Sacramento Executive: New Sacramento Venture Capital Fund

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Velocity Venture Capital opened its doors today and declared itself to be 'the first venture capital firm to focus exclusively on technology companies in the greater Sacramento region.' The new fund is led by Sacramento native, serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Jack Crawford. Jack has launched four software companies in Sacramento, co-founded local VC fund Capital Valley Ventures, and sits on the board of many very promising Sacramento-based startup companies. Jack definitely has his pulse on the local startup community and was recently named as co-chair of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance's Tech Index Committee. He has gathered a very experienced team - Jack calls them company builders - around him to caplitalize on the fund's investment thesis:

$ The steady migration of executive talent from the Silicon Valley to Sacramento has dramatically increased the quality of local deal flow.
$ There is a need to fill the capital investment funding gap between angel investors and venture funds.

$ The growing amount of regional deal flow creates an opportunity for investors because the Sacramento area is significantly undercapitalized when compared to other markets with similar characteristics

$ Capital efficient region - the ability to achieve more progress with fewer investment dollars - is the hallmark of businesses operating in the Sacramento region.

$ Our team has diverse industry expertise and broad skill sets that can add significant value to the most promising companies in the region through our investing, start-up, and management experience.

Exciting times for Sacramento technology entrepreneurs. Make sure to introduce yourself to Jack at the upcoming Sacramento Executive event on January 24, 2006. And ask him to tell you the fascinating story about when he was named "entrepreneur of the year" by the Money Hunt television show which was aired into 160 markets across the country on PBS. Quite a coup for Sacramento back then and now he's in the hunt to put Sacramento on the map again.

Be sure to check out Jack's new monthly column in Comstocks and take advantage of free subscriptions to both Comstocks and Prosper magazines by clicking on the links under Business Resources in the right hand column of this website.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Disclosure: I am one of the Venture Partners of this new fund