ALISO VIEJO, CALIFORNIA, February 18, 2021. Octane, Southern California’s leading tech and medtech accelerator announced today that they have appointed Dave Beck as the new Director of LaunchPad SBDC and Investor Relations and JC Ruffalo as Elevation Fund Manager. In addition to Beck’s responsibilities as Director of LaunchPad SBDC, Dave will continue Octane's efforts to connect LaunchPad Alumni companies to the diverse and wide providers of capital in its ecosystem.
Beck joins Octane from Cognizant’s Artificial Intelligence consulting practice. He has held a number of client facing executive roles and prior, he was the VP of Customer Service at Beckman Coulter/ Danaher. He has broad industry experience including life sciences, healthcare, software, hardware, consumer goods and professional services.
“I'm both excited and humbled to join Octane because of its mission to foster innovation in Orange County. They have built one of the Top 5 SBDC accelerator programs in the nation and have facilitated raising $2.85B in capital over the last 10 years. I plan to draw upon my diverse background to assist entrepreneurs in achieving their dreams and also creating 55,000 jobs in Southern California by 2030. Joining Octane allows me to express my passion for innovation, my mission for helping others and my entrepreneurial spirit. I look forward to collaborating with the Octane ecosystem to accelerate innovation and contribute to the next chapter in its storied history.“ Beck said.
Additionally, JC Ruffalo, most recently Director of LaunchPad SBDC has been promoted to Fund Manager for Elevation Ventures Management, a newly organized venture capital firm. JC’s experience working with LaunchPad SBDC Companies for the past 7 years make him exceptionally qualified to lead the venture capital firm. Learn more about Elevation Ventures Management here.
“I am excited to transition to Elevation Ventures and create a leading venture fund here in Southern California in partnership with Octane. I have been leading Octane’s accelerator program, LaunchPad SBDC, for the past 7 years and have experienced the success of companies that have completed our program. LaunchPad has had great success over the years and leveraging the LaunchPad platform will provide the fund an information advantage and make smarter investment decisions. Elevation Ventures will focus on SoCal companies - Octane & LaunchPad has already been doing this for years having an impact on companies from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Our proven processes enables us to be successful capital providers and strategic partners.” Ruffalo said.
“Since joining Octane in 2014 JC has held increasingly greater levels of responsibility and in 2017 assumed leadership for LaunchPad. In that time and under JC’s leadership LaunchPad has grown to a level of national recognition and we are excited for JC’s new responsibility as fund manager for Elevation Ventures. Dave brings years of corporate experience both in sales and service along with solid operational and process management skills. His experience in AI is an added plus as we help lead an initiative to create a global hub of innovation for AI in SoCal. Both JC and Dave will continue to increase the services our partners rely on Octane to provide,” said Bill Carpou CEO of Octane.
About Octane:
Octane convenes and enable the Southern California technology and medical technology business ecosystem by connecting people, resources and capital. Our goal is to create 55,000+ high-value technology jobs in Southern California by 2030. We impact our community through LaunchPad, an industry leading accelerator, Enterprise Solutions, a new platform to provide companies capital and growth resources to accelerate job creation, Signature Events & Programs, and direct access to capital. Learn more at octaneoc.org