StartupSac was founded by Jeff Bennett and Laura Good, both passionate about growing the startup ecosystem in the Sacramento region. Jeff Bennett retired in 2022.
Laura Good, Co-founder, President, and CEO, StartupSac
Laura’s passion for startups was fueled by her experience working for a technology startup from its early stage to its successful exit five years later. She’s been involved in the Sacramento region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem since 2008 and is highly engaged with many entrepreneurial support organizations in the region. In 2016, she joined Jeff Bennett as the cofounder of StartupSac, a California non-profit organization with the mission to accelerate the Greater Sacramento region’s startup and innovation ecosystem by informing, educating, empowering, and connecting its startup founders and innovators.
In addition to her leadership role at StartupSac, Laura provides consulting services to the Sacramento Angels. Laura also volunteers her time for a number of startup-focused groups. She is the co-curator of the Sacramento Startup Digest, a free weekly newsletter about startup events; an event organizer for nine Startup Weekends; and on the organizer teams for 1 Million Cups Sacramento, a program of the Kauffman Foundation. She is also a founding member of the Sacramento Entrepreneurial Growth Alliance.
Prior to cofounding StartupSac, Laura worked as director of programs, marketing and operations for economic development nonprofit SARTA whose mission was to grow the technology industry in the Sacramento region. A veteran of the electronics industry, she has extensive private-sector executive management experience in a variety of functional areas, including finance, operations, manufacturing, marketing communications, technical sales and product management. Laura has a BS in Commerce with an emphasis in Finance from Santa Clara University. Laura was a 2018 Honoree of Sacramento Business Journal as “Women Who Means Business” awards.
Retired: Jeff Bennett, Co-founder, past CEO and President, StartupSac
Jeff’s passion for tech startups began while working for a small software startup in 2000, but was amplified when he relocated to Sacramento in 2015 and began to get involved with events in the Sacramento startup community, joined the Startup Weekend organizing team, and launched the StartupSac.com website.
In 2016, he joined Laura Good as the cofounder of StartupSac, a California non-profit organization with the mission to accelerate the Greater Sacramento region’s startup and innovation ecosystem by informing, educating, empowering, and connecting its startup founders and innovators
In addition to his work for StartupSac, Jeff is a website digital media creator & manager with a focus on social innovation and impact-driven organizations. He creates and manage websites and digital website content and helps other entrepreneurial ecosystem builders connect and share their stories and knowledge through initiatives with The Kauffman Foundation’s ESHIP Summit, and the Startup Champions Network. He’s also co-curator of the Sacramento Startup Digest and works as an organizer for the 1 Million Cups Sacramento and Startup Weekend Sacramento teams.
Prior to his freelance career, Jeff worked at Boeing, initially as an engineer, eventually migrating into software development, spending several years developing engineering software applications. In 2000 Jeff left Boeing to work as a software engineering consultant for a small software startup that developed and sold knowledge-based engineering software and applications.
Jeff has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Engineering Design Technology from Brigham Young University and an MBA in Information Technology Management from City University in Seattle.
