When I was 8 years old, my mom drove a 22-year-old Chevy clunker that everyone made fun of. She was a single mom raising three young boys; we were broke, relied on food stamps and lived in the lower income area of Huntington Beach, known as the Slater Slums. Once, at a stop light on Beach Boulevard, I saw a quarter in the gutter and told my mom, who asked me to pick it up. I got it and was embarrassed. I cried and I promised myself that I would never be poor.

Since then, I’ve built my business, Tijuana Dogs LLC, to become one of the most popular and hardworking bands to come out of Orange County. The Tijuana Dogs perform as many as 180 shows a year for all kinds of events, from concerts to weddings, corporate parties and clubs. Over the years, we’ve performed for former U.S. presidents, vice presidents, senators, legendary sports athletes, celebrities and many Fortune 500 companies.

Perfect Pitch

My dad came from a long line of classically trained pianists. His mother once played for Theodore Roosevelt in the White House. My father was a soulful guitar player who would sing songs for us. Music always brought our family together. My mom could sing on key. I remember Dad once stopped our singing to tell Mom that I sang on pitch. I was 5 years old.

At 7 years old, I got a job selling speakers with my uncle at the Anaheim swap meet. My uncle would play all the classic rock bands—Aerosmith, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles—and by the time I was 9 years old I knew all the lyrics to every song and would sing for passersby. While a teen, I worked at a music store where the owner, who was an outstanding musician, taught me jazz standards.

Growing up, I loved baseball. I was quick with a good arm. At age 12, I had a .585 batting average, which earned me a trophy as the best hitter in the league. I had a wonderful Little League coach, John Beaubien, a big-hearted guy who made me work.

I didn’t have the right body type to pursue baseball beyond high school like some of my teammates, such as Jeff Kent, the Thobe brothers and Jonny Martin, but through baseball I developed a heck of an arm. I was built like a swimmer but had a great throwing arm, which I discovered was a great skill for water polo.

I transitioned to swimming and was recruited by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where I earned All-American in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. My degree was recreation administration, which means I had a knack for business and planning parties. When I was 18 years old, I began working as a lifeguard for the city of Huntington Beach. It was a rewarding job that allowed me to help thousands of people over my 22-year career.

Singing Desire

Throughout my life, one thing that drove me more than anything was the desire to be a performer. In the summer of 1995, I took an ad out in the Penny Saver and found a bass player. The music repertoire consisted of Elvis, Johnny Cash, The Beatles and Jimmy Buffett.

I knew how to pack a club and broke a few rules by driving up and down the beach in my lifeguard truck, distributing flyers to every pretty girl I came across.

Around that time, I went on a surfing trip to Mexico where I saw stray dogs roaming the streets—I thought Tijuana Dogs would be a cool name. The only problem was that people used to think we were a mariachi band and performed only Latin music. It took a couple of years, but we established ourselves as one of the tightest OC rock bands.

When the lifeguarding season was over, I had to get a day job, so I decided I’d be a substitute teacher. At one school, the regular Spanish teacher suffered a heart attack, so I was asked if I wanted to teach Spanish. I said yes, but the problem was I didn’t know the grammar!

Like everything in my life, I figured it out. I parlayed my experience as a Spanish teacher into a full-time teaching position at a private school in Corona del Mar. I saved every dime I had to buy a $400,000 home and moved three lifeguard buddies in—they paid the mortgage!

When I would perform at clubs in the evenings, we would take breaks where I’d sell T-shirts, CDs, stickers, etc. I was always hustling. One of my closest friends told me a girl would one day walk in and change everything. He was right.

I met Christina at a bar called Hurricanes in Huntington Beach after we finished playing our set. Our first date was a romantic outing to the Del Taco drive-thru. Eight months after we started dating, we were married.

We were both athletes at Edison High School, but I was 10 years older. Once, I showed her my Hall of Fame award for swimming. She smiled at me, and casually walked down the line, pointing out the three Hall of Fame awards with her name. She was a marvelous athlete.

One day on a field trip, Kobe Bryant got on the bus because his daughter was in my class. We began talking; he said I sang well and directly asked me “What are you doing teaching? Why don’t you do music full time?”

I told him I had to support my family and our three kids. I was doing 10 concerts a month. I’d do a show for 10,000 people and then be playing guitar for a kindergarten class the next morning.

By 2018, the band was making great money, so I stopped teaching. I’d earn more in one night than teaching a whole month. We developed loyal OC customers like Vinny Smith, Byron Roth and Warmington Homes.

I also started a side gig performing Frank Sinatra songs before a 13-piece tribute orchestra organized by big band director Pete Jacobs. Side note: My grandfather knew Frank and played a small movie role with him; Frank helped my grandfather get his Screen Actors Guild card.

Christina and I coached seventh and eighth grade basketball together for 10 years. She was recruited by Kobe to be the assistant coach for his Mamba girls basketball team. On Jan. 26, 2020, Christina and Kobe were in that helicopter crash that killed all nine onboard.

AGT

After a year of not singing, my agent John McEntee convinced me to perform on America’s Got Talent. After discussing it with Christina’s family, I decided to show our three children that we had to keep living.

I sang Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” and all four judges gave me a standing ovation. In the semifinals, the producers wanted me to sing Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” I chose instead to sing the Sinatra ballad that I sang to Christina at our wedding, “The Way You Look Tonight.” While I got booted, that performance opened a lot of corporate doors as millions of people saw it, including about 7 million on YouTube.

Legendary producer David Foster also heard my Frank Sinatra performance, and I’ve had the honor of traveling and performing with him at various concerts and events.

Nowadays, I have about 10 contract employees. The biggest challenge is retaining good talent and keeping them happy and engaged. Musicians inherently want to do their own thing. Having them buy into a team concept is hard. We’ve been through five different drummers. I’ve learned to pay top salary to keep a solid group.

My winning formula is to keep people entertained and dancing. The best way to do that is to keep the music going. The minute you stop, the audience will lose interest.

Sometimes I will add portions of my original music to the end of other songs. I’d like to have at least one hit song, and every day I’m in the studio or sitting at the piano. But for now, I’ll just keep people singing, dancing and having the time of their lives. I love performing. I want people to know there is life after grief.

The post OC Leader Board: The Business of Rock‘n’Roll  appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

In the 1990s, Wet Seal’s stock was flying high, and I thought it’d be cool to have our own corporate jet.

