growTech Fest 2020
October 20-21 / 2020 / Chico, CA
Learn, Connect, and be Inspired at the first ever growTECH Fest.
This is the Biggest Event for startups, investors, entrepreneurs, techies, students,
educators, business owners and community leaders.
Event details
Investor round table breakfast
This is an invite only Round Table Breakfast. Send us an email to find out how you can attend info@growtechfest.io
Launch event at Sierra Nevada Big Room
Iconic Chico Startup Panel Discussion with the founders.
Startup Stories & pitches
Creating the next Startup to change the world? This is a good place to find out what it takes. Stories and Pitches will be in front of our special guests Investor Panel.
growtech TALKS & TOURS
Meet growTECH company founders and learn their stories. Open to the public and students
STUDENTS FREE for all events, send us a promo code request to info@growtechfest.10web.site
EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT EXPIRES FRI SEP 20TH!
Meet Our past Speakers
Jeff Cresswell
Co-owner Klean Kanteen
Growing up at the foot of the Sierra, Jeff and his sister Michelle at an early age developed a passion for the outdoors and the connection between human behavior and the natural world. They founded Klean Kanteen in Chico, CA. in 2004 to merge a business and their environmental passion. Jeff remains a steward of the brands mission, and vision and is executive sponsor of Klean Kanteens Environment and Fair Labor Department, and is often found checking in with the folks at Klean or daydreaming of mountain biking, trail running, fly fishing, and free flowing rivers.
Ken Grossman
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in 1980, with the goal of providing his customers with the kind of beer he likes to drink. He is known throughout the beer industry for his uncompromising approach to quality, financial savviness, and firm belief that a rising tide lifts all boats. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is a steadfastly family owned and operated business, run on Grossman’s philosophy of environmental, social and economic health, and is considered one of the premier craft breweries in the United States.
Debra Cannon
Co-founder Lulus.com
Lulus traces its beginnings to 1996, when mother and daughter team Debra Cannon and Colleen Winter opened a vintage boutique, Lulu’s Fashion Lounge, in Chico, California—Lulus, is based on Colleen Winter’s nickname. The millennial fashion brand Lulus has closed on a later-stage capital round of $120 million in 2018. “Our goal is to give our customers a bit of luxury without the price tag,” Winter told Forbes Lulus’ attire ranges from $16 to $300, turning it into a hit with Instagram-loving customers. Winter credits the brand’s success by focusing on customer service and building an engaged community on social media.
Dan Gonzales
Fifth Sun and Mariam Park
Dan Gonzales is the founder and owner of Fifth Sun, a 25 year old apparel design and manufacturing company based in Chico, California. He earned his Civil Engineering degree from Chico State in 1986 and pursued a career as a licensed professional engineer for 6 years before starting the apparel company. He is also the developer of the 220 Acre master planned development in SE Chico called Meriam Park. This year, they currently have under construction, 200 apartments, 43 single family homes and three commercial buildings simultaneously…and a restaurant. X
Dana Grant
Co-founder Cali'flour Foods
Cali’flour Foods was founded on the principles of healthy habits. Their products can be found in over 5000 stores. Dana co-founded Cali’flour Foods but now works as an empowerment coach and consultant. She is busy inspiring emerging women entrepreneurs.
Paul Singh
Results Junkies
Paul is an entrepreneur, speaker, investor and Airstreamer. Previously: Managing Director @1776, Founder @disruptioncorp (acq by @1776), Partner @500Startups, EIR at USCIS / DHS. Find him at twitter.com/paulsingh.
2019 INVESTORS
growTech Fest 2019 Investors
BEN FRANCIS
Revenue Growth | Business
I am a dynamic, highly accomplished and results-oriented professional with over 5 years of experience in helping businesses achieve their revenue growth goals. I am recognized as a visionary and a creative thinker who is proven in sales and marketing with strong interpersonal and multi-tasking abilities that adhere and align to a company’s success. As a motivated individual, I have strong planning, organizational, and leadership skills – ensuring a seamless experience for employees and clients. I am a strategic financial analyst adept at meeting and exceeding company goals, steering marketing strategies, strong negotiation skills, and improving metrics for the company through effective leadership, and management expertise.
