Are you ready for the BIG BANG!? Not the literal cataclysmic birth of the universe, but rather the culmination of the 2018-19 UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition. 105 teams were narrowed down to thirteen semi-finalists and this Thursday, May 23, the Final Five will emerge, present and the winner will be declared! It’s free to attend the festivities, but please RSVP here.
I know a number of the companies who made it to the semi-finals — they’ve presented at 1 Million Cups or other events around the region over the last year. I love seeing how founders have developed their early ideas into real businesses and I’m crossing my fingers that my friends at Humanly, PairAnything, RePurpose Energy, TownToday, and VertX Advertising make it to the finals! You can learn more about all the semi-finalists here, including links to their 2-minute pitch videos. Who’s your favorite to win?
Jeff and I will both be at the Kauffman Foundation’s ESHIP Summit in Kansas City this week along with hundreds of other entrepreneurial ecosystem builders from around the nation. The ESHIP Summit is a multi-year initiative designed to bring early adopters of ecosystem building together to think about — and collaboratively create — the programs, practices and policies that the field needs to more effectively do the work of creating communities that empower entrepreneurs. This is the third year and collectively, Jeff and I attended the first two summits. You can read the draft Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building Playbook 3.0 here. The outcome from this year’s summit should be a final version. I’m stoked and ready to spend the week both contributing and learning.
Here’s my favorite statement from the Playbook (and what defines the work we do at StartupSac):
We must make our economy more entrepreneurial, creating more growth, jobs, wealth, and innovation. Communities need to think beyond stealing companies from other jurisdictions and retaining existing companies. Instead, they must concentrate on growing new companies. (emphasis mine)
I love me some homegrown Sacramento region startup companies! You’re what gets me up every morning!
Plan Ahead
My FAV local entrepreneur, Sonny Mayugba, CMO of Waitr (and owner of several Sacramento restaurants) is the StartupSac Happy Hour AMA guest on Tuesday, May 28 at Hot Italian. YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS an opportunity to ask Sonny ANYTHING about his startup journey! RSVP
Placer County Folk! 1 Million Cups is heading to Roseville next week, May 29. This is a morning startup presentation event with plenty of hot coffee! Free to attend. RSVP
Global Startup Weekend Sustainable Revolution is just a month away! Register now for this June 21-23 event and save big with Early Bird pricing! Plus, enter “digest” in the promo code field and save $25! Register
We’re building community! The StartupSac Community Facebook Group has over 300 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.