When I broached the subject to the chairman, he said it might be possible if the stock topped $40 a share.

The stock did fly past $40—for a few hours. I never did get that plane!

In my 40 years in the retail industry—particularly apparel—I’ve seen the comings and goings of numerous trends, witnessed the rise of online shopping and the importance of apps, the decline of certain retail outlets and worked with celebrities.

Despite all the changes, one thing hasn’t changed, which I will reveal shortly.

Accounting Start

I was born and raised in the small Massachusetts town of Norwood. My father, editor of local newspapers, edited my essays so I didn’t receive bad marks for grammar.

I attended Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic school, which opened my eyes to kids from a lot of different backgrounds. Academically, it is still one of the best in Massachusetts and I proudly list it on my LinkedIn profile.

My older brother advised me to get an accounting degree, correctly predicting it would open the doors to work in any industry. After graduating from Villanova University, I worked at Deloitte when the industry was known as the Big 8. That experience enabled me to view a lot of industries and got my career going.

I worked for a small publicly held manufacturer of infant toys before I was recruited to a company in the middle of a turnaround—a big specialty retailer in New York called Foxmoor Casuals, a chain of 600 stores that catered to teenagers.

Even though I was young, I started as co-president. Chain stores can be exciting because you’re operating all over the country with all different types of challenges with people and consumer tastes. The major operational advantages of chains are the ability to purchase in scale and the physical distribution.

The chairman of our company, Irv Teitelbaum, was also the chairman of Wet Seal. He recruited me to move to Orange County in 1992 and I became its chief operating officer while Kathy Bronstein was CEO.

Wet Seal went public in 1990 and we grew the chain like crazy. We started with 130 stores with one division, and we got to over 800 stores with three divisions. We made it to almost $1 billion in annual sales.

In 1995, I bought Contempo Casuals from Neiman Marcus. We turned it around and it helped us expand nationally, more than doubling the size of Wet Seal. That purchase and turnaround was my greatest achievement.

A lot of my career has been focused on turnarounds where you must be quick to make changes. You cannot procrastinate. The big play is real estate. Usually there are too many stores that are underperforming. Sometimes the merchandise is so bad that everything must be changed.

Wet Seal was known for its ability to pivot quickly to provide products with the latest trends.

The Forever 21 chain changed the formula because they were really fast. If we were designing and getting products within three to four months, Forever 21 could do it within three to four weeks. Their secret was they did not do as much internal design as other companies.

Teenage Girls

Our customers were teenagers. How do you order something for them four to five months into the future?

Previously, a lot of trends started in Europe or on the West Coast, so we watched those areas carefully. Our workforce was a big indicator. Your biggest fans are often your store employees. We watched them closely. Our employees were really engaged to help us identify trends. The best market researchers are your own store employees.

We also hired celebrities; we couldn’t afford the A-listers. Still, the right celebrity can be quite successful, such as when we hired Mandy Moore, the singer and actor. These celebrities liked working with us because they knew their names would be plastered over 600 stores nationwide and increase their celebrity status.

Orange County became known as the trendsetter for action sports brands like Quiksilver and Billabong. Of course, those companies have gone through many changes over the years.

Nowadays, Orange County isn’t as known for setting fashion trends.

Instead, trends are driven by social media influencers. A key metric is how many followers an influencer has on the internet. We can tell which influencers are driving online sales and traffic to the stores, particularly our grand openings.

Apparel companies have traditionally tried to stay away from Amazon for fear of diluting their brands. However, it isn’t the kiss of death as Amazon has tried to lure apparel brands to its site.

Amazon has such a huge customer base that you cannot ignore it anymore.

Online sales are important, but I don’t think they will kill retail stores for the simple fact that people like coming into stores. Omni channel, which are methods of integrating shopping online and in stores, has developed where customers buy online and pick it up in the store.

If someone wants to open a retail store, the first rule is that cash is king. I also advise them to get the right real estate agent for that store’s concept. The mall industry has changed dramatically. Definitely stay away from Class C malls. Economics are traditionally better at Class A and B malls. Off-mall stores can also be good.

Publicly Traded

I enjoyed being the CEO at publicly traded companies for more than 20 years. I liked dealing with investors. It’s obviously a challenge. If your results are good, the job is easy. If the results are bad, it’s not easy. The biggest thing is don’t overpromise.

Looking at my career, I’m proud that I ran Wet Seal three times and Tilly’s two times. It’s rare that you have the same person run the company at different times. At Wet Seal in 2014, I was asked to reorganize the company through Chapter 11; afterward, we sold it to a private equity firm which a few years later put it into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It had been through too many changes and didn’t have the right management team.

Which brings me to the secret sauce in our industry.

The young adult teenage business has always been about change. It happens very rapidly.

The ability of your organization to adapt to the latest and greatest is the most important secret sauce. Neither the internet nor Amazon nor failure of some malls have changed that.

I thought I’d work forever. The pandemic made the industry much less fun. I just turned 70 years old, which was another reason I retired.

I’ll probably join some boards of directors. Now that I’ve been home for a few months, I’m going crazy. Maybe I will consider another CEO job.

The post Leader Board: Secrets of the Teenage Apparel Industry appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

A decade ago, Ray Cohen had an idea that neurostimulation could treat incontinence, so he started Axonics Inc. in Irvine (Nasdaq: AXNA). It eventually began generating significant revenue in 2020, becoming the fastest-growing medtech firm in the country.
In January, Axonics announced the sale of his company for $3.7 billion to Boston Scientific.
That’s an excellent exit.

Orange County is full of wonderful success stories for investors in the health industry. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) is now a world leader in heart stents with a $56 billion market cap. Glaukos Corp. (NYSE: GKOS) is now reaping the rewards for developing ideas that started decades ago and it now has a $5 billion market cap.

We closely follow investments in the health industry, everything from startups to Series B to IPOs to publicly traded companies.

We wish we could say the investing environment has stayed the same since these companies had their great ideas that they spent years developing.

A major change is occurring that entrepreneurs should know about—time is getting shorter.

Big Investments

It takes a lot of investor money to make a company successful in this industry.

A medical device company may need about $500 million in investments.

While device companies can get Food and Drug Administration approval much quicker because hurdles aren’t as high as pharmaceuticals, their products may have shorter life spans of 18 to 24 months. They are also facing a new trend where doctors are no longer buying new equipment or devices annually because practices are being acquired by private equity. Capital equipment purchases are slowing down. Companies that don’t require clients to make big capital investments are more in favor among investors.

