1. OVER DRINKS
ABOUTTECH
SACRAMENTOIN
HONESTCHATAN
TECH EDGE | SPECIAL REPORT
MARCH 4, 2016
VOL. 33, NO. 2
$3.00
555 CAPITOL MALL,
SUITE 200
SACRAMENTO, CA
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Bank raises profile
Tri Counties Bank buys Roseville
building to become its regional HQ
MARK ANDERSON, 3
EXECUTIVE PROFILE
A COLLEGE JOB LED
HIM TO THIS 25
TECHNOLOGY
Hospital unveils
new ‘gamma knife’
The latest weapon against brain
tumors weighs 21 tons and cost $7
million. Here’s why doctors say it’s
valuable. MARK ANDERSON, 5
CONSTRUCTION
Industry expert
lives in two worlds
Justin Reginato is not your
average college professor. His
field: the business of construction
management. BEN VAN DER MEER, 8
AFTER HOURS
HISPANIC CHAMBER HOLDS
ANNUAL GALA 27
LESSONS FROM SILICON VALLEY
Veteran venture capitalist: Embrace the
culture of entrepreneurship. PAGE 12
LESSONS FROM SACRAMENTO
Successful local entrepreneurs stress the
importance of connections. PAGES 14-17
Four local experts on the local innovation economy tell us
what’s working — and what we need STORY BY MARK ANDERSON PAGE 9
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT COS. 18
INSIDE
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2. MARCH 4, 2016 9
MARK ANDERSON
Staff Writer
T
ake four tech gurus. Invite them
out for drinks together. Ask them
to compare Sacramento to the
Bay Area’s tech economy and let
them hash it out.
Crazy idea — or great idea?
Turns out, it was a little bit of both.
The Business Journal recently invited a
handful of entrepreneurs to chat over
cocktails about the region’s tech econ-
omy at Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar. The
format was similar to Beer & Geeks, a
meetup group for tech entrepreneurs.
We wanted to learn more about Sacra-
mento’s strengths (yes, there were a few)
and weaknesses from the perspective of
people who often work with Silicon Val-
ley investors.
Our guests included Sonny Mayugba,
co-founder of a restaurant app called
Requested and a co-owner of Red Rab-
bit; Laura Good, principal consultant
with LG Consulting and former director
of programs and operations for the Sac-
ramento Regional Technology Alliance;
Rob Winkler, CEO and co-founder of
5th Planet Games in Rocklin; and Rich
Foreman, CEO of app-building company
Apptology.
For nearly an hour, they chatted over
cocktails about Sacramento’s level of
local investment money, the region’s
quality of life compared to Silicon Val-
ley, the tech economy’s future, and why
crossing the Bay Bridge is an important
milestone for any local startup.
It was a free-wheeling conversation.
So we condensed and reorganized the
discussion.
Sacramento’s tech strengths
The Bay Area has wealth, prestige
and half the nation’s venture capital
investments.
Sacramento? Many tech investors
from outside the local region think the
state’s capital is nothing more than a
cow town, said Foreman.
What Sacramento does have,
according to our tech gurus, is an
outstanding lifestyle that in many ways
beats the Bay.
DENNIS McCOY | SACRAMENTO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Clockwise from left: Rich Foreman, Sonny Mayugba,
Rob Winkler and Laura Good discuss tech in
Sacramento during a meeting at Red Rabbit Kitchen
& Bar.
‘GEEKS’+DRINKS=
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TECHINSAC
TECH EDGE
SPECIAL REPORT
OUR EXPERTS WEIGH THE REGION’S PROS AND
CONS — AND YES, ALCOHOL WAS INVOLVED
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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3. 10 SACRAMENTO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Sonny Mayugba: Sacramento
has been evolving dramati-
cally. You can see there is a great
quality of life that has changed
so much in the last 20 years —
and certainly in the last three
years — in Sacramento.
Rich Foreman: It’s like a dif-
ferent caste system, and I think
we have a better lifestyle than
people who make multiples
of our income. Bay Area tech
workers can make four times
our income, and we’ll have a
better lifestyle.
Laura Good: Sacramento
has more than most Bay Area
cities outside of San Francisco.
This city has a restaurant, the-
ater, music and art scene. I’m
not going to say we have more
than San Francisco has, but
we’re better off than the rest
of the Bay Area, which doesn’t
really have a city center. We
have a city center, and we are
having a renaissance here.
Also, a lot of people have a
perception that we don’t have
tech talent here or that tech
talent doesn’t want to come
here. But Rob, you didn’t find
that.
Rob Winkler: A surpris-
ing amount of talent is here
locally. We have a lot of pas-
sionate people in our industry,
who want to be in the game
industry at almost any cost.
They will move. We absolutely
don’t pay the same wages
as the Bay Area, because we
don’t have to.
Mayugba: You can keep
software developers and mar-
keting people happy while
paying much less in Sacra-
mento. If people want to live
here, it’s less of a battle for
employees. It’s such a battle
for talent in the Bay.
Winkler: People tend to
stay in their jobs longer here.
Until recently, the shortest
tenure with our company was
three years.
Mayugba: That’s unheard of
in the Bay Area.
Foreman: I used to think
of Sacramento as a cow town
when I lived in the Bay Area.
It was a place we passed on
the way to Tahoe. But once we
stopped and looked around,
we realized that it’s pretty
good. I think more and more
of that type of realization is
going to happen because the
Bay Area really cannot sustain
itself.
