It’s the week before the Christmas Holiday and there isn’t much happening event-wise related to launching and scaling your startup. But for the die-hard founder, I did manage to find a couple of things worth your while. This would also be a good week to catch up on anything you missed during November’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. Learn how you can access the playlist here. And it wouldn’t be almost-Christmas without me sharing my Startup Christmas Story poem! I hope you get a chuckle from it.

This Week’s Best Bets

Evolution Open Office Hours, Tue Dec 21 at Noon: Speak directly to Sacramento region investors and chat about things that can help set your startup apart! Online

Qualifying for SBIR and STTR Grants, Wed Dec 22, 9 AM: The Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs are highly competitive programs that encourage small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development with the potential for commercialization. Learn about both programs and how to access funding. Online

Plan Ahead

Critical Questions & Information Needed to Do Proper Business Planning, Tue Dec 28 at 10 AM: Starting a business is a tough decision and needs proper planning. SCORE will cover the essentials of creating a business plan through a step-by-step process. Online

Startup Shop Talk, Thu Dec 30 at 11 AM: Startup Shop Talk is a weekly, interactive livestream show entirely about startups & innovation — from idea to product-market fit. Online

A Startup Christmas Story by Laura Good

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through our town,
Startup founders were sighing and feeling beat down.

Entrepreneurship is hard, it’s no 9 to 5;
It takes massive energy just to survive.

Eric Ries wrote their bible, schooled them on lean.
They quickly became validation machines!

They hustled and bustled to build, measure, learn.
They collected data that caused them concern.

“Do we pivot or not? What should be chucked?
What secret sauce makes an idea disrupt?”

“Oh how can we scale?” they were heard to exclaim.
“We need a growth hacker and a killer domain.”

“Our vision is clear: we are the next Unicorn,
Or The Uber of X, but we’re feeling forlorn.”

Although waxing dismayed as the year end approached,
They leveraged their networks to be refreshed and coached.

With passions ignited and their spirits uplifted,
The sound we now heard was of attitudes shifted.

“With our roadmap in hand to show us the way,
We’re setting our caps for a fat Series A!