Robotics are catching on. Jim recently witnessed a robotic cataract surgery. Now, robotics may help a surgeon conduct 15 such surgeries a day, double the current amount. Artificial intelligence components are also boosting valuations.

The cost to develop a drug is heart-stopping—around $1.5 billion. Biogen Inc. and Eli Lily each spent an estimated $3 billion on drugs to treat Alzheimer’s, according to the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Shorter Runway

There used to be three keys to a winning health industry investment: a great idea, a good patent landscape and a long runway to success.

In 2021, there were a slew of investments in companies with great ideas that now are not panning out. Investors nowadays are more focused on sustainable investing and seek products that target specific impact areas.

A company where Jim was a director recently folded up shop recently because the executives couldn’t show its largest investor a quicker path to revenue.

Success on Wall Street is harder to come by. About 25 out of 162 biopharma companies that have gone public since 2020 are now trading above their issue price. Some 232 publicly traded life science companies around the globe now sport market caps below their cash reserves. What does that tell us? Investors need to see a clear path to revenue. It will be more difficult to raise cash via an IPO.

Traditionally, the strategics—the industry term for big established medtech companies like Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic—would buy little guys with ideas and then be patient enough to wait years.

Shareholders don’t want to wait years for ideas to become reality. They want the strategics to buy accretive businesses.

Companies that promote a pipeline of products in four to five years may not realize that investors have shortened their timelines to two to three years.

The strategics would also buy companies for market share. Investors are no longer willing to settle for second or third in a market.

One example well known among investors was Shire’s Xiidra eyedrop to treat dry eyes, a product that was promoted by actress Jennifer Anniston. After Takeda Pharmaceutical acquired Shire, it sold Xiidra to Novartis for $3.4 billion in 2019. At that time, Novartis said Xiidra was “well positioned for blockbuster potential.”

However, Novartis in 2020 had to withdraw a marketing application for Xiidra in Europe after the European Medicines Agency raised major objections. Xiidra sales only rose 4% to $487 million in 2022, hardly blockbuster numbers.

Last September, Novartis sold Xiidra unit for $1.75 billion upfront to Bausch + Lomb with another $750 million if sales goals are met.

That product wasn’t successful because doctors didn’t see a significant difference with competitors like Allergan’s Restasis, which is the market leader. The message to investors was clear: No. 2 isn’t valued as highly.

Kick-Start

Investors are interested in finding devices or drugs that could kick-start a new industry.

They are looking at ideas that can solve the world’s biggest medical problems—think Alzheimer’s, dementia, glaucoma and cancer. Other popular areas that don’t require as much investment include obesity and aesthetics.

The good news is that there is a ton of money on the sidelines looking to make investments.

Strategics like Merck and AbbVie have popular drugs like Keytruda and Humira where their patents are ending and hence, they need to replace those revenue streams.

Last year, Pfizer paid $43 billion to acquire Seagen, which has a whole bunch of fabulous cancer drugs.

The strategics aren’t as interested anymore in the little guys who may have a fabulous idea. They will pay a premium for a company that shows revenue growth and FDA approval.

Entrepreneurs should show revenue as soon as possible, even as early as Series A or B rounds. Revenue demonstrates that the product will be accepted by the market.

Lately, the keys to attracting investors are great ideas, market environments, patent landscapes and a roadmap that shows closer to revenue than ever before.

Entrepreneurs at smaller companies should know that if they need 4 to 7 years or longer, they should look for investors who understand that it might take that long and are willing to accept the risks. Some venture groups don’t have time and won’t invest.

Money is still there for a great idea. The bottom line though is the time frame for success in pharmaceuticals and medtech industries is shorter nowadays.

The post OC Leader Board: A Paradigm Change in Health Investments appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Clean energy is a smart business strategy.

Climate change is the top risk business leaders face over the next decade, according to Deloitte’s Annual Resilience Report.

By reducing dependence on fossil fuels, the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) has significantly decreased greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption for its more than 231,000 residential and commercial customers.

That includes being a major asset to businesses aiming to meet their climate and sustainability goals.

It’s critically important for companies today to recognize they have a responsibility to be sustainable. A lot of companies are on their way to doing just that, with many others examining how they can do so as well.

For all companies in the cities we currently serve—Buena Park, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Irvine—OCPA can be a vital partner in how they become greener on the electric side.

And we hope that is just the beginning of the influence OCPA can have in Orange County.

Orange County and OCPA are certainly not alone in this effort. There are 14 million people in more than 200 communities throughout California who are customers in an agency that is called Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA.

OCPA is one of the largest and greenest of those California CCAs and was recently recognized by National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a Top U.S. Green Power Provider.
Like any startup business, OCPA experienced some challenges early on.

OCPA customers in Huntington Beach will be transitioning back to Southern California Edison by June 30.

The board of directors has outlined a Strategic Plan that includes projects for community outreach and a goal to obtain investment grade credit rating in 2027. As a result of completing a 24-point Improvement Plan, OCPA is setting the bar in terms of best practices.

Last fall, we issued our first annual Power Content Label, which showed that our agency has significantly exceeded mandatory state requirements for the purchase of renewable energy goals.

31K Commercial Customers

We have 31,000 commercial customers in Orange County, many of them among the largest companies in the cities we serve.

We offer three renewable electricity generation plans that increasingly replace dirty fossil fuels with clean power from solar, wind, biomass and geothermal. Given the average amount of energy consumed by Orange County businesses, OCPA’s competitively priced clean energy plans are a simple switch with a huge lasting impact.

In fact, OCPA’s Basic Choice Plan delivers 44% renewable energy and costs 3% less than Southern California Edison’s equivalent generation rate (see graph, this page).

OCPA can also help companies save money by reducing their energy use. We have a new pilot program starting this summer to incentivize some commercial customers to use less energy during peak summer demand. Through this program, when businesses reduce their electricity use by a certain amount, the cost of their energy per kilowatt hour will go down as well.

Companies can also increase their own resiliency by having more of their power generated onsite. OCPA is launching a pilot Feed-in Tariff program to encourage investment in small-scale, local renewable energy projects to negotiate and enter into power purchase agreements for up to 3 megawatts for eligible projects.

Typical projects would include in-fill development alongside freeways, on rooftops and in empty lots, infusing capital into the local economy, creating jobs and localizing energy. Applications and requirement details will be released this Spring.

