{"id":322912,"date":"2026-05-19T14:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322912\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:39:10","slug":"is-the-sacramento-region-the-next-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322912\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Sacramento Region the Next Silicon Valley?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

This story is part of our May 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

\n Like many other Capital Region residents, Kevin Wolf went to UC
\n Davis and \u201cnever left.\u201d Since graduating with honors from the
\n University of California\u2019s second-largest campus by enrollment in
\n 1980, he has spent decades in the Capital Region, founded
\n sustainable energy company Wind Harvest and, perhaps most
\n importantly, remained an active member of the community.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cA lot of us want to stay,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it is a great place
\n to live and grow families.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Wolf founded Wind Harvest in 2005 and has grown the company with
\n community support in the form of several rounds of crowdfunded
\n investment. The company sells a vertical axis wind turbine that
\n can be positioned beneath traditional large turbines to increase
\n the amount of energy generated from the same surface area and
\n create synergies that will also increase the efficiency of the
\n larger turbines.\n<\/p>\n

\n His path to growth, he says, is in part thanks to state
\n institutions that are based in California\u2019s capital city as well
\n as supportive local government and utilities. He is part of a
\n growing group of CEOs, founders and investors who are choosing
\n the Capital Region over Silicon Valley as a place to launch their
\n businesses and careers, especially in fields such as clean energy
\n and agricultural technology. We spoke to a few to understand why.\n<\/p>\n

Capital perks<\/p>\n

\n Living near the state legislature gives unique benefits, Wolf
\n says. \u201cPerhaps you find out the parent of the kid that goes to
\n school with your kid now is on the California Energy Commission.
\n \u2026 You have those kinds of connections that come from living near
\n the power players of the state. Even if they don\u2019t affect what
\n you do, you certainly have access to information and advice
\n because you come to be friends with them.\u201d The concentration of
\n expertise from lobbying and consulting firms based in the capital
\n city also means startups will often have a rich pool of potential
\n employees to choose from.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Kevin Wolf stands in front of a vertical axis wind turbine.
\n (Photo courtesy of Wind Harvest)\n<\/p>\n

Local universities, such as UC Davis and
\n Sacramento State, also bring intelligent and inquisitive people
\n who want to stay and be around other such people, Wolf says. The
\n constant flow of new ideas and people, combined with a community
\n that nurtures growth and encourages new and different solutions
\n to problems, has allowed businesses in the region to succeed
\n whereas the more growth-first mindset of the Bay Area and its
\n investors might not.\n<\/p>\n

\n SMUD has also been a huge boost to sustainable energy businesses
\n in the region, Wolf says. The community-owned utility closed the
\n Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Station in the 1980s following a vote
\n by ratepayers and now generates a large amount of its power from
\n hydroelectric, solar and wind. SMUD\u2019s willingness to support
\n sustainable energy and infrastructure is something that several
\n CEOs in the region have highlighted as an important part of the
\n choice to start their businesses in the region and their decision
\n to remain here as their business grows.\n<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0The
\n Future Of Electric Vehicles Is Taking Shape in Sacramento<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get many utilities like SMUD,\u201d Wolf says. \u201cThey are a
\n huge plus for the region. \u2026 They are the leaders on everything
\n renewable, and they made a hugely successful movement away from
\n nuclear and into renewables.\u201d SMUD\u2019s use of renewables also means
\n that, at a basic level, most residents of the region have an
\n understanding of the viability of renewable power, Wolf adds.\n<\/p>\n

\n Rick Spencer, managing partner at venture capital firm Growth
\n Factory, agrees. He says SMUD makes \u201ca great partner, because
\n they\u2019re big enough to have an impact on a startup, but they\u2019re
\n small enough to navigate.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n SMUD is not the only pillar of the Capital Region clean tech
\n community. In 2005, the same year that Wolf founded Wind Harvest,
\n Gary Simon founded California Clean Start to give support and
\n resources to clean technology entrepreneurs. California Clean
\n Start has helped build an investment environment where people
\n understand that growth for clean tech companies can be less
\n spectacular than the ultra-high profit, fast growth firms that
\n Bay Area investors tend to look for, but that it is still
\n reliable and offers a net social benefit.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe pitched at half a dozen events,\u201d Wolf says, adding that it
\n would have been near impossible for his small startup to get in
\n front of so many experts and investors without the infrastructure
\n that Clean Start provides.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Wind Harvest engineers Olamide Ajala and Omar Garcia visit a
\n different model of turbine at a Texas testing site. (Photo
\n courtesy of Wind Harvest)\n<\/p>\n

Outside of the public sector, the
\n Greater Sacramento Economic Council, a public-private
\n partnership, helps companies with site selection, staffing, and
\n local and state level incentives. The council says that both
\n startups and established firms are moving into the Capital
\n Region. This shift out of the Bay Area has seen both research and
\n development and manufacturing move eastward, bringing jobs and
\n investment to the region.\n<\/p>\n

\n Samsung has established a small but growing facility in Folsom;
\n Hynix, a South Korean firm, invested $9 billion in solid state
\n memory development firm Solidigm, based in Rancho Cordova; and
\n Bosch has established a semiconductor facility in Roseville. With
\n tariffs on Chinese goods remaining a constant source of
\n uncertainty, the Capital Region is becoming a more attractive
\n site for well-paid manufacturing jobs for the tech industry.\n<\/p>\n

