For nearly a decade, Monique Brown has quietly been an advocate and relentless organizer for Sacramento’s entrepreneurial and startup community.
She’s currently the managing director of the Growth Factory, an accelerator based in Rocklin launched by entrepreneur Mark Haney.
The accelerator is a nonprofit, but investments into its cohort companies are made through the for-profit Growth Factory Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund with $10 million available.
The first cohort started last fall with 15 companies, which range from early-stage startups to more established companies that have raised millions of dollars in seed rounds.
The founders in the Growth Factory’s first cohort represent companies in human resources technology, lifestyle, mental health assessment support, medical therapeutics, employee recognition and government grant technology.
“They are not alike in so many ways,” Brown said. “But you get them together in a room and they are additive to each other. They help each other. They empathize. Our founders are fantastic and amazing.”
While the Growth Factory is meant to support the entrepreneurs to grow their startups, Brown said she gets a lot of satisfaction from working with the company founders.
“I love working with driven and creative people,” she said. “I enjoy bringing together the resources to help support people.”
Brown got introduced to the Sacramento startup scene working with Velocity Venture Capital’s Entrepreneurs Showcase in 2014. Velocity put the program together with support from the Kauffman Fellows, an entrepreneurship organization.
Jack Crawford was managing partner of Velocity, which he founded in 2005. He’s now general partner of Impact Venture Capital, which launched in 2016.
“Her skill sets are leadership and organization,” Crawford said of Brown. “She is the best at organizing, sequencing and executing on projects. She’s as good at that as anyone I know.”
Crawford said that having five daughters may contribute to Brown's skills at organizing and scheduling.
In addition to organizing some of the Entrepreneurs Showcases, Brown organized the first Kings Capitalize contest, which is still going on, and she is still an adviser for it. That contest offers cash prizes in a March Madness-style pitch competition.
She also was part of the team that brought the global entrepreneurial pitch event 1 Million Cups to Sacramento. And she is on the board of Social Venture Partners Sacramento, a nonprofit that seeks to support the efforts and funding for community-based nonprofit groups. She’s also an adviser to the Big Bang! Business Competition at the University of California Davis.
“Like a vein of gold in bedrock, her path runs deep in the Sacramento startup scene,” said Laura Good, co-founder of StartupSac.
“It seems like she’s an adviser for everything,” Good said. “She’s not out there waving the flag to be the person everyone sees, but she is so helpful to the entrepreneurship community in Sacramento.”
Brown is pretty humble about her extensive involvement, but she does take it seriously. She wants the Sacramento region to be more like the Bay Area, with its larger community of founders, investors and startups.
“We’re on the precipice of that, and we don’t want to fail,” Brown said. “It’s exciting and frightening at the same time. We don’t want to let our founders down.”
Meanwhile, the Growth Factory is getting ready for its second cohort of companies later this year.
“There is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about what we are doing, and that is great, but the challenge is to take that enthusiasm and excitement and channel it in a meaningful way,” Brown said. “My challenge is to translate that enthusiasm into engagement.”
The Essentials
Managing director, co-founder, Growth Factory
Age: 50
Education: American University; Washington, D.C.; international studies.
Career: Managing director, Growth Factory in Rocklin, 2021-present; vice president, Haney Biz, 2018-present; strategic adviser, I/O Labs in Sacramento, 2016-2018; operations partner, Velocity Venture Capital in Sacramento, 2014-2016; business relationship manager, Delegata, 2012-2014; operations director, Learning Street USA, 2009-2012; business manager, American Health and Safety Training in Walnut Creek, 2003-2011; associate producer, Edelman Productions, Tech TV and Ziff-Davis Television, all in the Bay Area, 1997-2006.
Personal/family: Married to Tom, five girls from 13 to 21. Lives in Newcastle.
Passion (outside of work and family) Nonprofit work with K-12 education, outdoors, hiking.
Fantasy job: I have it.
First job – nonprofessional: Cleaned houses, worked at horse stables.