And as a locally controlled provider, we have the ability to be nimble and work with and design custom programs for our commercial customers. For businesses looking to attain a zero-carbon footprint, OCPA can provide verification of the percentage of green energy that is purchased on their behalf to put onto the California energy grid.

Commercial customers on OCPA’s 100% Renewable Choice plan are significantly reducing their carbon footprint to achieve their sustainability goals. OCPA helps these customers communicate this to employees, customers, clients and others through the Green P100NEER program, which provides co-branded communications tools to highlight to their internal and external audiences their environmental efforts, including purchasing renewable energy to address climate change.

Among our Green P100NEER program participants is YogaSix Irvine, a locally owned and operated franchise that is part of the nation’s largest boutique yoga brand. Entrepreneur named it as the fastest growing franchise in 2022 and in the Franchise 500 in 2023.

“We are proud to be a 100% renewable energy customer. Knowing that Orange County Power Authority is purchasing electricity on our behalf from clean, sustainable sources to create healthier communities aligns with our mission of supporting whole-person wellness while also contributing positively to the planet,” YogaSix Irvine told us.

When you do business with OCPA, you are also investing in an organization that prioritizes working with diverse businesses, including those led by women, minorities and veterans.
And that’s just the beginning of our programs to help commercial and residential customers.

Because we are not-for-profit, we will increasingly use our own revenue toward furthering our reinvestment in our businesses and communities.

Earth Day

As we approach Earth Day—this coming April 22—we encourage businesses in our member communities to reach out and learn more about how OCPA can help them achieve their Environmental, Social and Governance goals. We have a team ready to help. Invest in your sustainable future today.

The post Leader Board: Power Company Pitches Sustainability Plans to Companies appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Businesses and educational institutions in Orange County stand at a critical juncture, especially when it comes to fostering the next generation of professionals. “First in the family to earn a high school diploma” is not as cool as an impact stat anymore.

Eddy, one of our youths in our workplace mentoring program, shares the following story of how his mentor, Brad with Banc of California, helped reshape his perception about his future career path. “For me growing up, I didn’t have many people to guide me. Having someone like Brad is so comforting … things I had questions about, I suddenly had answers. Now I understand more than just a blue-collar world.”

This support helped Eddy find his path, and he has now been accepted into the Honors program at University of California, Berkeley, something he didn’t think was possible.

Mentoring stands out as a critical element of work-based learning, offering a personal touch that enhances traditional internships and job training methods. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County (BBBS) is pioneering a scalable approach that underscores the profound impact of mentoring on college students, particularly those stepping into the professional world.

Labor Shortage

Orange County is facing an escalating labor shortage, especially in skilled labor areas. In 2018, Orange County had 16,000 more job postings than jobs filled, according to McKinsey.

By 2022, that number had grown to 42,000. Looking at middle and higher-paying jobs in innovation sectors such as technology, local employers risk 50% of tech jobs going unfilled unless something changes.

The talent gap for these middle and higher-paying jobs, which can make living in OC affordable, comes from at least two key barriers:

– About 90% of tech jobs in OC require a bachelor’s degree and three to five years of experience, leaving out 60% of OC’s population.
– Emerging talent is not always aware of the job opportunities and career paths in OC, contributing to over a third of STEM talent educated at our local universities leaving the area.

Concurrently, there exists a demographic of young adults in the region who, with the right personalized support, could be prepared for these careers. Mentoring programs can help youngsters improve their lives, according to Harvard University researcher Dr. Raj Chetty.

“By our calculations, the U.S. is missing 3.6 million innovators because women, people of color, and low-income people are not inventing at the same rate as white men who grow up in high-income families,” wrote Chetty, a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

“Closing this gap with programs that identify, mentor, and support these ‘lost Einsteins’ is not only about fairness, it is vital for economic growth.”

About 69% of young adult mentees in BBBS programs report that their mentor played a pivotal role in their decision to stay in school, and 77% attribute their post-college plans to the guidance received from their mentors.

This is particularly significant considering that only 21% of young adults in the organization’s post-secondary programs have parents with post-secondary credentials.

The Transformative Impact

With initial funding from the College Futures Foundation and collaborations with leading employers such as Disneyland Resort and JPMorgan Chase, as well as educational institutions like California State University, Fullerton and Cypress College, we’re demonstrating the significant value of mentoring as an investment in future talent.

We are working alongside the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County (CLAOC) and Orange County Business Council (OCBC) in the development of comprehensive work-based learning systems that include mentorships.

One key initiative is our partnership with the OC Fellows Program, a two-year endeavor designed by the CLAOC for recent university graduates working at OC-based companies. BBBS pairs these young professionals with college students for career mentoring.

Additionally, BBBS is a member of the Orange County Talent Collaborative, a consortium spearheaded by the CLAOC that brings together mission aligned organizations committed to developing a stronger regional talent pipeline to high-paying careers.

“Continued economic development is essential to maintaining the standard of living we enjoy in Orange County,” said Jeffrey Ball, chief executive of the OCBC. “Critical to achieving that growth is the development of a skilled workforce which includes first-generation students from across the region.

The mentorship programs by BBBS have improved success rates, and we are proud to work with them and support their efforts in transforming lives while enhancing the vitality of our local economy.”

“Mentoring is absolutely a critical component to effective internships and on-the-job training for young talent, especially from underserved communities,” said CLAOC CEO Mark Percy.

“CLAOC is strategically expanding our collaboration with BBBS because our goals and values align well, in addition to their tremendous mentoring expertise.”

Higher Earnings

Mentoring is also a bridge to professional networks and a catalyst for socioeconomic mobility.

A study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analyzing life outcomes of individuals who participated as Little Brothers and Little Sisters revealed that mentored youth were projected to earn an average of $315,000 more throughout their careers than their counterparts.

The stark reality is that many students, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, are navigating their educational and professional paths without the guidance of a mentor.

This lack of support can lead to missed opportunities and prolonged journeys toward career stability.

Our educational partners share in our belief that mentorship directly impacts career-readiness.

“What is really complementary about BBBS and Cypress College and our mentor programs is that BBBS actually works with our feeder high schools,” said Brittany Hamer, special project director of the Charger Experience Program of Cypress College.

“They launched a few mentor programs there. [BBBS] becomes a household name for a lot of these students. There is trust in that, and they are in good hands to then go on to that mentoring opportunity.”

