Last week’s Five Star Bank Tank event was so inspiring for me! I got to see the evolution of many startups I’ve helped nudge along, some from as far back as 2010! Twelve of the 26 presenting companies had presented at 1 Million Cups and three were alumni of StartupSac Warm-Up Pitch. There were investors everywhere — both VCs and Angels — and the buzz among them was that a number of investment-worthy companies had pitched. The “Winner of the Bubbly” (judges’ favorite) was Lincoln-based TriVirum, a med tech company that has developed the hardware and software technology required for a low-cost population screening device for AFib.
So how can you get your startup to a investor pitch event like Bank Tank? Honestly, you need some legit traction. You need a working MVP and you need customers. If you’re a deep tech company, you may not need the sales traction yet but you need to have done some serious research/trials to prove out your product. While you’re working on achieving that, I highly recommend getting used to presenting your company by participating in events like 1 Million Cups. It’s a great opportunity to practice as well as get valuable feedback from our startup ecosystem. Apply to present at 1 Million Cups here.
This Week’s Best Bets
Tuesday, StartupSac Happy Hour comes to Granite City Coworking in Folsom. This month’s event features a panel of 3 seasoned entrepreneurs: John Bodrozic and Elizabeth Dodson, cofounders of HomeZada (John cofounded Meridian Systems which had a successful exit in 2006; Beth was also part of the Meridian team) and Kevin Kane, CEO of Linkd (Kevin’s background includes five liquidity events with three Fortune 500 companies). It’s free to attend but RSVP so we’ll know how much food and adult beverages we need to get! RSVP here
Wednesday morning, 1 Million Cups is in Roseville at The Studio Coworking. The presenters are VoteMatrix, who is building an internet collaboration platform to bridge the gap between voters, political analysts, and politicians; and Jellyswitch, who supplies fully branded mobile apps to flexible workspaces and coworking spaces so that they can provide the best possible experience for their members It’s free to attend. RSVP here
Plan Ahead
On November 7, the annual Sacramento Region Innovation Awards will be held at the Crest Theater in Downtown Sacramento. This event honors innovations developed by technology ventures in a variety of industries. And good news — StartupSac has scored a 15% off discount for you. Enter code “startupdigest” in the promotional code field to take advantage of the discount. Get Tickets
Global Entrepreneurship Week is November 19-25 and Sac State has it going on! All of the events are open to the general public. There will be a Pitch Event and a Startup Showcase featuring Sacramento-region startups on November 20. I’ll have more on that next week. You can see the full schedule here.
Do you want free business mentorship, advising, or consulting? StartupSac and the Capital Region SBDC have partnered to provide free business support mentorship to help Sacramento region entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Learn more and sign up!
We’re building community! The StartupSac Community Facebook Group has over 500 members. Now we need you! Request to join here.
There’s lots of great stuff going on in the tech startup community–check out the details in this week’s Startup Digest. If you’d like to receive the digest in your inbox every Monday morning, sign up for free here. And for even more startup information, happenings and resources, browse the StartupSac Website.
If you’ve organized (or know about) an event you think belongs in the Startup Digest, please submit it here for consideration.
