The North Bay’s Economic Future
Conversation with Marin + Sonoma Business Leader Craig Nelson
Tuesday, March 2, 2021 from Sonoma, CA
Craig Nelson joined Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures as an Advisor in June 2020.
Craig is a national leader in the HR technology industry and serves as Chairman of the Board of the Nelson Family of Companies and iWorkGlobal. Highly involved in the North Bay community, Craig is former Chair of the North Bay Leadership Council and currently a member of its Executive Committee; was Chair of the Marin County Workforce Investment Board and a former Board Member of the Marin Economic Forum; and is the recipient of both the Spirit of Marin and Spirit of Sonoma Awards recognizing his community service.
We sat down with Craig to talk about the role for local startups to play in the economic future of Marin + Sonoma.
ZK: Your positions give you an insider’s view into our economic recovery – what are you seeing in terms of the pace of hiring?
CN: For our business, it’s really a tale of two cities. Our traditional staffing business dropped by 30 percent, which is better than we anticipated. Then, we popped back up to where we were running at a 20 percent reduction. We’ve seen that trend continue to today and have noticed more companies starting to rehire over the past two or three months. There is demand where there wasn’t before, and as the vaccine becomes more prevalent, we feel we will have fully recovered by this summer.
We also run an international employer of record company, iWorkGlobal, and that business really took off and grew throughout the entire pandemic with more and more people working remotely. Our experience really is a microcosm for the overall economy, where some businesses were severely hurt by the pandemic while others thrived.
ZK: How do you see this all impacting the future of work and the North Bay’s commercial real estate market?
CN: I think there’s definitely going to be significant work-from-home in the future and that many companies will adopt a hybrid model where people come into work a few days a week and are remote for the other days. Companies will be more open to flexible arrangements and this will have ramifications. That’s certainly where we are moving with our company, and this is causing us to reduce our real estate footprint, so I think it’s going be really tough for commercial real estate over the next few years.
ZK: You’ve held multiple leadership roles across the Marin + Sonoma business community over the past decade. What do you see as the biggest impediments to local economic growth in the years ahead?
CN: Our two biggest challenges remain housing and transportation and they’re very closely related. In Marin and now Sonoma, the cost of living is so high that many low wage earners have to commute in from other counties – not only do we not have housing for them here but that commute can be difficult and long. There don’t seem to be any quick fixes to this issue and this will continue to hamper our prospects for growth as we push forward.
As a community, we need to open our minds a bit more to thoughtful development and to who our neighbors are going to be if we’re going to find a solution to this problem. And we also need to focus on quicker ways to grow our local economy that recognize these problems will persist for the foreseeable future.
ZK: It’s why we’re so focused on finding the lowest-hanging fruit to boost our local economy and that really is startups. There are incredible entrepreneurs living in the North Bay, tremendously talented workers residing here, and a 10%+ office vacancy rate that we believe will climb in the months and years ahead. Growing our local startup footprint to take advantage of these attributes is achievable and one of the quickest paths to growth.
CN: To your point, we have a lot of people taking their talent out of our counties everyday because there has been this perception that you had to be in San Francisco or Silicon Valley to build or work at a high-growth startup. But the reality is we have all the elements right here to do anything you’d want to do and great success stories across sectors from software to biotech to production.
All of the affluence residing here means we have capital but so little of it is invested into the community’s startups. It would be great if we could take some of this money, match it with talented entrepreneurs, and then further deploy it to create more quality jobs. If we could build an effort like this, in a for-profit setting that makes the effort self-sustaining and not beholden to government complexity or donor generosity, we really can pave the next generation of prosperity for the region.
ZK: That’s certainly the change that Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures is looking to bring to this community. Tell us more around what you believe makes this community so special.
CN: There is such an intertwined relationship between local businesses and philanthropic activities that really is unique for a region. You look at institutions like the Bank of Marin, Redwood Credit Union, the Ghilotti companies, Marin Sanitary Service, and our local hospitals – all play such a critical role in funding our most important causes.
This is why our potential as a community is that much greater if we can better support local entrepreneurs – our whole ecosystem will be that much stronger. I’m seeing more and more young professionals moving up here during the pandemic, and they are eager to find ways to engage in their new community. This is our opportunity – if we can seek out these individuals and encourage them to build companies in this community, and support them along the way, that’s how we’ll pave the next generation of prosperity because it can’t just be companies that have been here for 40+ years having a seat at the table – we need to mentor that next generation of leaders.
ZK: What else would you like to see change to ensure a more vibrant Marin + Sonoma business community as we push forward?
CN: The key component that is missing here is the will of many residents to invest in their own community – so much of this happens on the philanthropic side but not nearly enough is happening on the for-profit side.
If we can get more leaders in this community to better understand the importance of this – which is not just an opportunity to make money, because everyone wants to make money – but an opportunity to both generate returns and kick-start economic development in our own community, that will lead to better outcomes for the entire community.
It will benefit quality-of-life, it will make this community younger and more vibrant, it will drive more interest and awareness in local charitable organizations, and it will boost overall community engagement. It’s why I’m engaging with the MSIV effort because this is something we need to get right if we are to have a bright future ahead of us.
Zachary Kushel is Founder & Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures.
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