StartupSac

StartupSac received a $50,000 grant to grow StartupSac and build out resources for the Sacramento startup community.

🌐 http://startupsac.com/

Key Accomplishments

• Recognized as “best online community startup resource in the country” by Rick Rasmussen from UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

• Selected as the recipient of Greater Sacramento’s 2017 Outstanding Regional Contribution award.

• Launched online directory of over 100 Sacramento startups.

• Launched job board for local startups.

• Developed StartupSac iPhone and Android apps.

• Organized a StartupSac workshop, Slicing Pie, that provided guidance to early stage startup founders.

• Launched StartupSac Happy Hour, a monthly meetup featuring an “Ask Me Anything” session with experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

• Supported outreach to startup companies for Kings Capitalize contest including outreach to specific founders in the region.

• Curated calendar of startup-related events and weekly events email list for 1175+ subscribers.

• Brought Unshackled Ventures Founder Manan Mehta to Sacramento to meet with GSEC, local investors, and the Mayor’s Office.

• Referred one startup to 500 Startups who completed the program and graduated.

• Organized and held 3 new StartupSac Happy Hour mentoring events for entrepreneurs featuring “Ask Me Anything” sessions with experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

• Began organizing student-led Startup Weekend at Sierra College in January 2018.

• Organized Startup Summer Party which showcased 12 startups with over 300 attendees.

Performance Metrics

	October 2016	October 2017
Monthly Website Sessions	1,112	3,393
Monthly Website Users	829	2,659
Total Sacramento Startup Founder Interviews/Profiles Published	2	52
Articles Published/year	187	307
Total Events Held	0	17
Total Event Attendees Reached	0	376

Assessment

StartupSac is an ambitious undertaking which mostly runs on volunteered time and efforts. Their objectives to support and grow Sacramento’s startup ecosystem are accomplished by continuous outreach in the form of email, website posts, podcast episodes, and event coverage. They are incredibly active in the startup community, not just in Sacramento, but throughout the country. Startup Sacramento attends, organizes, and promotes events for the community for entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators, but makes it a point to attend conferences such as the Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Summit in Kansas City, Missouri and the Launch Festival in San Francisco representing Sacramento and bringing back information to our community. Their intention for RAILS grant funding was to allow them the flexibility to focus on these efforts without as much worry about funding sources. Unfortunately, the grant funding did not cover as much of their work as they initially anticipated and much of the work done was pro bono.