Renaissance, Start Up plan expansion

San Francisco-based Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center and East Palo Alto-based Start Up plan to expand to several more locations between San Jose and San Francisco once their merger is complete. The two nonprofits offer training classes to low- and middle-income entrepreneurs to start and grow small businesses.

"Our goal is to have a really strong and broad presence on the Peninsula," says Renaissance CEO Sharon Miller. "We recognize that no one is going to come from Redwood City to take a 14-week business course in San Francisco, so we'll have classes down there and in East Palo Alto. And we're looking to offer other locations on the Peninsula."

The groups announced they would merge in late September and are drafting a new budget as well as expansion plans for the new year. So far, says Miller, the groups have settled on keeping the headquarters for the combined entity, which will retain the Renaissance Entrepreneurship name, in Renaissance's current office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.

And it will keep its office in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood and Start Up's office in East Palo Alto as satellite offices.

The combined entity will also offer its business training classes in more locations which could include Mountain View and Redwood City, says Miller.

Before the merger, Start Up offered English classes as a part of its training programs and many of its entrepreneurs have learned the language through those classes. Renaissance is folding the Spanish-language programming into its curriculum.

Before the merger, Start Up, started by six Stanford graduate students in 1994, had a budget of $350,000 and has helped start about 250 businesses in East Palo Alto. Some of those included a nail salon, a child rearing consulting firm, a luxury car wash, a child care center, a maid service and others.

"We're excited about this merger because our combined strengths will result in more successful new businesses," says Greg Sands, a Start Up co-founder and venture capitalist with Sutter Hill Ventures, in a news release. "Combining Start Up's strengths in supporting Spanish-language entrepreneurs and Renaissance's successful programs helping existing small businesses accelerate growth will make both of these capabilities available throughout the San Francisco Peninsula."

Renaissance trains about 1,200 people per year in classes that range from four-week introductory courses to 14-week business planning courses on an annual budget of about $2.2 million. The group incubated See Jane Run, a well-known women's sports apparel retailer, and trained Alex Saldarriaga, who won the Small Business Administration Business Person of the Year award in San Francisco this year in part for the nursing business he incubated with Renaissance. It also offers advanced programming including peer group support, one-on-one consulting, business incubator technology classes and once-a-month networking and skill-building sessions.

Renaissance also offers a financing resource center, does loan packaging to help startups get bank loans and has private resources and nonprofit loan funds and grant funds startup can tap. The nonprofit is funded with government contracts and through grants and donations from foundations, corporations and individuals.

With the merger, the organization hopes to increase its budget to $2.7 million, Miller says.