Want to meet, connect with, and support local entrepreneurs and startup founder? 1 Million Cups, a free program of the Kauffman Foundation, is designed to educate, engage and inspire entrepreneurs. Each Wednesday morning two startup founders give short presentations about their companies and then get feedback from the audience. Now, due to COVID-19 and socially distancing, these events are going online and virtual, meaning that you can drop in from the comfort of your own home and participate in and contribute to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

How 1 Million Cups Virtual Works

Every Wednesday at between 8:45 and 9am, just click here to join the event: 

Launched in the Fall of 2016, the Sacramento chapter of 1 Million Cups (1MC) has held hundreds of these meetups showcasing and connecting hundreds of local entrepreneurs to the Sacramento startup community. In non-pandemic times these events are held at local co-working spaces, but in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the local organizing team has taken the event online using the video conferencing platform Zoom. Doing so has allowed local entrepreneurs to continue to connect with each other and get the valuable feedback that they need to be successful. And it’s also a chance for more people in the Sacramento region to connect with local entrepreneurs.

“Holding Zoom meetings to keep our 1 Million Cups chapter connected during the COVID-19 economic shutdown has raised awareness about our community and we’re actually getting more “virtual” attendees than we get at our in-person meetings,” says organizer Laura Good.

Fellow organizer Anna Leaño agrees. “Holding virtual pitch practice is helping our local entrepreneurs continue their momentum in building their companies. 1MC Virtual has been helpful I think in battling the isolation founders feel on their journeys, especially at this moment in time. We continue to provide a source of support and motivation. I’m proud to be a part of this tribe.”

The online virtual format has provided an opportunity to reach a broader audience according to organizer Cameron Law. “Adapting 1MC to a virtual setting has provided us with the opportunity to expand our community and create new connections within the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am proud of the fact that we are continuing to be a steady source of community amidst the ever changing environment. People know when and where to find us and that sense of certainty is more reassuring now than ever.”

The 1 Million Cups community in Sacramento welcomes you to join them every Wednesday morning at 9:00am and become part of the local entrepreneurial community.

The meeting room will open at 8:45am to allow participants to socialize before we kick things off. Your microphone will automatically be muted upon entry, but you are free to unmute it during networking time. However, please keep your microphone muted during presentations so everyone can hear. You do not have to enable your video if you do not wish to.

To be ready for the virtual meeting, you should first download Zoom: https://zoom.us/download. It is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome, Android, and iPhone – in short, you can use it on whatever device you want!

After the presentations and Q&A conclude, the meeting room will stay open until 10:30am to allow further networking. We know this is more difficult on a web chat, so we will assist with this process through some strategic use of technology.

The organizing team uses some features of Zoom, like “raising hands” during Q&A, so feel free to familiarize yourself with the keyboard shortcuts https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205683899-Hot-Keys-and-Keyboard-Shortcuts-for-Zoom. However, this is not necessary, and they will let everyone know how to use it during the event.