In 2017 I had the privilege to witness firsthand the launch of Sacramento as a female startup founder hub. A lot of people talk about equality in tech, including gender parity, but the number of people actually doing somthing about it is limited. Last year, as part of the City of Sacramento’s RAILS grant program a new female-founder focused accelerator, FourthWave, was launched. In my book, that launch gave the Sacramento startup community a turbo-charged boost in becoming a hub for female startup founders.

FourthWave, originally known as Elevate Project, was the brainchild of LA’s Nancy Perlman who collaborated with Sacramento entrepreneur Tracy Saville to launch this exciting program right here in Sacramento. The aim of the program is to catalyze the growth of women-led technology companies in the Sacramento region. Their focus is “capital readiness,” developing conscious leaders, and aligning their programs with the unique needs of entrepreneurs and their communities, as well as with the emerging technology sectors of the regional economy.

I was lucky enough to attend their launch dinner and celebration as well as interview several of the first cohort, and attend their pitches at their investor salon and I can tell you, these are all extremely smart, driven women that Sacramento is fortunate to have here.

Now you too can meet these awesome, inspiring  CEOs in a panel discussion led by FourthWave cofounder Tracy Saville at the next Startup Grind Sacramento event. Learn about the challenges and lessons these founders learned during their first year and get inspired by the ways they and their startups are making a positive impact on society. Here are the confirmed panelists:

The mission of Startup Grind is to educate, connect, and inspire entrepreneurs.   At this event, there will be networking, great food, and live music!  Here are the event details:

FourthWave Panel Discussion at Startup Grind

WHEN: Tuesday, January 9, 2018, 6:00 pm

WHERE: This event as at the new Urban Hive location at the Cannery: 1601 Alhambra Blvd, Sacramento, 95816

RSVP

Apptology is a sponsor of Startup Grind Sacramento.

If you’d like to get to know some of these women either before or after the event, check out the podcast interviews I did with several of them, including;