How TL Foundation Turns Community Capital Into San Diego’s Innovation Future featuring Kris Lichter

If you're a founder, how do you approach the most innovative new investment fund on the block? Find out today. Welcome to The Connect Current, the flow of innovation in San Diego. We bring you the founders, investors, and leaders building the future across life science, tech, climate, defense, AI, and more. This is where San Diego's next chapter takes shape. Welcome to the Connect Current, the flow of innovation in San Diego. I'm your host, James Zanewicz, and this episode is being recorded at the UC San Diego Park and Market building. When you're looking for an event in downtown San Diego and the perfect place to have it, look no further than UC San Diego Park and Market. Today I'm joined by Chris Lichter, CEO of the TL Foundation. Chris is a San Diego native who brings more than 2 decades of experience across emerging technology, company building, investing, and global innovation leadership. Thank you, James. He has led and supported companies from multiple angles, including as an operator, investor, advisor, and entrepreneur. But now he is leading the TL Foundation into its next stage of growth. The TL Foundation is a nonprofit evergreen venture fund that was started by Connect to turn philanthropic capital into local startup investment. The model is simple but powerful: donors contribute to the foundation, the capital is invested into high-potential San Diego companies, and when those companies succeed, returns go back into the fund to support future investments. across the region. This conversation is so important because TL is not just about investing in companies, it's about building that long-term capital engine for San Diego. It connects founders, donors, investors, and civic leaders around the shared belief that an investment fund can contribute to startup success and create broader community value. And so today we're gonna talk about how that model works, what kinds of companies Chris is looking for, insight into how he chooses them, what founders should understand before approaching the fund, and how San Diego can build an innovation economy that gives back for generations. Welcome to the show, Chris.

Thank you, James. It's great to be here.

And this time we did not hang out the night before, so we're both ready to go and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Several coffees in, some good banter, pre-workout banter. We feel great.

And you had some Shakespearean innovation and inspiration last night, I understand.

I did. We— my wife Brianna and I went to Measure for Measure at the Old Globe and delved into a 1920s style. I guess it's a tragicomedy. It's great.

Well, I like this. And so then I can say, wherefore out the TL Foundation and what is it? But seriously, tell us more about TL Foundation. What is it and what does TL Foundation do?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. It's always great being with my Connect cousins. I think you said it best. We did come out of Connect. We were born from Connect with Mike Crenn and, and the whole gang. And I feel that's quite a privileged place to be part of. It's great working with you all, and I love that we do things together like this.

100%. 100%. So can you explain in plain language the model the TL Fund and what a nonprofit foundation can do to be an investment engine. Explain to people how that works, because it may be confusing for some.

Yeah, I think it is very unique. In fact, we believe it's the only foundation slash philanthropic venture fund of the kind in the United States. And the idea is very simple. If you believe that San Diego has room to grow and evolve and innovate, and that we generate some of the best founders and entrepreneurs and, and technologies and solutions anywhere in the world, What's important in that? Having capital. Now, you can get capital 2 ways. You can get it from the outside of the community, or you can get it from the inside. TL Foundation was started with a belief that to reduce the friction for those founders and those technologies coming out of San Diego, it's best if that capital comes from here. TL Foundation exists solely for that reason. Donors invest dollars into the foundation like any other nonprofit. At that point, it flips over, and we use it as investment dollars, like, kind of like any other venture fund. With one notable exception. When we invest in local San Diego startups, any returns that those companies deliver for TL from our original investment, 100% go back into the foundation to do yet more San Diego startups at bigger check sizes and all that.

So you're not pulling money out to the partners, the investors, it just goes straight back in.

There are no partners.

Companies in San Diego.

There are no partners. There is no invested carry into any of us, me or anyone else.

Interesting.

We have minimal overhead, and so we maximize the dollars that go back into San Diego through the startup community. And we know that when we do that right, Everyone wins in the community. The startup founders contribute to their schools and be part of their communities, and they, they live and work here. They don't feel the need to go anywhere else. And that's a really important part for where San Diego is at this moment.

Well, let's dive a little deeper into that because TL is different, as we just talked about, and it blends philanthropy, investment, and economic development, kind of—

It does.

The holy trinity of ecosystem development. But what makes that model so powerful, and why do you think that this place, San Diego, is the right place to build it? Because you're a long-term San Diegan, yourself. So you come at it from a heart and a head place.

