Matsui says Sacramento region making strides with tech startups
Sacramento has made huge strides toward building and growing a startup community, Congresswoman Doris Matsui told local entrepreneurs. Startup Day Across America, on Thursday, gave local entrepreneurs a chance to bend the ear of their congressional representatives, and a chance for the representatives to offer support and views. Thursday morning, Congressman Ami Bera met with entrepreneurs at Velocity's Venture Capital's Folsom Entrepreneurs Campus. Another group of startup executives met with Matsui at noon at Velocity's offices in downtown Sacramento. Startup Day was launched in 2013 by Congressmen Darrell Issa of Vista and Jared Polis of Colorado as a way for politicians to meet with entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators and startup founders in their districts. Matsui, a Sacramento Democrat, said she has been interested in technology since before she was elected 11 years ago, and she has long been an advocate for increased broadband and clean technology. She said the real estate collapse of 2008 was terrible in Sacramento, but it did help the local business community to broaden its focus beyond real estate development and government and to look at other options. In recent years, all manners of startup companies have blossomed in the region.
"It is music to my ears to hear people talking about innovation," Matsui said.
She said it is vital for Sacramento and the region to diversify beyond a reliance on government and real estate. Many of the entrepreneurs present noted the lack of investment capital locally. But while there might not be much funding available here, Sacramento does benefit from being just a short drive from the largest concentration of venture capital in the world in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, said Jack Crawford Jr., general partner with Velocity. Matsui said she would like to see the massive pension funds California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System invest in local startups. "Maybe if I keep talking about it, someone will figure out a way to get them to do it," Matsui said. Sacramento has never been known as a big corporate headquarters region, she said. That is why growth companies are so important. "We have to look at small businesses as a strength" in the local economy, she said. "My goal is to make sure we don't lose our businesses. We want them to seed it here, grow it here, nurture it here and keep it here." With growing innovation companies and more entrepreneurs calling Sacramento home, the region is now offering opportunities to recent college graduates, she said. "The people who go to college here now stay here," Matsui said. "That was a missing piece for a long time." Where a decade ago, the region was building out, it is now also succeeding with infill development, and that is attractive to innovation economy companies. The region can build on its strengths in green technology, clean technology and medical technology. She cites the region's benefit of being home to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which tests a variety of new technologies. The region also benefits by having four major hospital systems with major operations here, as well as the research coming out of the University of California Davis.
Mark Anderson, Sacramento Business Journal, August 5, 2016