PairAnything, run by an eight-person team, won the $10,000 Food + Agriculture Sector Award at the 2019 Big Bang Business Competition at UC Davis.

Before 2012, Nick Barbato was a software developer working in a cubicle, and he was miserable. He wanted more control over his life, so he left that job to start a company called Pangia Games. Not long after he and his cofounder, Lee Hobbs, released their first game, he received an email in 2013 from someone who played it.

Prior to 2019, the California Retail Food Code had strict limits on which facilities could store, package and serve food at the retail level. These restrictions were put in place for health and sanitation purposes.

As a leadership educator and coach working from home, Leslie Bosserman had a tough time being fully present with both her first child and her clients. Eight months into her second pregnancy, she came up with the idea for The Makers Place, a Sacramento-based coworking space customized for families.

For Akshay Prabhu, nothing ties a meal together like community. His Davis-based startup, Foodnome, reflects that philosophy, turning regular homes into restaurants the way Uber turned regular cars into taxis.

The first book Amy Altstatt wrote was about a little girl in a world in which color represents what one wants to be when grown up. The girl tries different colors to see which one suits her, but none feels  right. Then she cries, and, in her rainbow tears, she realizes all the colors are part of her.

When HealthCare.gov — the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchange website — went live in 2013, it was slow, buggy and hard to navigate — a digital mess. Two weeks later, three programmers in the Bay Area launched HealthSherpa.com, an alternative website to help online shoppers understand their options under the ACA and see plans and prices quickly.

Nematodes pose a conundrum to farmers. The worm-like microscopic creatures are everywhere. Some are parasitic, infecting plants and destroying crops — but others actually  attack insect pests. The ability to target the “bad” while leaving the “good” unharmed would be a boon for agricultural production.

Eric Sweet used to be a pilot, hauling cargo and flying corporate jets. Then he tried his hand at real estate. Now, through his Sacramento-based startup, Robotics Evolution, he’s focused on educating youth on robotics by offering special arenas where their robots can compete in various competitions.