Cereal Hack 3: Sacramento Tech Community Is Out of Control

Hey there, Shane. I am known for words, but rarely do I ever comment in social media unless it is about supporting many of the people I serve. I could have posted this in my own personal magazine blog, but I wanted to share it with you and your readers. Thanks for the indulgence. I felt compelled (as we head into the next Cereal Hack and celebrate the vibrant Sacramento emergence as a tech town to watch) to offer some insights into that backstory. The tech part is only half the story about what happens at Cereal Hack or other maker events globally, and your post reminded me about that. I’d like to share some perspective, personal insights as it were, as someone who is invested heavily (and at great risk) in the survival and thriving of our tech community, as someone who has put her money where mouth is and seriously invested in the outcomes of many. The following only represents my opinion and should not be associated with anyone else. First, let me say thanks for sharing our photo and work byproduct of the President with Nicolas Come in Washington, DC. Nicolas was super honored to be Clear Channel's official correspondent of the Farm to Fork movement while there and to honor the children who were at the Kids State Dinner, sharing their healthy recipes with the First Lady and the world. Here is a link to an article that helps illuminate the details behind that visit and most importantly, why that experience was so important. Your readers may want to now more about the background behind that photo. My PR/media communications partner Drisha Leggitt is a rare talent in executing what it takes to position something like that, and we were honored by her commitment to Nicolas and his mission. As one of two partners (along with App Matrix) who helps to define and carry out the social media, user adoption strategy, fund development, promotions, marketing, and communications and traditional media strategy outcomes on behalf of our local entrepreneur and his journey, personally and my partners have invested hundreds and hundreds of hours of work and volunteer hours (and money) into the effort to help Nicolas achieve his mission. The investment others have made in the team effort it took to prototype and then build the app and website, blog, social media platforms, content, etc. is even more significant than my own. Well, I know you know what that takes, right? Thousands of hours of combined tech and human experience, passion, and sweat exist behind that great photo. Getting there was not only really hard to accomplish, and most should not expect to get to the White House in six weeks from launch, but it was and remains a very complex mission, involving many, many people. It is a classic tale to examine of how and why Sacramento is becoming the tech town it is growing into. Spirit of collaboration is great, but then you have to actually get down and work together in the trenches. That is why, in my opinion, the Hacker Lab and Urban Hive work so well as percolators and bakers of great ideas, content, and technology: it’s what happens after the public excitement of a good idea has worn off. Real work by real people dedicated to being of service to each other in a community that is emerging from its economic nightmare into a future, in large part, forged by people who are willing to put their skin in the game. PMG was very excited (and deeply honored) at and by the outcome of our entire Nicolas’ Garden team's efforts from the day he pitched his idea at the last Cereal Hack, until just these past 7 weeks since Nicolas' mobile app and platform was officially launched May 23rd. It was only then when we officially began his public journey to propel a movement of change for kids globally and their health. The technical journey began in the mind of a little boy who wanted to help his friends get healthier, and that technical dream was forged at the Hacker Lab, and then moved forward through a very unique mixture of experience, timing, passion, money, expertise, and sweat (and cans of Red Bull I Imagine as well), by people with a belief in helping kids get healthier. The marketing of a technology story is often times a quiet pursuit of story telling that like this picture accomplishes, positions the mundane details of content and emotion in places and ways where we hope others like yourself will share it, thereby sharing the story of how you can go from hacking at a maker weekend to interviewing the President of the United States. Your share demonstrates our strategy at work. Not an easy task and absolutely critical to making technology successful. We are still nibbling around the beginning edges of that journey with Nicolas’ technology and have a long way to go. How we go forward and why, what happens becomes a case study to examine. Some would feel like that is public scrutiny you don’t necessarily need (nor should invite) in a competitive landscape like ours, yet I welcome it. To know the story is to know how transparent and through-and-through this effort is, and why in the long term I am so confident that the more we can share how we make technology more than the sum of code, the better off our community can be. We will not be perfect. We will not hit every mark. We will make mistakes. Yet it is how we pick ourselves up and keep moving, and that we share what lessons we learn from those mistakes, that is the great differentiator for tales of how and why any company can make it past their start dates. Far too many start-up entrepreneurs undervalue, in my opinion, the role and important of everything that happens after the code is built. Not because they don’t value it per se as much