By Jorge Mercado Friday, June 26th, 2026

In an effort to bring more education to startups this summer, Kezi Cheng and the Sustainable Change Alliance will be hosting a four-part interactive workshop series designed for pre-seed to Series A founders in Santa Barbara.

Cheng, a board member for Sustainable Change Alliance, is spearheading the organization’s summer program, something that is a first for the nonprofit. Cheng is a founder herself, serving as the CEO of FLO Materials in Goleta, which is commercializing a versatile polymer platform and advanced recycling technology that enable the manufacturing of sustainable alternatives, according to its LinkedIn page.

Before moving to Santa Barbara, Cheng participated in a fellowship called Activate in the Bay Area, connecting her with a lot of founders whom she could “lean on for mentorship and advice.”

“When I joined Sustainable Change Alliance, one of the things I really wanted to push for was more of a community and support for local founders, and so we’ve been planning for this for a couple of months now,” Cheng told the Business Times. 

The four classes include:

• July 9 – Fundraising and Storytelling (Dave Dwelley & Michelle Chao)

• July 16 – Startup Financials (Laura Swan)

• July 23 – Legal Foundations & IP Strategy (Seth Levy)

• July 30 – Early-Stage Hiring and Building the Right Team (Megan Pawlak & Jenny Du)

“These four sessions on team fundraising, financial, and legal, I think, will provide a really good framework for any early-stage company, whether you’re in AI, materials, software, or a consumer-facing startup company. This will be a benefit,” she said.

Chang noted that while nonprofits and organizations are helping spur innovation and gather entrepreneurs together, like Ventech, she said, there isn’t a network for just founders to connect. 

“I think we can always do more, and this is why we’re setting up this workshop,” she said.

When Cheng first arrived in Santa Barbara, the first person she connected with was Celine Lightfoot, the founder of Santa Barbara-based Beni, who now works at Santa Barbara-based Unwrap.

The two met at Kiva, a co-working space in downtown Santa Barbara, and decided to create “Grind and Grow,” a bi-weekly founders meetup at coffee shops in the city.

“We just go around and talk about what some of the things that we’re dealing with that week, that moment, and see if other founders in that group have insights or experiences that they’d like to share,” she said.

She noted that the group started meeting less frequently last summer, as people go away for vacations or get caught up with family, but that is why she is hopeful the four-class program could be more impactful in gathering people during the summer, a time in which Santa Barbara usually is a lot more quiet.

The program is open to 30 founders in the area and is free for them, while another 10-20 tickets will be available for community members at a small fee. Cheng said the goal will also be to grow this program so that it becomes a yearly staple with different workshops each year.

“We only have limited time in this world, and I think we should just get going and start making an impact where we can, as soon as we can,” Cheng said. “I wanted to make Santa Barbara a place that I wanted to stay at because there’s the stuff that people see, the beautiful mountains, the beautiful ocean, and the amazing quality of life, and I wanted to make sure that people like me could continue to stay there doing the work they wanted to do, so that’s kind of why I’m trying to put my energy into this right now.”

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