Investing in robust mentorship programs is essential for the business community of Orange County to foster skills, networking, and personal development that are vital for the long-term prosperity of our region’s workforce.

The demand for mentorship has significantly increased, with mentee inquiries rising by 30% last year, highlighting a critical need for guidance, knowledge, and opportunities.

Looking ahead, the goal of achieving a more equitable and diverse workforce seems attainable. It will require investment of time and effort today to shape the workforce landscape for the future.

By embracing innovations like AI in skills-based learning and group mentoring to enhance the impact of mentoring programs, our efforts are not merely about preparation; we are actively constructing our future talent pipeline.

The post OC Leader Board: Mentorship’s New Role in Shaping Tomorrow’s Workforce appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Home to nearly 115,000 small businesses, a $281 billion economy, and some of the nation’s foremost social and environmental leaders, Orange County is a hotbed for entrepreneurship.

Southern California is also home to some of the most innovative social impact and environmental leaders in the country, as several of its cities could be showcased among the most environmentally friendly towns in America.

These facts made Orange County the natural first choice for establishing a startup incubator for social enterprises (mission-driven, for-profit companies leveraging profit-generating solutions to address key social and/or environmental challenges).

My interest in social enterprise began many years ago when I became involved in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. While the organizations I oversaw enjoyed considerable success, the limitations of nonprofits and the public sector in independently scaling impact became abundantly apparent.

I chose to apply social entrepreneurship to the coffee trade, where I had decades of success with traditional business models. I began developing a model which enabled small-holder coffee farmers to gain significantly greater agency in the global import-export markets.

Within six months, the new business structure made the value chain more efficient and transparent, allowing consumers, roasters, and farmers to engage directly, improving the farmers’ quality of life, reducing environmental impact, and delivering a superior product at top market rates. I imagined the impact this approach could generate across all industries, even in the most competitive of markets, which brought us to one of the largest economies in the world, Orange County.

In 2019, leveraging a team of business development experts and key investors, we founded RevHub Orange County, which today has raised over $2.5 million in philanthropic capital to develop mission-aligned incubation and funding programs, with $5 million in additional investment capital on the horizon.

The Nonprofit Problem

About 30% of nonprofits dissolve after 10 years, according to the National Center on Charitable Statistics, primarily due to lack of funding. I realized there was a need for a new paradigm that could blend profitability with mission preservation.

This realization begged the question: What if there existed a model that enabled organizations to maintain their missions while achieving profitability and meaningful impact at scale? This is where the rising demand for social enterprise enters the picture.

Internationally, the social enterprise model has taken hold, generating significant social and economic impact. There are approximately 10 million social enterprises worldwide, accounting for 3% of all businesses worldwide, according to recent research presented by the Schwab Foundation’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship.

Collectively, social enterprises generate around $2 trillion in annual revenue, creating over 200 million jobs.

These enterprises align their missions with sustainable development goals, notably in climate action and poverty alleviation. What’s striking is that half of the social enterprises are led by women, compared to 20% of conventional businesses, the foundation reported.

We partnered with organizations like UCI Beall Applied Innovation and have successfully incubated 30 impact startups, investing in eight of these ventures to date. Mission-aligned investments have been focused on two major impact themes: health equity and climate action.

Two Irvine-based ventures in health equity stand out:

– Tad Health Inc. is reshaping the mental health infrastructure—particularly in underserved populations—by offering a tailormade, data-informed platform which school districts can leverage to offer 24/7 mental health support to their students. The company, which has about five employees, is generating revenue.
– Prenostik LLC is curving the concerning trend of college dropout rates—40%—by offering students an AI-powered SaaS tool that delivers targeted, personalized, and real-time actionable assistance to improve learning. Prenostik is in pilot phase and has received a Phase I SBIR award.

We determine success based on a combination of metrics, generally based on executing their model and their results in social or environmental ways as well as revenue. We’ve contracted a third-party company, ImpactableX, which provides a platform that measures, tracks and audits impact, and establishes real economic value based on globally accepted standards.

Investments made in our portfolio ventures are returned, adjusted for profits or losses, to the fund once a company experiences a key financial liquidity event. It takes several years for startups to hit “breakeven” or start generating profits. We are looking for exit valuations between 5x and 10x.

A key venture achieving measurable impact along the climate action investment theme is Ecodrive, a venture that allows businesses to embed climate sustainability—tree planting, ocean plastic removals, kelp reforestation—within any platform customers use to interact with their brand, driving measurable ROI and achieving impact goals.

Catalytic Capital

We have learned that by deploying “catalytic capital” —a blended investment strategy that combines public and philanthropic funds with impact-first investments—we strategically mitigate risk in these early-stage social ventures.

This approach, when coupled with intellectual capital from industry veterans, accelerates a business’ capacity to scale while empowering social entrepreneurs to prioritize stakeholder impact over maximizing shareholder value.

We are also seeing growing stakeholder expectations for impact-first ventures in Orange County and beyond. Businesses are being compelled by market forces to look beyond their profit and loss statements and account for a company’s positive and negative impacts on employees, customers, the environment, and society.

We also quickly realized there was a missing piece to the puzzle. In observing one of RevHubOC’s first cohorts, we saw a notable gap in post-incubation funding for underrepresented entrepreneurs. In 2022, Black and Latino founders received only 1% and 1.5%, respectively, of total U.S. venture capital and women-founded teams received only 1.9%, according to McKinsey.

We knew we could not continue to perpetuate this inequality. Not only would this be against our DNA as a social purpose corporation, but ignoring this inequity would be strategically myopic as they well understand their target markets, making them ideal social entrepreneurs.

We then mobilized RevHubOC’s ecosystem to launch NorthSTAR (Systems to Access Resources), a collaborative program dedicated to illuminating pathways and eliminating barriers for underrepresented, underresourced entrepreneurs.

Within a year, our efforts expanded well beyond Orange County as we engaged over 1.4 million aspiring entrepreneurs, supported 5,700+ early-stage entrepreneurs, and facilitated the formation of 144 new businesses in these communities.

We secured $8.5 million in funding for NorthSTAR from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development through the efforts of Sen. Josh Newman (D-29th District). We also raised an additional $1 million from sponsors, including the University of California, Samueli Foundation, the Small Business Administration and others to fund and incubate climate action startups in partnership with UCI and Sustain SoCal.

Orange County is poised to lead the nation in social impact innovation. It stands as an example of how a community can transform into a flourishing, regenerative economy by changing the paradigm that generating profits and achieving social progress are mutually exclusive.

When entrepreneurs have the tools, resources, and funding they need to focus on what matters, everyone wins.

The post Leader Board: Purpose-Driven Profit in Orange County appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

In an ever-evolving global economy, where job skills rapidly change, a revolution in workforce development is necessary for America to foster sustainable economic growth.
Looking beyond traditional academic education, the German Model of business-funded apprenticeships offers a proven and successful path for skill-building, shaping a highly skilled workforce and engendering economic resilience.

By adopting this approach, the United States can bridge the skills gap, reduce unemployment rates, and create a robust foundation for its future prosperity. Similar workplace learning and paid apprenticeship models exist throughout Europe, including the Swiss Federal Institute’s Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) and the U.K.’s Degree Apprenticeship models.

Germany’s apprenticeship system, deeply integrated within its education and business sectors, has played a transformative role in engendering economic stability. Businesses collaborate with schools, offering apprenticeships to high school graduates seeking hands-on training and valuable work experience. This model has proven effective, with over 50% of German high school graduates directly entering workforce training, compared to a mere 5% in the United States.

The Advantages

One of the primary advantages of the German Model lies in its ability to bridge the skills gap. By engaging in dual-track learning, combining practical training with theoretical education, students graduate with a unique skill set that fulfills the demands of the job market. This approach ensures businesses obtain qualified, equipped employees while fostering a direct correlation between labor supply and industry requirements.

America’s high unemployment rates for youths underscore the urgency for practical solutions. “The German Model consistently yields lower youth unemployment rates than America, statistics that can inspire change. For example, February 2024 youth unemployment rates show Germany at 5.6% while the U.S. reported 8.8%.”

By investing in apprenticeships, American businesses can tap into a pool of talent at an early stage, providing quality training and fostering a direct pathway to employment. The model reduces the mismatch between education and job market demands, increasing job prospects and long-term career stability.

Adopting the German Model of business-funded apprenticeships is not only about closing the skills gap and reducing unemployment rates; it also fosters innovation and entrepreneurship. This model ingrains entrepreneurial spirit by exposing apprentices to real-life challenges and encouraging them to become problem solvers, critical thinkers, and creative contributors. This mindset has been pivotal in Germany’s global technology, manufacturing, and engineering leadership.

Amid the waves of change that continuously reshape the economic landscape, the United States must embrace bold reforms to unlock its full potential. By embracing the German Model of business-funded apprenticeships, America can harness the dual benefits of reducing youth unemployment and bridging the skills gap that plagues the nation.

Increased investments in workforce training will strengthen our human capital, boost economic growth, and ensure a prosperous future for generations to come. Now is the time for America to step forward and embrace a transformative model that has propelled numerous industrial nations to economic growth and well-being.

Apprentice Degrees?

Should America consider allowing businesses to confer degrees for apprenticeships?
Businesses possess specialized knowledge and expertise in their respective fields. Allowing them to confer degrees would ensure that apprentices attain high competency and proficiency in their chosen industry.

In addition, many industries face a shortage of skilled workers due to a disconnect between traditional academic programs and industry demands. Allowing businesses to confer degrees would enable apprenticeships to address specific skill gaps and meet the needs of the labor market more effectively. With businesses conferring degrees, apprentices would receive recognition for these practical competencies and theoretical knowledge.

Businesses conferring degrees would give apprentices a recognized credential that validates their comprehensive skill set, making them more appealing to potential employers. Of course, modifications to the accreditation system would need to include a highly regulated process for business conferred degrees.

Since businesses understand their industry’s evolving requirements, they can tailor their apprenticeship programs to match the rapidly changing nature of specific sectors. This customization ensures that apprentices stay updated with industry practices and technology. Allowing businesses to confer degrees for apprenticeship would foster stronger public and private sector collaborations.

This partnership can help align educational institutions with industry needs and ensure that the skills taught align with the demands of the labor market. By recognizing apprenticeships with degrees, businesses can motivate individuals to embark on continuous learning journeys. Doing so would encourage workers to develop skills throughout their careers, increasing their adaptability and resilience in a changing job market.

Adopting the German Model of business-funded apprenticeships, or a blend including the Swiss Federal Institute’s Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET) and the U.K.’s Degree Apprenticeship models (among others), and allowing accredited businesses to confer degrees for completed apprenticeships can bridge the gap between academia and industry, address skill shortages, and create a more efficient and responsive approach to education and workforce development.

The post OC Leader Board: Embracing the German Model Of Business-Funded Apprenticeships appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

It was a perfect wedding. Rachel picked the venue, a hundred-year-old winery in California’s Santa Inez Valley. Jeff hired the band, a six-member ensemble that could play everything from 1940s Broadway show tunes to the latest mumble rap.

After dating for more than three years and having watched many of their friends wed—then divorce—the two were determined to make their marriage last.

They would work out their problems. They would learn to compromise. Love, they believed, would indeed conquer all. Yet, five years and two children later, here they were, standing before a judge preparing to sign papers of marital dissolution.

How could it all go so wrong?

Divorce has been likened to death. It’s sad. It’s tragic.

It’s also a fact of life.

Almost no one goes into a marriage expecting to get divorced. But if it happens, it’s best to be prepared. And that’s what my book is about.

Now, they say you should never trust a skinny chef or a fat doctor. By this measure, you also shouldn’t trust a family law attorney who hasn’t been divorced.

Guess what? I’ve been there. I’ve done the deed. I’ve personally experienced all the pain, the anger, the rage, the self-loathing, the doubts, the recriminations, the resentments, the second-guessing, the sleepless nights, and the blessed relief that’s part and parcel of the divorce experience.

How do you pick a divorce lawyer? Experience, education, specialty in family law, associations. Ask trusted advisers. Get third-party validation.
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My beat is Southern California, specifically Orange County. More specifically, fabled Newport Beach, ground zero for Fox’s early 2000s hit show “The O.C.” If you’re going to practice divorce law, this is the place to do it.

The reasons people here in Orange County divorce are little different than they are elsewhere in the Western world. Yes, even the rich have financial difficulties, infidelity, domestic violence, boredom.

I also suspect a key reason the divorce rate here runs so high is frustration with unfulfilled expectations. People in SoCal dream big and desire perfection. It’s baked into the culture.

