Startup Folsom Proposal to the City of Folsom
Startup Folsom is a grassroot organization but we have ambitious goals to build up Folsom’s Entrepreneurial and Innovation Community. Currently, we are planning 4 events every month including:
Founder’s Anonymous: A Support Group for Founders and Entrepreneurs
Beer and Geeks: Casual Networking for Entrepreneurs
Startup Workshop: Educational workshop in business and startup topics
Fireside Chat: Interviews with successful entrepreneurs
A full list of our events can be found on our Eventbrite page.
There are a few other things that we would like to do including:
A year long accelerator for early stage startups
A seed fund for early stage startups
A week long event focused on technology that includes a pitch event (similar to Shark Tank)
All this takes money and currently we’re funding our endeavors out of pocket and and with the help of volunteers. This Tuesday, January 10, 2023, we will make a proposal to the Folsom City Council to request funding to support our efforts.
To give context, here’s what other cities in our region are doing:
The City of Sacramento has provide $2 million dollars in grants and provided entrepreneurial training
The City of Elk Grove has provide $75,000 grants to early stage startups and created an annual startup pitch event with $20,000 in prizes
The City of Roseville has invested $1.3 million in their “Roseville Venture Lab” which helps early stage startups.
The City of Rocklin has launched “Build Up Rocklin” which helps support innovation and growth for existing business.
El Dorado County is providing up to ten $50,000 scholarships for startups to attend local accelerators.
Folsom, on the other hand, has no programs to support entrepreneurship and startups. As such, we are proposing an investment of $300,000 to support our entrepreneurship ecosystem at upcoming council meeting.
We would appreciate your support at this upcoming council meeting. If you are a resident of Folsom or have a business in Folsom, we would like you to attend and tell the council that Folsom needs to invest in our startup ecosystem. Here’s information on the next meeting:
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Folsom City Hall, 50 Natoma Street, Folsom, CA 95630.
If you like to address the council personally, they will allow you to speak for 3 minutes. Just fill out a blue card at the beginning of the meeting and hand it to the City Clerk.
About Rich Foreman
As founding CTO, Rich led the team that developed the CordicoShield / CordicoFire Wellness App. Cordico was honored with the Sacramento Innovation Award in 2021. After achieving a 7 digit ARR, Cordico was acquired by Lexipol in 2020. Rich has a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington, an MPA from Troy State University and was an officer in the U.S. Navy.
Rich co-authored his book, "Tap into the Mobile Economy." Rich's blog was listed in Top 20 Marketing Mobile Blogs of 2014. He has been featured on KCRA3, NEWS10, 1170 Tech AM PowerDrive, Business Radio Money 105.5, SiliconIndia, the Sacramento Business Journal, and the Sacramento Bee. Rich is also the Founding Director of the Sacramento Chapter of Startup Grind and served a term as Utility Commissioner for the City of Folsom. Rich is a regular contributor to TechWire.net and StartupSac.com. Rich was the Co-founder of Apptology which was named Small Business of the Year in 2014 by the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber.
