There were a couple of news items last week that address key success factors for our startup ecosystem: access to capital and government regulation. Moneta Ventures announced that they are launching a $25 million fund that will invest in pre-revenue companies, unlike their first fund which targeted companies with revenue of $500K or more. On the regulation side, Region Technology, an advocacy group to represent the tech sector, was launched. What’s it all about? Ask Ash Roughani, who is the interim director and very active in our tech community.

Hot Picks
If you’re a startup founder, you need to educate yourself on protecting your intellectual property. Get some expert advice by attending InnoGrove’s free workshop on Tuesday, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights and More: A Startup’s Guide to IP. I’ll be there!

Get thee to the Maker Faire! This weekend, celebrate Maker Media’s 11th anniversary in the Bay Area, showcasing creative and resourceful people in the areas of science and technology, engineering, food, and arts and crafts. If you go, stop by the Sacramento company booths of PodPi and Rocket Department and say hey.

HP Enterprise is having an education-focused technology forum on Friday. It’s an all day thing and the public is welcome to attend. If you are into using technology to advance education, check it out.

Plan Ahead
Thursday, May 26, is Beer & Geeks at University of Beer in Sacramento! If you haven’t yet been to one of these free/no host casual gatherings, you really ought to drop in. There’s no agenda — you just get to hang with really cool people in our startup community!

There’s lots of great stuff going on in the tech startup community–check out this week’s Startup Digest for details. If you’ve organized (or know about) an event we have not included, please submit it here for consideration.

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