And when people’s aspirations don’t come to fruition, when even wealth and success fail to deliver personal happiness and satisfaction, they fight, blame the other, and look for an escape hatch.
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Thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs have built their companies from the ground up, treating them like their babies. They don’t want the business to fall apart because of a serious personal matter like a divorce.

Does the prenuptial agreement cast a gloom and doom forecast on what should be a happy wedding?

No.

Prenups help thwart divorce because the act of completing one forces a couple to contemplate worst-case scenarios before committing to a union.

It lowers the veil of romance and makes people look at nuptials using cold, hard reality. It also allows couples to know in advance what they will take—and not take—from a marriage upon its dissolution. If the spouses know they won’t be able to take each other to the cleaners, they’re more likely to look for ways to resolve their differences.

That advice is extremely good for anyone with any assets.

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I’ve seen some cases that could be plots on “L.A. Law.”

In 2005, a spouse sought $18 million from her husband, a real estate developer who offered $11 million. It was bad timing because the 2008 financial crisis damaged his business and she got $5 million instead in 2015.

In another case, a divorce that started as amicable ended in bitterness when the wife found out her husband spent $10,000 on a necklace for his mistress and then he found out she had forged documents allowing her to siphon money from their company. Eventually, all hell broke loose, the fangs came out, and what was supposed to be a quick, simple, and inexpensive divorce dragged on for three years.

An ex-wife who claimed she couldn’t work because of physical problems showed the judge her six-inch Jimmy Choo shoes. She lost her argument.

I had drinks with a client, who at the end of the case acknowledged that he was blinded by spite, and he could have saved himself and his bank account by working harder to protect his investment of more than 20 years.

I picked up the tab for the drinks. After all, he was already out $137,000.

The moral? You can intend to have a quick and simple low-cost divorce, but it’s a crapshoot. And as in craps, the odds are never in your favor.
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The price of an average divorce in California costs $17,000 without children and $26,500 with children.

I have a list of 10 top reasons to stay married. Three of those reasons are “kids.”

I saw a bitter custody battle that devasted their couple’s two teenage daughters, one who posted naked pictures of herself on Instagram and the other who dropped out of high school and used drugs.

Mental health experts will tell you a divorce, even a so-called amicable one, can leave deep, lasting scars on the psyches of everyone involved, especially children.

While a marriage can be dissolved, the pain a parental breakup creates can often last a lifetime.

Remember this: no one wants to be considered a loser in a divorce case; on the other hand, the person must ask: What does winning look like?

It may seem odd that a lawyer would want to discourage potential clients from getting a divorce that would be economically beneficial. The reason is that there’s a lot of business out there. Although specific numbers vary, experts will tell you there’s a 40% to 50% chance a marriage will end prematurely.

No one gets divorced because they feel good about how things are going.

The post OC Leader Board: The Truth About Divorce appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

It was a cold, rainy Saturday morning in February 1974 when I entered my office in the Brookhollow Office Park in Santa Ana with my new firm, Carl McLarand & Associates.

On that wet morning, the plural use of “associates” was a dream as I only had one employee, a drafter. The economy was not exactly thriving, and the country was in political upheaval. The prime lending rate had approached 11%, thereby making new construction financing exceptionally difficult.

Previously, I had graduated from USC’s school of architecture’s tough five-year program in four years and had served a six-month tour with the Coast Guard.

I then worked for eight years at one of the largest architectural firms in Los Angeles, AC Martin and Associates, where for some reason a lot of the senior designers saw something in me, the youngest architect on staff.

There, I found opportunities to design significant architectural projects and interact with some of the country’s business leaders, like Lou Lundborg, then chairman of Bank of America.

At just 26 years of age, I designed the 27-story 1900 Avenue of the Stars office building in Century City. I also developed the conceptual design for Atlantic Richfield Plaza, a twin 51-story office development that remains the largest private commercial project in the history of Los Angeles.

The experience at that job gave me a head start on how to deal with massive projects.

­The First Project

When I began my company, I shared office space with friend and colleague Don Brinkerhoff, an incredibly talented planner and landscape architect who had recently opened a firm, Lifescapes.

Even though I lived in San Marino at the time, I saw Orange County’s vast potential for development.

From the very beginning, the success of the firm would depend on my ability to provide services that exceeded the expectations of developers, who would then return as repeat clients.

To achieve this objective, it was crucial that the firm provide its clients with the best design that would have to be visually attractive and meet the client’s financial criteria. The goal was to design a project that either sold or leased better than the competition.

Sales in my first year were $5,000, then jumped to $75,000 in the second year and then doubled in the third year. We grew to 140 people. I never went to management school like Harvard, so I had to learn along the way.

Over the subsequent years, Lifescapes and CMA did many projects together but perhaps the first project was the most important. It was a 118-unit development in Orange that featured relatively small townhome units in a heavily landscaped environment.

The project was an immediate success, selling out within 30 days after its opening. The project was later awarded the Gold Nugget for its design at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference. More importantly, it attracted several new clients to both firms.

The two firms’ businesses quickly expanded when in 1979, we moved into a Class-A high-rise office building located adjacent to both the South Coast Plaza and the Orange County cultural center that was in its infancy.

It was a strategic decision as I realized that clients were risking tens of millions of dollars in each of their developments. I believed that they would feel more comfortable working with an architect who understood business issues as opposed to the more typical artsy office most architects at the time presented.

At this location, I brought in two new partners: Ernie Vasquez and Rick Emsiek and the name eventually morphed to MVE + Partners.

The firm, which had initially focused on housing products, expanded to resort planning, office, hospitality, retail, institutional and mixed-use projects. I don’t have a favorite style.

I like to develop architecture that invites you in, makes you want to visit the facility.

We completed numerous significant projects including the 1 million-square-foot Wilshire Courtyard in Los Angeles, the 1.2 million-square-foot Santa Monica Water Garden development, and the 27-story Metropolitan Transportation Center at the historic Union Station in Los Angeles.

In addition, MVE designed Newport Beach’s Belcourt and One Ford Road communities, both of which remain as premier luxury, multiple product housing developments.

In addition, we designed the twin building, 650,000-square-foot Bayview office development, also in Newport Beach. Further, we completed the design of numerous significant apartment developments for notable developers including The Irvine Co., which we have been proud to call a client for 45 years.

