OpenGrants

Why did you choose the Sacramento region to do business?

We grew up in this region and have been living and working here for most of our lives. We enjoy balanced lifestyles and love to spend time outside. The Sacramento area, with its close access to the mountains and ocean, really couldn’t be a better place to work, play and grow. We’ve all left the area and spent time in the Bay Area and other parts of the state, country and world, but when deciding on a place to build our business, the Sacramento region was the obvious choice.

What are the benefits of living and doing business in the Sacramento region?

We build software that helps facilitate public/private funding. Being in the capital of the fifth largest economy in the world and close to Silicon Valley is very helpful for us. We’re close to our customers, as well as our investors. We are a remote-first organization and mostly work from home (even before the pandemic), but our headquarters are at Granite City Coworking in Folsom. When we do meet up, that’s the perfect place to come together. We’re very proud to be part of the growing startup community they’re building there. 

Do you believe your location in the Sacramento region has helped you find quality talent?

Definitely. Especially since the pandemic, people have naturally had a chance to reevaluate where they live, what they do for work and what really matters to them. With remote work now taking a leading role, especially in the knowledge sector, we’ve be able to attract talent from the Bay Area. People want to be closer to family, find more affordable housing and have better overall quality of life while still working on an exciting project. We’re strong believers in the future of work being remote, at least in our sector. You don’t have to live in a major metropolitan area to create massive impact with your business. It just takes a bit more hustle and creativity.

Why do you choose to do business in California over other states?

First and foremost, we choose to do business in California because it’s our home. Secondly, California’s innovative public ecosystem is attractive to us because we partner with the public sector. Thirdly, despite the recent exodus of tech workers, Silicon Valley will continue to be a global hub for capital and innovation. There are some challenges for sure. Our cost of doing business is not on par with non-coastal states, but we make up for that with creative solutions like headquartering out of a coworking space instead of leasing our own.

What is your favorite restaurant or hangout spot in the Sacramento region?

We’re big fans of old town Folsom because of where we’re based. We have lunch meetings on Sutter Street and go paddle boarding as a team on the American River. While we work on software, outdoor pursuits are in our history and DNA, so we value open space. We’ve also spent quite a bit of time downtown near the capitol and Golden 1 Center. It’s awesome to see the city evolving.

We’re more excited than ever about our work and the future, because we’re entrepreneurs. We enjoy the good of today, and we see today’s challenges as just more opportunities for tomorrow.

opengrants.io/

Learn more

View our Success Story series here to learn more about the advantages of doing business in Greater Sacramento.