Pacific Paleontology, PaPa
With the insights, training, and education we received through Cal Coastal SBDC/CA I feel I was able to more clearly see the landscape ahead in order to effectively open my business to the Monterey Bay Peninsula community. The niche of our business is extremely narrow: monitoring construction sites so that fossilized creatures are protected and donated to museums and schools and not damaged. But with SBDC training we were able to broaden the perspective we had of our goals and solidify them within a larger framework of business development in our areas of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. This has been essential in our initial success! We feel that the training and education we received from the SBDC allowed us to gain the edge that we needed to compete effectively in a narrow, highly competitive, and complex, market.” Wayne Thompson, CEO
Planning to open a business as a Paleontological Remediation Company, Wayne Thompson was looking for business technical assistance with his business plan and startup paperwork documentation. Since it was his first time opening a business, and planning to fund it on his own, the California Dream Fund program was of interest for seed funding and comprehensive technical training.
Graduating from the Central CA SBDC Network’s CA Dream Fund’s second cohort, Wayne benefited from six weeks of comprehensive startup training and one-on-one business assistance all provided by the Cal Coastal SBDC center. As a result, he started his business and successfully applied for and received the CA Dream Fund grant. Further, Wayne took advantage of Cal Coastal SBDC-produced on-demand training on getting listed as a Monterey County vendor and getting listed on Google Search and Maps, both helping jumpstart his new business.
In addition to starting his business in 2022 and receiving a CA Dream Fund grant, Pacific Paleontological has completed its first contract with a small subdivision in Santa Cruz and has been approached to bid on a paleontology mitigation contract for the County of Monterey.