StartupSac Annual Holiday Letter

In the cherished tradition of including an annual family newsletter in Holiday greeting cards, we’ve prepared a StartupSac version for you. 2017 was a year of blood, sweat and maybe even a few tears (by Laura) for StartupSac. After being awarded a RAILS grant in 2016 by The City of Sacramento, we decided to make it official by incorporating as a non-profit entity. Instead of being just a passion project, StartupSac became a legit business! It’s been a fantastic journey and we’ve got even more planned for infinity and beyond! Well, at least for 2018.

The Icing on the Cake — Recipient of Outstanding Community Contribution Award

We like to eat dessert first, so we’re kicking off our 2017 recap with the Greater Sacramento Annual Dinner, held on December 7. Startup Sac was honored at the dinner with the 2017 Outstanding Community Contribution award. The 2016 recipient was the Golden 1 Center so we were flying pretty high when we learned we’d been selected! The award recognizes a project that has had a transformative, positive impact on its community. This was a fancy event — we even left our standard uniform of jeans and graphic tees in the closet!

 

World Class, Oh Yeah!

In August, During a Greater Sacramento “Conversations with the Community” focused on catalyzing innovation, entrepreneurship thought-leader Rick Rasmussen, Industry Fellow & Director of Startup Programs at UC Berkeley, called StartupSac “the best online community startup resource in the country.” This made us #SacramentoProud! While we did indeed create the resource, it wouldn’t be much of a resource without the amazing startups and entrepreneurial support organizations we have in the region! Thank YOU for giving us something to write about!

 

Partnership Opportunities

We’re actively seeking funding partners who want to invest in the growth and quality of Sacramento’s Startup Ecosystem. We have a variety of sponsorship levels available. If you’d like to help us make an even greater impact in 2018, connect with Laura or Jeff to kickstart that conversation. A big thank you to those who invested in us in 2017: Apptology, Moneta Ventures, Carson & Kyung ALC, Norman Roos LLP, and Digital Splash Media.

 

By The Numbers

They say Content is King, at least in marketing circles. We tattooed that on our foreheads and in 2017 set about writing, recording and publishing 267 blog posts (and counting) and 39 podcast episodes featuring Startup founders in the region. Our online Startup Directory grew to 171 companies and we had over 31,000 visits to our website. In addition to our website resources, we organized 18 events, including StartupSac Happy Hours and founder workshops, which had a combined attendance of over 500 people. And speaking of events, we attended a boatload! While we ran out of fingers and toes to track down the exact number, we estimate that between the two of us, we attended over 150 startup-related events in the region this year (and it’s not over yet!). Additionally, we represented our region at the Launch Festival in San Francisco, and the Kauffman Foundation’s global ESHIP Summit and 1 Million Cups Organizer Summit, both in Kansas City. 

 

Innovate Sac — The City of Sacramento Launches the Urban Technology Lab

The Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship [MOFIE] engaged StartupSac to organize Innovate Sac, an event held at Sacramento State on November 15 that launched the Sacramento Urban Technology Lab (SUTL). SUTL is an initiative that will engage the community to transform Sacramento into a living laboratory to develop, test, deploy, replicate, and scale new technologies, products, and services and accelerate quality of life improvements for all residents. This gathering of over 150 entrepreneurs, innovators, students and educators included talks from Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen as well as several others. Singularity University’s Aaron Frank’s talk, Exponential Thinking: Technology Will Progress Far Faster Than We Realize, created a lot of buzz around the opportunities for innovation given everyone’s increased access to affordable technology. In 2018, MOFIE will continue to engage the community in SUTL through a number of meetups in a variety of districts. If you’d like to engage with SUTL, check out their information page and submit a proposal!

 

 

Fingers in Many Pies

In addition to the work we do for StartupSac, we’re both involved as volunteer organizers or mentors for a number of startup programs. We’re also providing services for clients who support entrepreneurship. So we made a list and checked it twice — every one came up nice!

1 Million Cups, Apps for Ag Hackathon, AngelHack Sac, City of Sacramento Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, CleanStart, Fourthwave, Founder Institute, Hacker Lab Startup Hustle, Kings’ Capitalize Pitch Competition, Sacramento iHub, Sacramento Region Innovation Awards, Startup Grind, Startup Weekend, and more!

 

In The Media

Jeff was featured in this Sacramento Business Journal Spotlight article in September, our Circuit Board resource map was included in Geekwire’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek article about contenders for their temporary HQ2 location and we were both guests on Mark Haney’s Haney Biz Project radio program in November. You’ll also find us on social media — we’re active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow or Like Us!