PAUL SINGH
Entrepreneur | Investor
Paul is an entrepreneur, speaker, investor and Airstreamer. Previously, Paul was a Managing Director at 1776 and a General Partner in 1776’s Seed Fund. Prior to 1776, Paul was the founder of Disruption Corporation (acquired by 1776) and general partner of Disruption’s post-seed venture capital arm, Crystal Tech Fund. Before that, Paul was a Partner at 500 Startups, an accelerator and venture firm headquartered in Silicon Valley that has invested in over 1,500 companies across 50+ countries. Paul has founded a few of his own startups (two successful exits and a number of failures in between) and spent some time at AOL, Carmax, PBworks and Symantec. Paul can be reached at twitter.com/paulsingh.
Monique Brown
Haney Biz
Monique Brown has over 20 years of experience working alongside creative leaders to capture their visions and design strategic plans to bring them to life. She is currently the Vice President of Media & Operations for Haney Business Ventures where she is helping to build Sacramento’s first full service angel investment platform to help entrepreneurs be entrepreneurs by providing access to capital, expertise, and a community of entrepreneurs & investors.
She has served as Sacramento iHub coordinator, Strategic Advisor for I/O Labs, and as Operations Partner at Impact Venture Capital overseeing the growth and development of the Entrepreneurs Campus and Showcase activities and supporting the building and deepening of strategic relationships with corporate, foundation and government partners.
Outside of work, Monique enjoys “reinventing philanthropy” with her fellow board members and partners at Social Venture Partners of Sacramento. But most of all, she enjoys hanging out with her five daughters!
KEN TALLO
Sacramento Angels
The Sacramento Angels is a group of individuals who invest in early-stage Northern California companies (or close by regions of adjacent states).
The group meets once a month over dinner and listens to presentations from candidate companies. If some members show interest in a presenting company, the group facilitates their collaborative efforts to share further due diligence and negotiate of deal terms. Members act on their own behalf and make their own individual investment decisions.
Sacramento Angels membership is open to individuals who are accredited investors with the experience and desire to invest in and work directly with emerging-technology companies. The members have a wide range of backgrounds, including CEO’s, senior executives, entrepreneurs, attorneys and professional venture capitalists. They apply this considerable experience to assist their investments with board membership, business strategy and implementation, team building and fundraising.
MIKE KNITTLE
Founders Institute
The Founder Institute is the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, having helped launch over 3,500 companies across 180+ cities and six continents.
The company was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi and his colleague, Jonathan Greechan. The idea for the program spawned from operating TheFunded.com, where it became apparent that most entrepreneurs at the idea and launch stages lacked the structure, feedback, and support network needed to be successful.
News of the launch was announced on TechCrunch, the first Founder Institute program methodology was crowdsourced by over 10,000 CEO members of TheFunded.com, and the inaugural program started in May 2009 in a small classroom at Stanford University. There were originally no plans to expand beyond Silicon Valley, but upon receiving immense inbound interest to launch the program in other cities, the Founder Institute began to expand. Today the program operates across 180 + cities and is localized into 9 languages.
In total, Founder Institute Alumni have raised over $800M and are worth an estimated $20B.
Mark Hagar
Entrepreneur In Residence
Angel investor, small business expert, turnaround consultant and radio personality Mark Hagar is the host of Your Business Matters, a small business themed talk show currently available on select radio stations and as a podcast on Soundcloud.com and iTunes. One of today’s most experienced and knowledgeable consultants, speaker and expert witness, he’s a prolific entrepreneur who’s founded, bought and sold multiple firms. His experience and education in the area of financially distressed small businesses has positioned Hagar as one of the foremost authorities on the issues faced by small business owners and he has been interviewed and quoted by numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Fiscal Times Magazine, CFO Magazine and many newspapers as well as the Associated Press. Mark is currently a featured presenter on the Results Junkies North American Tech Tour traveling the US meeting with entrepreneurs and learning about American startup culture. Hagar was recently named to the Entrepreneur In Residence Network at Northumbria University in Newcastle England and is the Organizer for TEDxFortWayne.
