Buses blocking off surrounding streets, LAPD flooding your building, secret service checking your phones, metal detector checks, oh and a 3:15 pm meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, is usually not a typical work day for most, but it was the case for Chai Energy Monday, November 16th.
LACI hosted Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Eric Garcetti at the new La Kretz campus for a roundtable discussion with green tech companies Chai Energy, Pick My Solar, repurpose and other entrepreneurs on building a more sustainable future.
“This is where the magic happens.” CEO of LACI Fred Walti proudly announced referring to the 2 weeks old La Kretz innovation campus located in Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles. The campus encompasses an environment for qualified start-up companies to accelerate their company by providing them with a prototyping lab, wet lab, welding lab, computer lab, workforce training, development space, energy efficiency R&D facility and a technology demonstration space.
“This incubator brings together innovative minds with the courage to take a chance on a new idea, there is a power in technological and financial resources coming together to take ideas from paper to product to marketplace.” Vice President Biden.
Chai Energy’s CTO and Caltech graduate Ka Suen was part of the roundtable discussion enlightening the VP about how Chai Energy empowers customers to save energy. “Here at Chai Energy we are trying to change how people view their electricity bills, what we provide is a real-time data stream that homeowners can directly access on their phone anytime, anywhere and view exactly how much energy they are using and when they are using it, “ said Suen
“Here at LACI, the City of Los Angeles is leveraging federal dollars to support a state-of-the-art innovation campus and non-profit incubator that helps the private sector envision the future — then build it in ways that are more sustainable and innovative than many of us ever thought possible.” said Mayor Garcetti
With the support of the Vice President, Los Angeles Mayor, and LACI, green tech startups are ready to continue innovating towards a greener future.