That's, that is so true. I absolutely do. I live and breathe the city. I'm born and raised here, worked all over the place, but have spent a bulk of my life physically living here. And you see San Diego having gone through what a lot of cities do, ups and downs. We have our highs and lows. We build new industries, we lose some, we stumble, we grow. I think San Diego's in a kind of one of those inflection points right now. We have so much that we have to offer. We have world-class academic institutions. We have amazing founders and technologies. We have wonderful communities. We have natural resources. We have the border with Mexico. What gets us to the next level? Self-reliance and resilience. That's where TL Foundation comes in.

And I think it's interesting that, you know, this is a little bit of an aside, but I feel like we have a unique moment in San Diego right now where the leaders of all these organizations see each other as collaborators again for the first time. And I think in a long time where it's always been very collaborative, I sense. You're coming in as a, as, you know, an outsider here for 10 months, an incredible refocus on the rising tide lifting all ships, which has always been the undercurrent, but now it's like, it's the forefront and the huge story.

Right. And to the point about YTL now and how that fits into the picture you've just rightly articulated, if founders in any industry are building a company in San Diego and they have trouble raising, getting capital from San Diego-related capital sources, what do they do next? They have to start thinking about getting it from the outside. So by very nature, it starts to pull them away from this great community of collaborators and supporters and developers and everything that we have that you just pointed out. So we start to lose a very valuable part of our economic base and our community because they simply don't have the dollars to do what they're supposed to do, which is to go create and innovate and grow and build and be successful.

I like that. Okay, so Let's get to the dollars of the investment. What are you looking for when you're looking at investing? So what kinds of companies, what sectors, opportunities are your strongest fits?

So the great thing about TL is that because we're for San Diego by San Diegans, we are industry agnostic. We are looking for strong early-stage startups in any field. It could be defense, energy, life sciences, healthcare, horizontal technologies. Anything, really.

So any innovation vertical kind of thing?

Really any innovation vertical that has a really interesting opportunity. And we do look at it, even though we're a philanthropy, we have to look at it as, again, does the model work with this particular organization? If we put money from TL into that startup, do we believe that that will be successful X number of months and years down the road in a way that then grows the TL Fund in perpetuity? Right? Because that's what we're doing here. We're leaving this, we're making an impact now through TL Foundation. And through those successes, we are growing this flywheel, this juggernaut economic engine that will drive that resilience and self-reliance for San Diego for generations to come. I'm merely the first steward, if you will, of what I hope will be around for hundreds of years. To do that, any investment we make still has to be a good investment, but we look at, call it pre-seed to Series A is kind of the sweet spot right now.

And as a pre-seed Series A, any innovation vertical, what are the things that make a company a fit for you? So, so we kind of know the technical bits, but there's more to it when you evaluate companies, 'cause there are a lot of interesting startups in San Diego being, I I think, you know, they're all of our favorites. They're all amazing. But not every company is the right fit for every investor or every fund. And so when you're looking at it from the TL perspective, right, what separates that promising company from one that it's just a promising company, but one that is more aligned with the fund and what your focus is?

Great question. I fall into the camp of people that bets on people first. I live by the well-worn adage that I would rather have an A-grade team and a B idea than the other way around, mainly because I've built high-performance teams in my career. And I know when you can make 5 people act like 20 or 30, anything is possible. So personally, I look at that first. I need to know that that team has it dialed in in the ways that matter to them, because if they're happy, if they're cohesive, they're a good team, they will bust through all the obstacles that normally come in one's life through a startup or building a small company. So that's first.

When you're looking at this too, does it ever factor in that if you invest, somebody else might co-invest with you? Do you leverage yourself as like a carrot to get other investment dollars?

I'm so glad you said that. Absolutely. In fact, we look a lot— I think of TL as one of the new nodes in town around capital that allows us to aggregate with all of our friends, you know, and they can make their own decisions, right? Newfund can make its own decision.

Right.

The Prebys Fund can make its own, but we know each other. And I think that is a powerful deliverable for San Diego. Again, everyone has to make their own, they has to meet their own theses and their own, you know, it has to meet their own objectives. But I believe when we get that right, and we are all working together to do that, we will find that capital base and every, everyone will prosper from it.

I imagine if there's an out-of-town funder looking, you could be the local anchor that helps keep that company here if you co-invest along with them, which is a great thing for us.

As long as they don't try to pull the company out of San Diego. We might have words about that because that would be counter to my—

We'll help you. Yeah, it's fine.

Right.

We will. And we'll pull in Mark Cuban.

