Neal Bloom - CEO of Rising Tide Partners, Founder of Fresh Brewed Tech

Welcome to Accelerate oc, the only show focused on the people leading innovation in Orange County. Join our host, Kerry Ransom and his conversations with the trendsetters, entrepreneurs, investors and leaders here because it's time to accelerate oc.

Good morning. Welcome to Accelerate oc. This is Kerry Ransom and today's episode is sponsored by OC4 Venture Studio, which is a new tech startup company building platform and community here in Southern California. There are a number of amazing founders already in the studio and if you're looking for help with your startup or opportunities to work with the next generation of high growth companies, or want to be part of the startup community here, go to oc4v.com to learn more. I'm excited to finally have my friend Neil Bloom with me on the Accelerate show today. Before we get to hear from him though, let me tell you a little bit about Neil as he has had a very illustrative career. He is currently the CEO of Rising Tide Partners, which is a PR and communications firm in San Diego and he's also the founder of Fresh Brewed Tech, which publishes both a newsletter and and a podcast about all things tech in San Diego. He also launched a similar version of that called Fresh Squeeze to cover all things tech in Orange county and I appreciate him greatly for trying to bring some coverage and order to everything that's going on around here. He's a successful entrepreneur as well. He co founded an edtech talent and learning management platform called Portfolium, which was acquired by a larger company called Instructure a few years ago. And prior to that he worked in the space industry for a leading manufacturer and coordinated their work with a main client that they had that many of you have probably heard of called NASA. He's an active investor in startups. He does it through TechCoast Angels down in San Diego as well as a number of his own efforts. He's taught courses on entrepreneurship at UC San Diego as well as he's a key fixture down in the San Diego startup scene. We'll have a lot to talk about today and compare notes. Neil, thank you for joining me on the Accelerate show today.

Thanks for having me on Kerry.

Absolutely. So let's get to the starting line. I gave a brief intro to your background on your LinkedIn profile. You talk about being an entrepreneur, an investor and a community builder. How do you manage to do all of those things at the same time?

For me, it was a struggle to figure out how to think about three different roles in the community that I needed to, and it took a while to realize they all play together. So I find now that having a startup called Fresh Fruit Tech, which is a media company, is all about connecting people. You know, it helps me a little bit not have as many coffee meetings with one on one because I say, I'm gonna put it all on a blog. Here are the notes that everyone needs to get connected. So for me, it was a bit of a systems approach to being efficient.

You can only drink so much coffee, right?

Exactly. I'm caffeine sensitive. I only do decaf, really. Anyway, and investing just came naturally as I started to meet so many community members. I had all these dots that said, wow, these people are really doing well. And over time I'm getting to know them. I'd love to be along for the ride too. And so naturally, when I could, I just asked them, could I invest in you? So the kind of the pieces all came together and now the three of them are a bit of a triad for everything I want to be doing in the community.

That's very cool. I can definitely relate on all those levels. So as you think about San Diego, I think you've been sort of in San Diego and out of San Diego a few times, but have been back now for several years. What is the big change that you've seen in the last few years that really encourages you about the future?

So this time around, I've been in San Diego seven years. When I came to San Diego seven years ago to start a company and we got into Evo Nexus, the incubator, and right at that exact moment, it was kind of a pivotal moment where we started to have some density around start early startup founders. Not just saying, I want to start my own company, but I want community around it too. And along came some resources to surround that. So Startup Week and Startup San Diego started right around that time seven years ago. And it was to kind of wrap around the community of entrepreneurs and say, hey, we're better together. I think what has started to rise over the last three years is that all the different resources in town said, we're now better together too. See, the entrepreneurs felt that before, but the resources all said, oh, come to me, I have everything you need. And it's not true. Every resource, every organization is usually good at a specific piece of the entrepreneur's journey. And a few years ago, all the resources said, let's said let's plot ourselves on a graph and show what we're good at and show that we're a bridge from one resource to the next. That has really helped. That's helped in a few ways. It's helped entrepreneurs streamline their time and intention.

Right.

If you are just starting in your ideation, you should not be meeting with VCs yet and pitching them. And so therefore you shouldn't be going to the later stage organizations that say, we'll connect you to VCs. What you need to be doing is working on ideation validation, finding your co founder, maybe your first hire, some friends and family money. And there's a bunch of resources that are good at that, right? Incubators and whatnot. So I think figuring out the process, the map, was really helpful and almost thinking about it as a funnel system now we now realize, okay, as entrepreneurs move through this funnel, we need to make sure we're refilling the top as well too. And I don't think we focused on that seven years ago. We just said, let's help this cohort right now and let's help continue to help them mature. But then we forgot, oh wait, every year we need that. We needed to make sure we are filling that too. So I think just that awareness was really helpful for building and growing an ecosystem.

So great, great jumping off point. I've got so many follow up questions to that. So first one you talked about, you mentioned Evo Nexus seven years ago and San Diego Startup Week. What is it that enabled those, what I invariably would call collisions to happen? One of the things that I think Southern California has always suffered a bit from is how spread out it is that there aren't necessarily these centers of gravity. There have been an increased number, for example, in LA and Silicon beach, but that's now expanded into other areas, downtown and others as well. But what really catalyzed that sense of collisions in San Diego and what does that look like today? If I'm a founder, where am I going to run into people?

