Startups compete in Kings' annual Capitalize Technology competition
SACRAMENTO - For a little while one night, Elk Grove native Ray Weisberg was the star of the Golden 1 Center. He had grown up watching the Sacramento Kings in their glory days, but in the Golden 1 Center, he got to take pictures and shake owner Vivek Ranadive's hand.
"The winning companies go and they get walked out to midcourt during a game," Weisberg, who co-founded Elk Grove-based EyeRate, explained. "The final winning company goes out to shake hands with the judges and the owner of the Kings."
Weisberg and his team got that moment as the previous winners of the Kings' Capitalize contest. The competition takes local startups and has them complete a set of workshops and pitches for a chance to receive a $10,000 investment.
"Initially, we had applied and we didn't get in," Weisberg joked. "The second time, we got introduced back into Capitalize via GrowthFactory (a local startup incubator based in Placer County)."
If it sounds a bit like Shark Tank, that's because it carries some similarities. While the judges' feedback and votes are weighted heavily, fans also have the opportunity to vote in the contest. Weisberg says that they mobilized family, friends and connections from all over the area to help.
"[We] went through judging, it was a very strict time limit," says Weisberg. "The room was full of entrepreneurs and people from the startup community."
While the field has already been pared down to 16, over 140 companies applied to this years' competition which is in its eighth year. Greater Sacramento Economic Council President Barry Broome says it's a sign that the investment in making Sacramento an economically diverse talent hub is finally starting to catch on.
"What's happening now is this town's real," Broome says. "And it's very real on innovation. I think we're a top 10 market on innovation now."
Fresh off securing the move of Solidigm, a major semiconductor supplier that will be moving their headquarters to Rancho Cordova, Broome says that the continued efforts towards identifying local companies and talent will keep bringing in more investment in the city. A huge part of that appeal, he says, is the effort the Kings organization led by Ranadive has put in to building the city up.
"What would we be doing for a vision of urban Sacramento if we hadn't done Golden 1?" Broome mentioned.
Weisberg agrees. He says that after their moment in the spotlight at the Golden 1 Center they started to receive some attention from people that may not have called otherwise.
"People that didn't even know we had started the company hitting us up like '@e were at the game, we saw you on the court!' and it led to a lot of traction of potential people that wanted to work with us," said Weisberg. "Customers and partnership opportunities [and] with a brand like the Sacramento Kings that everybody knows in Sacramento...for them to be one of the keys to leading this charge it's been really amazing to be a part of and I think we're really gonna see this bubble blow up in the next few years."
"Leaning in and doing this creative piece replaces that stale government down feel that has held this town back for years," Broome concluded.
The field of 16 companies will be thinned further to 8 by the end of this week with final presentations and pitches to occur on March 1.