In December 1999, the firm again moved its offices to a new location, this time atop an eight-story office building the firm designed for The Koll Co., where its headquarters remain.

For Irvine Co., we designed large-scale high-end apartment developments such as The Village and The Park at the Irvine Spectrum that together total over 3,000 residential units.

We designed numerous Newport Center buildings. When I was 14 years old in 1953, I attended the famous Boy Scouts Jamboree at the site that is now Newport Center and Fashion Island. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have so much influence in developing this area.

China Expansion

During MVE + Partners’ 50-year history there have been several recessionary cycles. The firm has taken considerable pride in managing through these recessionary periods by proactively finding unique work products or locations which were not affected by recessionary pressures.

In 2009, my son Matthew McLarand and I visited several cities in mainland China where construction was flourishing. We came back to Irvine with a contract to design a 1 million-square-foot office campus in Dalian, China.

We subsequently established significant client relationships in China and eventually designed over 18 million square feet of built products in cities such as Dalian, Wuhan, Beijing and Chengdu.

In 2019, MVE + Partners successfully transitioned its management to a new generation of leaders who were drawn from the existing organization. Matthew McLarand assumed the role of president and chief executive. In addition, over 15 existing members were selected as future leaders of the firm and were offered the right to purchase designated allocations of the company stock.

Over the ensuing five years, the ownership of the firm has been completely transferred to these new shareholders in a manner that rewards and incentivizes them for their efforts and success. In addition, the program ensures the firm’s sustainability for generations to come.

Under Matt’s leadership the firm continues to flourish and, in addition to its other notable projects, has become a recognized leader in the design of beautiful, efficient high-rise and super high-rise structures. Further, the firm has added four offices to locally serve its expanded client base including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Guadalajara, Mexico.

During our history, we have designed buildings on six continents and won more than 1,000 architectural awards.

Recalling my humble start, I never imagined how we’d grow to become one of the largest and most influential architectural firms in California.

The post The 50-Year History of MVE + Partners appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The end of 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of the Chapman University OC25 Index, which is a market cap weighted Orange County Equity Index composed of the largest, by market cap, companies domiciled in Orange County.

The index returned 20.42% in 2023 compared to the S&P 500’s 24.2% for the same period. The constituent companies delivered returns ranging from as high as 90% to as low as -37%.

In evaluating the performance of the index for the year, it is evident that the index’s constituent companies in the healthcare sector, namely, Masimo, Healthpeak Properties, Alignment Healthcare, Envista Holdings, Staar Surgical, and ICU Medical, provided the downward pressure on the index’s return. The negative returns of these holdings ranged from -20.8% to -36.7%.

This might be surprising for some since the healthcare sector tends to be a defensive sector and should have performed well in a volatile market like the one experienced in 2023.

Unfortunately for the sector, there were several factors creating enough headwind resulting in the lowest performance in several decades. Such factors included regulatory and legislative pressures, the speculation that the sector may experience long-term slow growth as weight-loss medications like Ozempic gain popularity and improve the overall health of the populations, and investors favoring AI-related stocks (like the “Magnificent Seven” of the S&P 500) over all others.

On the other hand, the top-performing companies in the index represented a variety of sectors and ranged in market capitalization from Chipotle at $62.76 billion to MeridianLink at $1.95 billion.

The Good

Leading the pack is Tri Point Homes, with an annual return of 90.4%. Tri Point is a national homebuilder that offers its customers home options at different price points.

The near doubling of the company’s stock in 2023 is attributed to its ability to increase orders and increase active selling communities despite the rising mortgage rate environment.

In fact, the rising mortgage rates benefited the company as existing homeowners with low mortgage rates (national average is 3.5%) became more reluctant to put their homes on market and walk away from a favorable mortgage rate.

This resulted in a noticeable decline in the inventory of existing homes, driving interested homebuyers to the products offered by homebuilders like Tri Point Homes.

Coming in second was Glaukos, with an annual return of 82%. Providing therapies for the treatment of retinal disease, glaucoma, and corneal disease, the company maintained meaningful sales growth driven by multiple new products launched and a strong demand across international markets.

Western Digital’s return of 66% for the year was powered by the announcement to split the business in two, separating its HDD and Flash businesses into two separate companies, which the market continues to view favorably and is believed to add value to shareholders once the split is completed.

Chipotle’s solid performance of approximately 65% return to its shareholders in 2023 continues to be powered by a strong business, proactive menu innovations, and “Limited Time Offers” that have proven to persistently driven foot traffic to the company’s locations.

The Cyclical

When it comes to First American, one can count on consistent performance on the long run. Having said that, the company’s short-run performance is much more correlated to the volume of real estate transactions.

When I reported last on the index, First American’s stocks had returned a modest 8% for the first three quarters of 2023. At the time, the company was experiencing headwinds resulting from a raising mortgage rate environment.

As mortgage rates began to retreat in the fourth quarter, the prospects of First American improved, and the company stock brought the year to a conclusion with a respectable annual return on its stock of 23%.

The Struggling

MeridianLink, a software and services company, provides software solutions for financial institution and consumer reporting agencies in the United States. The company offers a multi-product platform that can be tailored to meet the needs of its customers.

MeridianLink experienced a run-up in its stock price in 2023 resulting in an annual return of 80.4%.

Fueling the run-up in 2023 was a combination of the recovery from a brutal 2022 sell-off in the company’s stock, and consistent growth in revenue as the company continues to find its way to positive profits. Reaching a peak price of $25.75 in 2023, the stock has retreated this year to a price of approximately $19 (a 26% decline) as investors moderated their expectation and have become cautious in the early months of 2024.

Rivian is another great performer in 2023 that has experienced a meaningful retreat in price in 2024. Rivian’s stock climbed by 27.3% in 2023.

A year marked by an increase in quarter-over-quarter production and reaffirmation of the company’s production outlook. Since then, Wall Street’s concerns about the company’s ability to execute in 2024 has tempered its enthusiasm for Rivian, driving the company’s stock down by more than 50% since the beginning of 2024.

Looking forward into 2024, this whimsical attitude of the market may be the theme of the year as investors await the results of the 2024 election, multiple and meaningful rate cuts by the Fed, earnings data, and economic data in support of a successful soft landing.

As always, it is important to recognize that nothing in this article constitutes investment advice. You should always consult a properly licensed and credentialed professional prior to making any investment decisions.

The post Chapman University OC25 Index: The Good, The Cyclical and The Struggling appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.