EDWARD PIZZARELO
Tech / Restaurant Investor
Edward Pizzarello is an entrepreneur hiding in a pizza maker’s body. Starting in culinary school trying to realize his dream of owning his own restaurant, he took left-hand turns into hotel management, consulting and angel and VC funding. For the past 8 years he’s written a travel blog (www.pizzainmotion.com<http://
SABYA DAS
Moneta Ventures
Sabya Das is a Partner at Moneta Ventures. Sabya is a technology fanatic who focuses on the development and analysis of Moneta Ventures’ many internet and software based portfolio companies. Raised in Folsom, CA, he was always fascinated by technology, and has built and developed a multitude of web applications and products. Sabya evaluates new opportunities for investment and assists Moneta’s portfolio companies in a variety of operational roles. He joined Moneta Ventures as an Investment Analyst in 2014. Sabya graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a major in cognitive science/computational modeling
PREM CHAND
CEO Growth Factors
Growth Factors was founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Prem Chand. From humble beginnings on a family farm in the small agricultural town of Biggs, California, Prem built Milestone Technologies, a large IT services firm. Under Prem’s, leadership, Milestone grew to employ approximately 2,000 people in 18 countries serving more than 200 clients. Prem stepped down as CEO in 2017 and started Growth Factors in February 2018.
Now, Prem and his team are dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs break through barriers and scale. Growth Factors applies market-proven methodologies aligning culture, marketing/brand, sales, data driven operations, IT infrastructure and financial resources with hands-on expertise to lead good companies to their highest potential.
BARBARA DEHART
Co-FOUNDER INVESTOR
Barbara DeHart fell in love with technology early in her life and has spent her career leading businesses in the media & entertainment technology industry. Barbara recently co-founded Sama Learning whose purpose is to use technology to teach technology, particularly in STEM. Barbara serves as an advisor to multiple media companies as well as an incubator for women-led startups. She has extensive experience in product strategy & management, distribution & marketing and mergers & acquisitions and holds a bachelor’s degree from University of San Francisco.
DENISE FERRE
PARTNER/CFO MONETA VENTURE
Denise Ferre is a Partner at Moneta Ventures and its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Moneta Ventures, Denise was the CFO and co-founder at Sparta Consulting, a global IT consulting firm. She spearheaded the financial operations of the $100+ million company with over 1,500 employees. Besides the financial operations, Denise was also responsible for HR, IT and legal departments at Sparta . Before Sparta, Denise was the Business Unit Controller at Rapidgm, a global IT consulting firm, and later assumed the role of U.S. Controller when the firm was acquired by Fujitsu in 2006. Denise has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Accounting
ERIC HIATT
SHASTA ANGELS
Our mission is to nurture growth, promote prosperity and foster collaboration for the betterwelfare of our region. We do so by offering emerging companies a forum to pitch their ideas,early seed capital, and mentorship in hopes that these companies contribute to positiveeconomic change in Shasta County.
Sierra Angels
angel investment group
Sierra Angels is Nevada’s premier angel investment group founded in North Lake Tahoe in 1997. Our Membership consists of 50+ highly experienced executives and entrepreneurs who provide funding, mentoring and strategic introductions for meritorious early-stage technology companies primarily in Nevada and California. We also proactively collaborate with other angel groups throughout the Western States. To date, our Members have funded approximately 100 companies in a wide range of industries, including software, mobile, social media, IT, IoT, robotics, AI, cybersecurity, health tech, clean tech, among others. Sierra Angels is a founding member, and on the Board of Angel Capital Association (ACA).
