For the Sacramento Kings, Tuesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers was another loss in another disappointing season. But just before the fourth quarter in Sleep Train Arena, the Kings made an announcement for a contest that could be more important for them than this season’s results.
The Kings awarded Quicklegal with a $10,000 prize for winning the first ever Capitalize Contest, a startup competition hosted by the Kings for companies within a 75-mile radius of Sacramento.
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Quicklegal, a company that supplies attorneys on demand to consumers via FaceTime, received their cash prize, along with consultation sessions with certain Kings executives and lunch with an owner of the Kings.
32 different startups out of a pool of more than one hundred were selected to enter the elimination tournament for the Capitalize Contest. From that group four finalists emerged: Barobo, California Safe Soil, ViVita Technologies and of course Quicklegal. Kings Chairman Vivek Ranadive said that he would invest $5,000 into all four of these companies.
None of these companies specifically operate in the realm of sports technology. Barobo makes a type of linked robot that can be used to creatively approach simple tasks, California Safe Soil is a fresh food recycler and ViVita Technologies is working on tissue regeneration in a medical context.
Despite the fact that none of these companies could actively help the Kings’ improve their 31-47 record, the mere act of flirting with the world of technology could seriously raise the Kings on-court performances and backroom staff to a higher level of performance in the coming years. And more importantly, this is a tremendous way for a team to engage their surrounding community.
Located about an hour and half away by car from the Silicon Valley, the Kings have access to much of what the tech capital of the world has to offer. Their main competition in cozying up to the tech community would be the Golden State Warriors, and the Kings already have a differentiator to the Warriors with this Capitalize Contest.
This contest was also a precursor to what fans might expect when the Kings open up their new, high-tech stadium in October—the Golden 1 Center.