excited that they Came in as a sponsor. So lots of reasons to nominate including cash and One Nights stays. And then also the ability to this really celebrate and Elevate folks that have been doing exceptionally hard work of building really important businesses through this time.

Tom Heath
Well, well we’re talking with Dre Thompson Executive Vice President for Startup Tucson Dre. Thanks for your time. This is amazing that with the work that you’re doing!

Dre Thompson
Thank you so much. I’m so grateful to be able to chat with you. I’m really really grateful for the support that you’ve shown this over the years in the way that you’ve also been such an important part of the story of the revitalization of Tucson and the way that we’re really coming together as a community. So I’m so grateful for the work that you do!

Tom Heath
why thank you. And if anyone is interested, I do recommend you head over to Startup Tucson.com for information on all the topics we cover today and just really good Snippets about where we are economically and where we’re going as a Community. It’s a lot of information on that website Startup Tucson.com. Dre, Thank you and we’ll talk soon.

Dre Thompson
Thank you so much.

Tom Heath
Grey-thompson Executive Vice President of Startup Tucson and looking forward to the April 15th events. And if you know people that are interested in those Resiliency Awards, get those names over to the team there. My name is Tom Heath, you’re listening to Life along the streetcar and Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org.

Tom Heath
Well. Thanks for hanging out with us here on a Sunday brunch hour this was episode number 140. Our Guest today was Dre Thompson of Startup Tucson and some amazing things they’re doing here within our community and we’re going to keep these amazing interviews rolling. If you tune in next Sunday, we’ve got a team working on a concept called the Urban Forest. You can find out a bit more at their website HarrisFletcher.com, hearken back to our interview last week with Mike Peel and he kind of touched upon this project but it’s something that’s happening and the funding is just starting and if there’s a way to get this project launched, And do it successfully.

Tom Heath
I think we’re going to create a model for how we can change housing opportunities in much of the urban area. Well, that’ll be next Sunday. And today we’re going to leave you a little music from the sugar stains and honor of all the work that has been done with by our small businesses and startup Tucson to make a difference. This is a song called change. Hope you enjoy it. Have a great week into next Sunday for more. Life along the streetcar

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