2026-07-15 –, Johnson Great Room
As funding levels have fallen in both the public sector and startup investing, many in the SciPy community are facing uncertain career futures or even job loss. Others may simply dream of being their own boss. This session will guide participants through a personalized analysis of the feasibility of securing paid work outside of formal employment, including solo consulting, building a product or service business with a team, or joining an existing tech startup. The session will also touch on tips for starting with limited funding, reducing unnecessary risk, leveraging open-source community resources, and pursuing next steps.
Jocelyn Graf is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of California Riverside and advises small businesses through the Los Angeles Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). Her expertise includes helping technical and non-technical people communicate and collaborate. She also helps academics and entrepreneurs apply for federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to commercialize their discoveries. In South Korea, she worked at Samsung and then founded, grew, and sold a biomedical & engineering research editing & translation company. In LA, she has also been a college STEM Director and founded a workforce training company that helped early-career engineers get fun product development experience by designing and building hardware for escape rooms and gaming conventions. Jocelyn works remote from Seattle, is an avid cyclist, and volunteers helping community organizations migrate from big tech platforms to open source alternatives. She is currently working on learning to code in a more “pythonic” style.