Related: Companies Are
\n Racing to Fuel and Cool AI<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Nonetheless, growth in the clean sector can also be challenging
\n because of the large amount of regulatory and testing hurdles
\n that a startup must overcome before it can begin selling
\n products. Startups \u201cstruggle to get capital to get through the
\n last steps of the commercialization process,\u201d Wolf says.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou are dealing with an industrial-scale technology in which you
\n have to go through third party certification. You have to make
\n two full-scale prototypes and eventually have enough of them in
\n the ground long enough for a bank to lend using those turbines as
\n collateral for the note,\u201d he says. This has traditionally made
\n Venture Capital firms unwilling to invest, Wolf says.\n<\/p>\n

A growing investment network<\/p>\n

\n Ali Mackani, a general partner at Growth Factory Ventures who has
\n founded seven startups, says that capital was not always easy to
\n come by in Sacramento. \u201cEarly on,\u201d he says, referring to his days
\n as an entrepreneur in the first decade of this century, \u201cI never
\n saw Sacramento as a place where I could actually do a startup. \u2026
\n I never was successful in raising capital in Sacramento.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Mackani, and others, went to the Bay Area to seek investment and
\n found that \u201cit was like night and day\u201d compared to the Capital
\n Region. Today, in part thanks to Mackani and his partners at
\n Growth Factory, that is not the case. Capital is available to
\n take firms to a stage where they can grow large and successful
\n enough to attract investment from outside the region.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Ali Mackani, general partner, and Rick Spencer, managing partner
\n of Growth Factory Ventures, say that while it used to be
\n difficult for startups to raise capital in Sacramento, local
\n entrepreneurs now find support here thanks to the Growth Factory
\n and others. (Photo by Scott Sayles, courtesy of Growth Factory
\n Ventures)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCan we use more capital here? Of course! And that\u2019s our job,
\n right?\u201d he says. Right now, though, he says Sacramento startups
\n have everything available in the region to get them to series A,
\n or their first round of significant venture capital funding.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mackani says that even though investors in Sacramento are more
\n numerous than they once were, there is a different focus among
\n local investors. \u201cIn the Bay Area, they build for quick exits,\u201d
\n he says. Sacramento founders and investors tend to have more
\n \u201clongevity\u201d in their build and their strategies often focus on
\n growth not just for their company, but for the community as a
\n whole.\n<\/p>\n

\n In Silicon Valley, \u201cYou\u2019re trying to change the world, right? So
\n the Bay Area will jump in and really get behind this, and they\u2019ll
\n give you money just to see if something will happen,\u201d
\n Mackani\u00a0 says. \u201cI think in Sacramento, when you\u2019re genuinely
\n trying to do something, there is a group of people in this city
\n that passionately care about uplifting the community.\u201d Capital
\n Region founders and investors are \u201cgood people with good hearts,\u201d
\n he adds, and tend to want to stay in the region they\u2019re investing
\n in.\n<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Scaling a
\n Company Starts With Letting Go: Four CEOs explain why delegation,
\n discipline and the right hires make or break the next stage of
\n growth<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, \u201cThere\u2019s a ton of transplants that come into the Bay
\n Area to build, which is great. That\u2019s what makes that community
\n so vibrant,\u201d Mackani says. But Sacramento often \u201cchanges the
\n mindset\u201d of people who experience it for the first time. \u201cI see
\n them wanting to do more and wanting to stay.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Triple bottom line\u2019<\/p>\n

\n When Wolf began pitching investors in the Bay Area, \u201cI was in
\n there explaining we could get a 30 percent margin and they just
\n dismissed me, saying, \u2018If you can\u2019t get 50 percent, we aren\u2019t
\n interested,\u201d he says, adding that the industry average for clean
\n energy tech is 20 percent. \u201cAt least in Sacramento people would
\n say, \u2018Let me understand this a little bit more.\u2019\u201d He feels that
\n his business owes a lot to \u201ca less arrogant and more inquisitive
\n or open place like Sacramento.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Wolf adds that community support is especially important. \u201cWhat
\n you want to have as a startup is patient investors, not those who
\n want their money back,\u201d he says. Through crowdfunding, \u201cWe have
\n got 3,000 people who would never get a chance to invest in a
\n technology like ours.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many people we meet, and we share some of
\n the portfolio companies, and they\u2019re like, \u2018I had no idea these
\n types of companies were being built here in Sacramento.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\u2014 Rick Spencer, managing partner, Growth Factory<\/p>\n

\n Mackani and Spencer of Growth Factory both believe that the
\n region has potential for much more growth. The issue is not that
\n there are too few people in Sacramento who are able to invest,
\n but that those people don\u2019t see the Capital Region as a place
\n where their investments can grow.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many people we meet, and we share some of
\n the portfolio companies, and they\u2019re like, \u2018I had no idea these
\n types of companies were being built here in Sacramento,\u2019\u201d Spencer
\n says.\n<\/p>\n

\n The way he explains the value of investing in startups to local
\n investors is with the concept of a \u201ctriple bottom line.\u201d This
\n means growth not only in the financial value of the investment,
\n but also growth in the community and growth in the human capital
\n in the region. Research published by the US Census Bureau shows
\n that a startup job creates more jobs than a job at an older
\n company.\n<\/p>\n

\n Not only do startups increase human capital in the region, but
\n Wolf believes the less frantically growth-focused business
\n mindset and livable communities of the region also help retain
\n that talent. \u201cWe have a big pool of talented people,\u201d he says,
\n \u201cbecause they want to live here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

\n Stay up to date on business in the Capital Region:
\n Subscribe to the Comstock\u2019s newsletter
\n today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of our May 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here. …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-322912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}