Overview
Two co-founders, one family, and what came after Trifecta.
Hello_ Founder is a new fireside series at The Urban Hive with a simple premise: founders who have been in the guest chair come back to interview the founder they most want to hear from.
Liz Connolly opens the season. When we asked who she’d invite, she answered almost immediately: her brother, Greg.
Liz and Greg founded Trifecta in Sacramento and scaled it from $0 to more than $100 million in annual revenue and over $500 million in cumulative revenue, raising more than $25 million in growth capital along the way. Now they’re each building again. Liz founded Katsu, where she coaches founders on turning partnerships into a growth channel. Greg founded Kora Power, a Rancho Cordova energy company building home battery storage that can work together as grid-scale assets.
Expect a candid conversation about building a company with family, the hard years as well as the good ones, why each of them chose to start again, and what they’d tell Sacramento founders now. Liz is asking the questions, though Greg has been promised a few of his own.
Run of show: 6:00 PM Speaker Reception, joining Liz and Greg in conversation over wine and appetizers ($25 ticket). 6:30 PM doors open for everyone. 6:45 PM conversation, followed by Q&A. Wraps by 8:00 PM.
About Greg Connolly
Greg Connolly is a serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Kora Power, a new energy company with a revenue run rate already >$10M, with plans to deploy megawatts of company-owned residential energy storage aggregated into grid-scale battery assets. Previously, he founded and scaled Trifecta to over $500 million in revenue and has raised more than $50 million in venture capital across multiple businesses, including $7.6 million after his Seed round for Kora. Greg brings firsthand experience navigating the challenges of fundraising, building, and scaling category-defining companies from the ground up.
About Liz Connolly
Liz Connolly is an entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Katsu. Liz coaches entrepreneurs using the lessons she learned while building at scale. She helps founders unlock partnerships as a growth channel, giving them access to new audiences and lower customer acquisition costs, without relying solely on paid advertising.