Yeah, everyone's going to throw in on that. Right. And that's a big part of this is we're trying to make it so that San Diego, every muscle is being developed, whether it's a defense muscle or an energy muscle or pick an industry or it's a part of the community. It's North Park versus Rancho Bernardo. If TL is successful, in my vision of this, all the industries grow and get successful. All of the communities have a positive impact, and it just layers onto itself. And it makes everybody's ability to just thrive and grow in this community better.

Yeah. Well, so we've heard seed to Series A, we've heard people matter the most. But so there's entrepreneurs out there listening to this, wanting to pitch you. What does their strongest first conversation with you look like? What should they have in their pitch and be ready to explain to you about company, market, their ability to execute? What are the What are the things you want to see? What are the things you're like, I've done that, I don't need you to have a slide for that?

Well, having been a startup founder and entrepreneur myself, and having pitched 5 billion times to VCs and other investors, I kind of arrived to the point where everyone has an opinion about that. Yeah, I certainly do.

Your opinion matters when they're pitching you. So this is where you get to give yours.

Right. That is so true. But I would say that what matters to me is someone who is really articulate and net in what they're trying to describe. I don't care if your market fit comes first, and your team chart goes later, or if your projections start first, and your go-to-market is 5th chart. I don't care. What I care is someone's coming and giving me a very compelling story that allows me to see where it's going, doesn't make me feel dumb about it, and allows me to lean in in a way that makes me believe that team has a real shot at achieving that mission and that goal they're talking about, that they've thought it through. They have some directional points about where they're going next, and the capital that they're asking of TL or anybody else is well thought about how it's going to be used. I mean, and how you do that, it's more about can you tell a good story that is compelling and clear? The biggest thing that drives me crazy is that people, they buy into the shtick that they read somewhere on a blog or TechCrunch or whatever, and it says you only do it this way and you only have a TAM chart that looks like that. Well, then you come in and you don't even know what you're— you don't even pitch that well, right? But you think it's good enough because that's what they said. You did A to Z. Less about the shtick, more about the authenticity.

Yep. Being authentic is important in person, but also so is delivering delivering what a fund wants to hear. Are you of the Crenn mind that you can have 50 slides and he doesn't care? Or are you like, no, 7 to 10 or 15 should be great? Or where do you fall on that? Because it's good for people to know coming in to pitch you what kind of your expectations are.

Well, being a little older now, James, so glad, so glad you didn't notice that. But being a little older, less is definitely more because it's also about a discipline. It's about being able to tell that story and, you know, call it 8 to 12 slides. I think that's fine. I don't expect you to do it in 3, and I don't expect you to come in expect me to go through 30.

And I think I just came up with a new podcast idea. We should have Kren and Chris on together and debate the 50 slides versus the less. Less is more versus more is more.

I like this.

It actually will be a fun one.

We would have a really good— yeah. And then you get Dave Titus in here too.

Trey's loving this. Trey's like, yeah.

And then you get Dave Titus's perspective. Yeah. But I think if any entrepreneur is listening to this right now and they are— forget TL for a second— if they are going to raise money, Be authentic about what you're coming from, why you came about this, why you think you're uniquely suited to it. Be honest about where you don't know something. In fact, I was in an office yesterday.

It gets you so many points. Just say you don't know, but you can find out.

Just say, and don't BS me.

I've got a gal or I've got a guy for that is what you say.

Right. Or just say, that part we haven't worked out yet, but here's what we think so far. I'm all about that because I was like that too. I don't have all the answers. I still don't have the answers. So what I want to know is I can trust you. I mean, it really doesn't come down to trust. Isn't that the— isn't an investor-startup, that relationship is fundamentally about trust?

1,000%.

We are on the journey together. And so if what you're sitting down in front of me drives trust, we're doing well. If it pulls trust away, you're not serving me and you're certainly not serving yourself.

And speaking of serving yourself, you're not just giving away money. You have to raise the money that you give away. So you're also building the capital base.

I am.

And you're doing that right now. So what do donors, investors, and community leaders who might want to be a part of TL Fund, what should they know about why this model matters and why they should approach you and give you millions of dollars to put into Connect companies, which makes us both very happy?

You mean, I believe you mean tens of millions of dollars.

Tens of millions, or hundreds of millions. Hundreds of millions. Why think small? Or billions.

Here is the absolute single-line answer to this. There is no other potential way to give back into San Diego like TL, where you can put a dollar or any denomination, you can put it into TL. And because our model is an exponential return model, when we get this right, your dollar of impact could be worth $10,000 of impact, $100,000 of impact, and it will leave a legacy for generations to come in a way that you may never have been able to do. There's nothing else like that. And it works very well in complement to all the other very worthy charities in San Diego that serve their communities every single day. We are in complement to that. But it is a different form of philanthropy that is an additive. You can give it, and it will in its turn fund parts of the community that will help those other charities. So think of it like that. Think of this as a completely different vehicle that if you're looking for a new way to put your philanthropic dollars to work for this community, TL is the ideal place to do it, because where else can you grow it like that?

