I just learned from Impact VC that there will be an opportunity for Startup founders to participate in Epic Office Hours at the Impact Global Venture Summit on May 8. Apply to receive one-on-one coaching from top investors and entrepreneurs in 12 minute power sessions. The application link can be found here.

Last week the City of Sacramento opened applications for the 2018 RAILS Grant program. The program offers up to $1 million in grants to support the development of Sacramento’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. New for this year’s program is that in addition to supporting the development of Sacramento’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem through startup enablers, startup companies focused on advancing key industry verticals through the Sacramento Urban Technology Lab (SUTL) framework will be eligible for funding through the Program. Applications are due by noon on May 7. Learn more about it on StartupSac’s blog.

This Week’s Best Bet

StartupSac Happy Hour is Wednesday, April 18, from 5:30-7:30 pm at Hot Italian in midtown. The AMA guest (ask me anything) is Elizabeth Dodson, cofounder of HomeZada. If you’re wondering if we’re serious about the AMA part, take a listen to last month’s AMA with John Bissell, cofounder of Origin Material, here. This is a (free) no host event but we will have some free pizza–come early! RSVP here.

Plan Ahead

On April 25, InnoGrove has a free Founders Workshop, Perfecting Your Startup Pitch, that features instructor Ash Sedeek. Ash works with Cisco’s innovation startup teams to help them craft compelling value proposition narratives, clear business models and develop winning investor pitches. You won’t want to miss this one! RSVP here.

Early Bird pricing for the May 8 Impact Global Venture Summit expired yesterday but you can still get 75% off the General admission $150 ticket with code “startupdigest.” That’s just under $38! Delay no further — startups in the Sacramento region NEED to be at this event! Get your ticket here.

April 30 – May 4 is Small Business Week and the Small Business Festival. There are events planned that will be helpful for both small businesses and startups. We’ll be adding the events to this newsletter next week but in the meantime, you can click on the hyperlinks  above to preview what’s coming up that week. Many of the events are free.

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.