Good: What I really like is
that in Sacramento, you’re not
just tech, you’re not just art,
and you’re not just, “I care
about nonprofits.” It’s like
everyone is really multifaceted
and has their fingers in a lot of
different pies. They’re inter-
ested in the whole community
and not just the tech sector.
Sacramento’s cost
advantage
The capital region has long
advertised itself as an afford-
able alternative to San Fran-
cisco and Silicon Valley. As
costs rise in the Bay Area, that
sales pitch is becoming more
potent, our experts said.
Foreman: The Bay is stran-
gling itself. My cousin pays
$6,000 monthly rent for a
two-bedroom place in San
Francisco. I was choking when
he told me that.
Good: It’s particularly tough
for entrepreneurs. You’re liv-
ing a dormitory style, and not
really adult life.
Foreman: It really comes to
a head when people get mar-
ried and they want to have
children. They realize they
can’t live like this in the Bay
Area. Sacramento is the natural
place to move to. I live in Fol-
som, and I have a five-bedroom
house and three-car garage.
You can’t even buy a garage in
the Bay Area for that.
Still, the Bay Area
is ‘amazing’
On the other hand, said our
tech experts, local startups
need the kind of connections
and money that only exist in
the Bay Area. Luckily, those
resources are only a two-hour
drive away.
Mayugba: It’s easy to rag
on the cost of living in the Bay
Area and things like that, but
it’s at such an amazing point in
history in terms of what’s been
happening there, certainly in
the past 20 years and especially
in the past five and 10 years.
Good: That’s the importance
of going to these big events in
San Francisco. The Launch Fes-
tival and TechCrunch Disrupt
SF promote a lot of vendors.
Mayugba: I get a lot of ideas
by hanging around other Bay
Area startups. It’s just amaz-
ing, just being there around
them. They will say, “This is
what we’re using and this is
how we’re using it.” It is really
important on all levels to be
around that. That’s what I’d
love to see more of in Sacra-
mento. More of the companies
coming together in somewhat
of an incubator way. I guess
that’s what networking groups
Beer & Geeks or Startup Grind
do here.
Where Sacramento
falls short
Our tech experts said the local
tech community faces other
challenges, besides competing
for Bay Area money and atten-
tion. New companies need bet-
ter ways to talk to one another,
even if it’s just a newsletter or
online forum.
Good: The technology sector
here lacks density. Tech com-
panies are spread out and don’t
get together much.
Winkler: We don’t have a
great way to connect people.
SARTA did some of that, and
events do some of that, but
compared to the Bay Area we
don’t have a really good way to
share best practices, share fail-
ures and to share ideas easily
across all of the different disci-
plines. If we could have a way to
do that, it would be valuable.
Mayugba: If we had a
monthly newsletter and get-to-
gether in a somewhat confiden-
tial way. We can all benefit from
that. Those groups are insanely
valuable.
Foreman: Finding seed
money locally is problematic.
There are companies here that
have a really good idea, but they
have a hard time finding fund-
ing. I can’t really direct them
to anything here. I have to send
them to the Bay Area. I send
them to a Bay Area accelerator.
Mayugba: Investors rarely
come to Sacramento. It’s hard
to get them to cross the Bay
Bridge. Their whole world is
Palo Alto.
Foreman: Here, there’s Mon-
eta Ventures, but you have to
have at $500,000 in revenue.
There’s Sacramento Angels, but
they’re kind of stingy.
ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS
SONNY MAYUGBA
Present: Co-founder of
Requested app, a smartphone
app that allows restaurants and
bars to offer deals during off-
hours; co-owner of Red Rabbit
Kitchen & Bar.
Past: Worked in digital strategies
for a variety of marketing firms
and for several companies;
has worked with the Paragary
Restaurant Group.
Fun fact: The Requested
app has been selected for
Launch Incubator, a project by
entrepreneur and investor Jason
Calacanis in San Francisco.
LAURA GOOD
Present: Principal consultant
with LG Consulting.
Past: Director of programs and
operations for the Sacramento
Regional Technology Alliance;
was also coordinator for SARTA’s
MedTech events.
Fun fact: She helps coordinate
Sacramento for Startup
Weekend events.
ROB WINKLER
Present: CEO and co-founder
of 5th Planet Games, which he
founded in a garage in 2009.
The Rocklin company makes
fantasy games for desktops and
smartphones.
Past: Worked in financial
services, including jobs at Wells
Fargo Bank and New York Life.
Fun fact: The company is one
of the rare few able to raise
money from local investors. In
2014 it received $3 million from
Roseville’s DCA Capital and
Folsom’s Moneta Ventures.
RICH FOREMAN
Present: CEO of app-building
company Apptology since
January 2010. Since the spring
of 2014, he has been director
and presented the Sacramento
version of Startup Grind, a
monthly fireside chat with
technology entrepreneurs and
technologists.
Past: After four years as a
lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he
worked for several large tech
companies, including stints as
an engineer at WebEx and Cisco
Systems.
Fun fact: He also serves as
chief technology officer for
Quicklegal, a Sacramento-based
legal advice app.
TECH EDGE
SPECIAL REPORT
Geeks: How our region stacks up
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
DENNIS McCOY | SACRAMENTO BUSINESS JOURNAL
From left: Winkler,
Mayugba, Good and
Foreman at Red Rabbit.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
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