Kudos to the Sacramento Business Journal and journalist Victor Patton for highlighting our region’s accomplishments as well as potential areas for improvement in achieving diversity in our technology sector in last Friday’s edition. “Sacramento’s tech sector is still in its early stages of development, but here, startup founders, investors …and others say the city may be poised to create a technology economy where people of color and women play active leadership roles. Recent data seems to support those claims.” It was a breath of fresh air for me, given the recent sexual-harassment and gender discrimination scandals in the tech startup industry (Uber, 500 Startups).
On the topic of diversity, I read an article in the Harvard Business Review last week that explains some of the reasons why female founders receive far less investment capital than their male counterparts. It turns out it has everything to do with the types of questions they are asked. And the best news? There’s something women (and men) can do about it! If you’re pitching to investors you NEED to read this article, regardless of your gender!
In honor of Sacramento recently being recognized as a top market for tech job growth, Jeff and I decided to feature more tech meetups in this week’s edition of the Startup Digest. We always include them on the StartupSac event calendar but they seldom make it into the Startup Digest as our mission is to identify the best events for startup founders. If you think Sacramento doesn’t have much of a tech scene, this edition will prove you uninformed! :) We know a lot of startup founders lean to the technical side, so we hope you enjoy this issue and find something geeky to check out!
This Week’s Best Bets
Tuesday, Startup Grind’s guest is Dale Carlsen, the founder of Sleep Train. Get your tickets in advance and save $5 off the at-the-door price! And save another $5 if you use promo code “digest” when you register.
Also on Tuesday, Founder’s Institute is hosting a Startup Pitch Bootcamp. This free event features successful local startup founders who will share their pitch secrets with you! Including Jon Coss, CEO of Pondera, who just closed an 8-figure Series A investment round!
If you lean to the Geek Side, I recommend ACM’s Thursday event, Artificial Intelligence in Virtual Reality featuring Michael Ludden, Director Product, IBM Watson Developer Labs.
Plan Ahead
Did you hear that Founder Institute is launching a cohort this fall? Find out more about how you can participate on Tuesday, August 15 at an informational meeting.
Interested in the intersection of technology, healthcare and our aging population? Plan to attend Aging 2.0’s no host mixer on Wednesday, August 16 at Hoppy Brewing.
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. If you’ve organized (or know about) an event we have not included, please submit it here for consideration. And for even more startup information, happenings and resources, visit the StartupSac Website. Note: We include a lot of tech events that aren’t necessarily startup-focused on the event calendar on the StartupSac website. Check it out here.