as experience dictates the shoulder-bleeding understanding of how and why all that goo after the fact makes tech go. Start-up entrepreneurs are by definition new to the game. Often for many this is their first (or one of their first) start. This is why seasoned venture capitalists with long roads stained with success and failure have become such critical success factors in growth and expansion past building the great tech stage. And really for as many tech companies that have started, the number who don’t get past the gate is staggeringly large as compared to those who find their feet, and funders, and the right leaders and marketing minds to change the world. You can have the greatest tech in the world, and the best intentions, but no one will use it unless you have the right marketing, media, leadership, and communications team behind it to sell it to the masses. By virtue of how many pitches I have witnessed that don’t give equal strength to the critical nature of verifying assumptions about the product and user, and after-build marketing and storytelling strategy and execution, there is a reason why some start-ups succeed and others fail. Of course, Nicolas is a story about technology, but for me, his real story is how that technology is enabling his mission, which is saving the lives of kids one healthy recipe at a time; HOW technology and social media is playing a role in Sacramento to support that mission and HOW his case study is one to look at in examining how to replicate similar success for others is. In my personal opinion and experience, this is a very important piece of the message about WHY Sacramento is becoming the tech mecca it is, by virtue of the teams like ours and the wonderful efforts of so many in collaboration, such as Gina and her team at HL, all the people who volunteered and still do their time to Nicolas and his mission, to SARTA, Brandon Weber and the Urban Hive, leaders like Congresswoman Doris Matsui, and so many others dedicated to social and economic impacts that can be achieved through smart, hard, dedicated work. Only through real, hard work, and thankless pursuit of what matters most to our lives, and by day by day, relentless commitment to the idea that one person, one little boy, one hacker lab, one loving family, one community can change the world did Nicolas go from pitching his idea at Cereal Hack to shaking the hand of the President and giving him his business card. The coordinated work it has taken to shine the national and international spotlight on Sacramento as a result of calculated, strategic steps and risk happened because of the incredible relationships we have and maintain with the media and community, and because of the media’s dedication to what Nicolas and his platform and mobile app can do to change the lives of so many. The extraordinary path of Nicolas and how his message is being carried is part of a very focused effort to ensure that what we do is a reflection of who he is; and that story and those steps are authentic, grounded in his mission, and carefully delivered (and hopefully shared because it inspires) so that kids will learn by his efforts and be inspired to follow in his footsteps, to lead their own changes in their own lives and families. A major part of the story of that success is also about the arduous, intensive work it has taken on behalf of all those who have supported Nicolas' path from the Cereal Hack to Washington. Success in tech, in my opinion, is not measured by the technology, but by the impact that technology has on society, culture, our economy, and people’s lives that use it. Profit is derived when that very special, unique concoction can be created and then delivered with discipline few have the stomach for. The case study for how we did that, how we do that, from the building to the strategy to the execution, to the place where a million kids have Nicolas’ Garden in their phone and one million new families are growing gardens, cooking fresh, healthy food and NOT getting sick or diseased due to unhealthy lifestyles will be one to examine. That story is all our story, and we should definitely examine it and share it by way of helping other start-ups that are coming out of Sacramento understand what it really takes to get from code to interviews with the President. It is neither easy nor a story to be under-defined, since the transparent details of what it does take to launch and market start-ups, and then work to drive communications to real convergence of profit and user adoption is not only NOT for the meek of heart, but requires significant experience, investment, and above all, a commitment to the true story of how technology changes people's lives for the better or solves that single, elegant, ubiquitous problem of many. My partners Drisha Leggitt and Lori Anderson would be great interviewees for you to learn more about how we have been doing that work on the media and communications side, and how we’ve been engaging content and story, social media, and other tools to set up a drive towards convergence (financial support of companies and grants to grow Nicolas’ mission). I think sharing those stories as we head into the next Cereal Hack helps us document how success can happen, so that as the next generation of code dreamers come before Cereal Hack, they will be even better prepared to position their start ups for success. As you work to promote the next Cereal Hack so others can really see and benefit from how and why Sacramento is really coming into its own as a technical town with teeth, I hope you will be looking for the details of those stories to tell. Thanks for sharing! In gratitude- Tracy Saville CEO, Possibility Media Group