Well, and I always argue that, you know, without innovation, tech, biotech, without those companies, you don't raise up the people who are able to do well for themselves, generate their own wealth, and give back to the arts as well. So feeding science and technology, does feed the arts because you create the donor pool that can support the opera, the theater, everything else out there.

That's right. And I also want to point out that this is— TL may have come out of Connect, which is technology and life sciences kind of community at its base, right? But again, this is for San Diegans by San Diegans. I really want to appeal to the real estate folks in our community, the financial services, the tourism leaders, our military leaders, From that perspective, everybody should want to be able to contribute in T.L. You can. We're going to find lots of unique ways as we build this out for every strata of potential donor, from the highest net worth people down to even like my college kids coming out of school.

Yeah.

Like, we're going to make it so because it really is for everybody. And so everybody has a right to be part of it. I would deeply like people who are on the bigger side of this moment to see the potential in this, to see the exponential capability it can impact on San Diego, and to get in now because we've made 6 investments already. We'd like to make a bunch of others. We'd like to get this model working even faster and this flywheel growing even faster than it already is. If that is exciting to you, if that sounds like a different way of making San Diego the kind of self-reliant, resilient place that allows our entire community to thrive, please contact me. That is the way to do it.

All right. And I have one last question for you, and it's our San Diego question. So this could be personal, professional, whatever.

Rolled tacos, guacamole, lettuce, and cheese.

It's probably what your answer is going to be though. But what drives your innovative flow? Is it tacos?

It definitely is tacos. I mean, it's— it is rolled tacos with guacamole and lettuce, cheese.

Let's be honest about it.

From any special? No. Yes, absolutely. But I'm not going to tell you because then I'll have to wait. What is— what drives my innovative flow? So let me— let me ask you the question back, James. What do you mean by that? I could answer that any number of ways.

It can be at work. It can be your personal life. It can be what gives you zen.

Okay.

Because it's San Diego. It can mean what you want it to mean.

It can. Okay. Yeah. I think it's learn and grow or It's, it's the Shawshank Redemption. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Whether you're surfing, finding the best taco, or finding the best company, that's how you apply it to everything?

I just, I just want to learn and grow. And I think San Diego is one of those amazing places where all of us, all the people that we meet, and they're amazing people with amazing ideas, passionate about San Diego, passionate about their community, wanting to help. That's an incredibly vibrant place to always be learning and growing. So I wake up every day and go, I can't— I'm so lucky that I get to do TL Foundation because I get to help that kind of run away. And so that's what I do. So that 200 years from now, all of our descendants will look back and say, San Diego got even stronger, and it was the beginning of this journey to this juggernaut engine, and it came because we all built it together.

It's kind of the biggest gift back to the region, right? It's incredible. Yeah. And no one may ever know your name, but you'll know that you had an impact.

And honestly, I could care less if someone knows my name. What I care about is that people saw the opportunity in TL and they bought into it, and together we made it into this thing that many generations down the road is continuing to lever up our city in the ways that it needs at that time. whatever it looks like 200 years from now.

Well, I want to thank you for coming on. It's been a really great conversation. I think it's gonna be really helpful for founders approaching you because you had a little bit of different advice than the Prebys Fund wants to see. You have a slightly different—

8 charts versus 50.

In some ways, which is good because now people will know, oh, when I go see Mike, have 50 slides. When I come see you, have the smaller amount, which is great. And you also reminded folks of a really important, I think, distinction is that capital can be more than just a transaction. It can be that long-term commitment to place people in communities, TL Fund is ideally positioned for that and ideally positioned to help startups succeed, return value into the region, and to fund that next generation of founders in a more powerful model for San Diego. And so I really appreciate you joining us.

Oh, thanks for having me again, both of you. It was great and always like seeing you both and happy 4th, everybody. If that, if this comes out before that.

It will not.

Okay. Hope you, hope you—

Trey will edit that.

Hope you, yeah. Hope you all had a happy 4th.

Thanks for listening to The Connect Current. If you want to learn more about Connect and explore resources across San Diego's innovation ecosystem, follow us on LinkedIn or visit connect.org. We'll see you next time on The Connect Current, where San Diego's innovation story keeps moving forward.

This podcast was edited and produced by Resonate Recordings.