News Release

Santa Ana College Hosts Grand Opening for nappify™ on May 31

​*Santa Ana College students offered free 40-minute naps

on first day of final exam week*

WHAT:

Santa Ana College is hosting a grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony for the Orange County SBDC/District Sector Navigator Small Business client nappify.™ This Orange County startup provides mobile nap pods for scheduled visits to local corporations and educational institutions.

Kevin Pham, nappify™ co-founder and power nap evangelist, is working to bring the benefits of power naps to local corporations and educational institutions. “In Vietnam and Japan, there is a culture of power napping from 1-2 p.m. every day. Everyone power naps to prepare for the second half of the day and wakes up refreshed and focused,” said Pham. “Major corporations like Google, Nike, British Airways, and many more encourage power napping in their business culture and have achieved great success with improved productivity and employee satisfaction.”

To demonstrate their gratitude for the assistance nappify™ co-founders Kevin Pham and brother Ken Pham received from the Orange County Small Business Development Center (SBDC), they are offering free 40-minute trials of their nap pods to Santa Ana College (SAC) students on the first day of final exam week. In addition to a 40-minute power nap, students utilizing the nap pods will receive a free care bag including water and ear plugs. The naps will be available from 4-9 p.m. on May 31. After that, nappify™ will also remain at SAC on June 1 and 2 when students will be able to utilize the pods for a 25 percent discount.

A formal ribbon cutting for the new Orange County enterprise will take place followed by tours of the world’s first-ever nap pods on wheels. The 17-foot nap pod trailer houses four nap pods each measuring 4’ X 4’ X 7’. Following the formal program and light refreshments, SAC students will be invited to sign up for the free 40-minute naps.

WHERE:

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Santa Ana College
Parking Lot 6
1530 W. 17th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92706

Shuttle from Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) Office to Santa Ana College
2323 N. Broadway
Santa Ana, CA 92706

WHEN:

Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Program: 1:00 p.m.
Tours of mobile nap pods: 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Free naps: 4:00-9:00 p.m.

Shuttle departs RSCCD: 12:30 pm

WHO:

Presenters at the ribbon cutting include:

  • ClaudiaC. Alvarez, President, RSCCD Board of Trustees
  • Elizabeth Arteaga, Small Business Deputy Sector Navigator and Manager of Business & Entrepreneurship Center, RSCCD
  • Mike Daniel, Regional Director, Lead Center for the Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network
  • Madeline Grant, Interim Dean of Business, SAC
  • Carlos Lopez, Vice President of Academic Affairs, SAC
  • Gia Ly, Chairwoman, Board of Directors, Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce (VACOC)
  • Leila Mozaffari, Director, Orange County Small Business Development Center, RSCCD
  • Tam Nguyen, President, Executive Board, VACOC
  • Enrique Perez, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Educational Services, RSCCD
  • Kevin Pham, nappify™ Co-founder
  • Adalberto Quijada, Director of the U.S.Small Business Administration's Santa Ana District Office

WHY:

In 2003, Kevin Pham came to the U.S. to study in Illinois. He discovered he disliked cold winters and moved on to Arizona, which proved to be too hot. He found a perfect climate in Orange County and brother Ken joined him in 2005.

In 2015, they got the idea to found a mobile nap pod company and needed some help. A friend pointed them in the direction of Katie Nguyen, a business consultant with the Orange County SBDC. Through Nguyen and other Orange County SBDC business consultants, they found assistance to develop their business plan, conduct market research to identify their primary target audiences, take care of necessary business startup steps, implement digital marketing, and much more.

“It has been a great journey working with the Orange County SBDC as we have developed our business,” said Kevin. “I am so thankful that we came through their door.”

The Orange County SBDC, currently in its 25th year of continuous service to the Orange County business community, offers free business consulting in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Farsi. Thanks to $300,000 of grants from Wells Fargo, since 2000 the Orange County SBDC has provided over 15,600 hours of consulting services to over 1,800 Vietnamese-owned businesses in Orange County. This assistance has resulted in 967 jobs created/retained and over $23.65M of direct economic impact. In addition, during this timeframe 112 businesses were started by Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs with assistance from Orange County SBDC.

Since 2000, the Orange County SBDC has provided the following:

  • Trained 40,054 small business owners and counseled 9,344 businesses
  • Provided 77,431 hours of free counseling
  • Helped start 431 businesses which created/retained 6,233 jobs
  • Supported $203.6 million of sales and facilitated businesses accessing over $133.5 million of working capital
  • acilitated the award of over $197.4 million of contracts to small, minorities/women/veteran-owned businesses
  • Supported a total economic impact of $534,623,835

HOW:

For more information about the Orange County SBDC, contact (714) 564-5200 or visit www.ocsbdc.org.

About the Orange County Small Business Development Center
The Orange County Small Business Development Center (SBDC), an economic development program of Rancho Santiago Community College District, is partially supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and the California State University, Fullerton. The Orange County SBDC is a one-stop source for starting a business, obtaining a business loan, growing a business both domestically and internationally, and expansion strategies.

About Rancho Santiago Community College District
Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College are public community colleges of the Rancho Santiago Community College District, which serves the residents of Anaheim Hills, Orange, Santa Ana, Villa Park, and portions of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, and Tustin. Both colleges provide education for academic transfer and careers, courses for personal and professional development, and customized training for business and industry.

About nappify™
nappify™ provides mobile nap pods and complimentary amenities to ensure the best nap you ever dreamed of having. You book a time and place with us and we make sure your nap pod is available at your convenience, with a guaranteed smile. For more information, please check our website: www.nappify.com.

# # #

Contact: Judy Iannaccone

Phone: (714) 480-7319

e-mail: