Capital Ready at Humanmade

Humanmade, a Jefferson Award recipient and San Francisco nonprofit accelerator and workforce developer, is launching Capital Ready, a new program to help California’s early-stage entrepreneurs, small manufacturers, and very small businesses get investment-ready and funded, bridging public service and private-sector growth.

Overview

Following the proven success of our Next Generation Manufacturing Training, which has created more than 200 high-paying jobs, and our Hardware Accelerator, whose companies have raised over $35M in venture funding and revenue, Humanmade is designing and deploying a capital-readiness program through California’s SSBCI Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP), a U.S. Treasury initiative administered by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA).

The program is built on relationships. It brings the region’s seasoned business, accounting, and legal experts together with the next generation of California innovators, entrepreneurs, and small manufacturers, and gives those founders the mentorship and guidance to grow in ways that strengthen their communities and the state. Humanmade convenes and coordinates it all, through focused, hands-on cohorts and workshops open to the public. As a nonprofit rather than a traditional accelerator or incubator, Humanmade holds no equity and charges nothing, so its only measure of success is the companies themselves and the good they bring to our community.

Our Track Record

Humanmade was selected for this program on the strength of a proven, independently validated track record:

  • $35M+ in venture funding raised by companies in our accelerator, including alumni Voltpost and Endiatx.

  • 4:1 return: every $1 invested in our work generates $4 in economic impact, validated by the State of California

  • The only CalOSBA-recognized Accelerator and Employee Social Enterprise in the state’s portfolio

  • $14M+ secured for workforce training and business acceleration, with 90% going directly to programming

  • Partners have included Amazon, Samsara, Autodesk, Cruise, SKS Partners, San Francisco OEWD, Veterans Administration and The Department Of Labor

  • Winner of the Jefferson Award, often called the Nobel Prize of public service

For Participants

Capital Ready is open to small businesses that are ready to grow and actively working toward capital. If your business is based in California and fits one of these three groups, you likely qualify:

  • Very small businesses: fewer than 10 employees, including sole proprietors and independent contractors

  • Small manufacturers: companies that make physical products

  • SEDI-owned businesses: owned by someone whose access to capital has been limited by barriers such as race or ethnicity, gender, veteran status, disability, limited English proficiency, or living in a rural, underserved, or economically transitioning community

Email SBOP@Humanmade.org to discuss your eligibility for the next cohort. Even if you don’t qualify yet, we can add you to our public events.

For Strategic Partners

Capital Ready is building a network of the region’s business, legal, financial, and investment leaders, all helping shape California’s next innovators, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs. There’s more than one way to take part:

  • Work with a cohort of 50 innovative companies as one of our featured experts, sharing your knowledge through workshops, office hours, and mentorship

  • Invest or lend as an angel, VC, lender, or CDFI at our regional investor event

  • Refer companies you already know

Join us in guiding California’s future innovators and building lasting relationships that will shape the economic future of our great state. Email SBOP@Humanmade.org to get involved.

How It Works

  • Structure: two 6-week cohorts each year, supported by monthly workshops, office hours, and one-on-one advising, plus one regional investor event a year.

  • Cohort size: roughly 50 companies per cohort, selected for eligibility and readiness.

  • Where and when: primarily in person; cohorts run through 2027.

  • Cost: free to participants, with no equity taken.

  • What participants gain: legal, accounting, and financial readiness, a capital action plan, and direct introductions to investors, lenders, and buyers.

  • Relationships: lasting connections with expert mentors and bridges to the region’s institutions.

  • Topics: capital readiness, financial modeling, legal and IP, accounting, pitch and investor strategy, SBIR/STTR and non-dilutive funding, procurement, and bonding.

  • Getting started: email SBOP@Humanmade.org to check eligibility or join the public events list.

Funded in part through a Grant with the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.