In his campaign platform for mayor, Darrell Steinberg pledged to revitalize Sacramento and position it as a destination city. That vision includes a rethinking of how Sacramento should invest in innovation.
The city’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is being asked “to better engage our local talent, innovative entrepreneurs and to truly support a creative economy,” said Steinberg Deputy Chief of Staff Kelly Rivas.
Created last year under former Mayor Kevin Johnson’s administration, the innovation office is responsible for running the city’s Innovation and Growth Fund. In collaboration with the mayor’s tech council, the office vetted roughly 140 applications for $1 million in grant funding in 2016, choosing 15 companies with ventures intended to boost the local tech economy.
Steinberg, who has praised the innovation office, retained Ash Roughani, hired by Johnson as its first full-time program manager.
Roughani works closely with Steinberg senior adviser Crystal Strait on economic development under the umbrella of the mayor’s Destination Sacramento initiative.
“We are working to create a new structure that better aligns our resources with our objectives,” Rivas said in an email to Techwire. “The result will be a more holistic approach to how we leverage our assets in food, art and tech to create a more vibrant, destination city.”
No longer with the city is Abhi Nemani, whom Johnson hired as the city’s interim chief innovation officer. Nemani’s contract expired at the end of Johnson’s term.
That Sacramento has such a commitment to an innovation fund continues to be unusual among municipalities, Nemani told Techwire in a recent phone interview from St. Louis, where he is based. He praised the City Council and local tech leaders for creating and supporting a dedicated office and revenue stream.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a city government step up and say, 'We’re going to take a big swing at innovation,'” Nemani said.
Within five months of launching its innovation program, Sacramento built an office and awarded its first grants — record speed when you consider Los Angeles can take up to 450 days to complete a government procurement, said Nemani, who formerly led innovation for the city of Los Angeles.
Sacramento’s $8.2 million Growth and Innovation Fund is projected to reap $2 million every year — the amount budgeted for annual grants and the cost of running the office. The remaining $6 million in funds could be used as a reserve for the city to invest in strategic partnerships.
“There’s a lot of energy around entrepreneurship in Sacramento,” Nemani said. “I think the city needs to keep signaling to startups that they are on their side.”
