
Startup of the Month: AppA11y
Software developer creates games for visually impaired players
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.

Status Check: Home Kitchens
Yolo County alleges that Foodnome had been operating illegally
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.

Startup of the Month: The Makers Place
A family home for work-from-home parents
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.

Startup of the Month: Foodnome
Home cooking loves company
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.
Sponsored

SVP Sacramento: Empowering Nonprofits in Telling Their Story
Storytelling is one of the most impactful ways to connect, inspire and shape a vision for the future. For many nonprofits, storytelling proves to be rather difficult. The problem is not due to a lack of stories to tell, but rather an abundance of them, making it challenging for nonprofit leaders to demonstrate exactly what they do and the impact they are having.

Startup of the Month: IndiPUB
Self-publishing with a twist
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.

Startup of the Month: HealthSherpa
Guiding customers to health insurance coverage
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.

Startup of the Month: Pheronym
In the mood for pest control
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.

Startup of the Month: Robotics Evolution
Building robots for battle and jobs
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.

Startup of the Month: Japa
UC Davis grads smarten up parking lots
As part of an entrepreneurship course at UC Davis, Mathew Magno was instructed to come up with a problem to solve. He didn’t think twice: Magno wanted to solve the nightmare that is finding a place to park.