Yeah, it's a good question. It's changed because of COVID but it's all about finding your community. And I think seven years ago it was a physical presence that needed to be found. You needed to see everyone around you. And so that really, I think, started in the downtown San Diego Evo Nexus office, which hosted events, honestly multiple times a day. And you had not just 30 companies sitting there, but you had also people coming off the street to see 30 companies all at once and bring their ideas in too. So that was the start. That was a little bit of the beginning, I think, of what I saw in San Diego and what Startup Week came from was a very grassroots effort where entrepreneurs said we need to be in charge of our own destiny, too. And created San Diego Startup Week. And really, in the beginning, it was just, let's take 10 existing events that already happened, 10 meetups, and let's make them coincide physically over two, three days. And with that, we will naturally produce density. And that was it. It was 200 people, 10 events in 2013. But something sparked immediately there. It was definitely this feeling of wow for us, by us. So it's always been like entrepreneurs leading, which I think if I'm a student of Brad Feld.

Exactly. I've got his book on my desk.

Yeah.

The new one, at least. Yes.

Yeah. I'd say we nailed it.

Right.

And so we created a nonprofit eventually around that called Startup San Diego, where I don't know if entrepreneurs should be running a nonprofit, but that's what's going on. And what we feel is the voice of the community, the voice of the entrepreneur is really the most important piece there. It takes a lot for an entrepreneur to also give their time beyond their own company. And so I think what we've also found is that if you are just getting through the door, one door, you need to look behind you and say, who can I bring right back with me? And not wait till you have this big, giant, successful exit 10 years later. So all those little pieces have come together. And it's not now that we've shown that works. We don't have to do it physically. We've shown that you can have online communities. You can have a slack group with 2,800 people in it where people know to ask for help. You can have online mentor sessions now.

Right.

Where people can sign up for 20 minute little office hours and we can be anywhere in the world and help that out. But I think in the very beginning, we needed this feeling of like, there are others around me, this catharsis.

Right.

And the best way to do that was to show up and be like, whoa, look at, there's 30 companies here, all grinding it out, all on their own journey, but realizing our journeys are very similar.

Right.

We're all banging our heads against kind of the same wall. So I think it was important to have the physical piece in the beginning, but now I think we're better at understanding community and connecting with people virtually. So it's totally doable.

How does a new person join in and really get absorbed into that?

You know, that, honestly, is the hardest part, I think, is the onboarding piece. It's why I started Fresh Fruit Tech.

It's almost like you need a Concierge service for new founders or something, or new members of the community.

Yeah. And that's what Startup San Diego has evolved into. It's kind of this front door where you start there and you get oriented. You say here's where I am at my stage in my journey, where do I go now? And that's what Startup San Diego honestly only wants to be is a shepherd to other organizations or other communities because it takes a full time role. I mean we really need community managers and I think that's an under undervalued role. Is the community manager the person who really is that concierge that says welcome, we're glad you're here. What do you need help with or you don't know what you need help with? Okay, just tell us where you're at. Great. We'll help assess you and then we'll show you what's available.

Okay.

And also here's what you can do to help and be give back to the community too. That's the other piece of the loop as well. So yeah, I think that role is still is very much needed and valued in ecosystems.

So, so much good stuff here. So the notion that, you know, I go through this door, how do I help bring some people right behind me through that door as well. How have you found that sort of sense and that, that, that community mentality, how have you found that work to really indoctrinate that, that element? Because I agree with you, most founders, they feel like the world's telling me I have to stay heads down, I have to stay focused, I have to, to do everything on my venture to have a chance to succeed. And I think you and I are kindred spirits in that. We both believe you're going to build a better company over time by being out in the community and participating and contributing while you're building, that to me is the mark of a true leader that you can do it simultaneously. How do you change that culture? Because I talk to founders a lot of who that's just not intuitive at all. So any, any thoughts there?

Yeah, I think the experienced entrepreneurs who've done it three, four times, I think for them they very much value talent in a certain regard. And so when you become aware and say any person is a potential hire, I think that's the way you kind of have learned to sell it for an entrepreneur. That's not the first place I saw entrepreneurs doing it. The first place I've seen it is they actually help their investors. So a lot of times you'll see an Entrepreneur who will make an introduction to an existing investor, to another entrepreneur he met. He or she met.

Right.

For whatever reason they feel there's the carrot is dangled there enough to say I want to help my investor find other entrepreneurs because that'll be good for everyone. And so that's a good place to start is say great, like you got funded by an investor, like help the person, person who hasn't yet.

Right.

And you see entrepreneurs do that. The next step is when you start having entrepreneurs hitting certain inflection points. Meaning I'm about to, I'm getting some acquisition calls, M and A. I need to talk to an entrepreneur who's done it before and you know, entrepreneur. Other entrepreneurs will then say, oh, I know someone who just got acquired. You know, let me introduce you to him or her. So those are little pieces that you see naturally happen, but you still have to provide a force function and to certain, a certain group people and say, here's why it's important for you to continuously do that. Not just wait for when you have a need, but here's why it's going to come back to you. And so yeah, I think there's still a lot of education around. Here's why it's important to a lot of first time founders to do it. But I think the people who are at Company 4 and 5, like I said, they're already doing this because someone did it for them. But yeah, it's, it's a little tough to go out and kind of evangelize and say, here's why you need to help. You really want them to say I.

Want to help, right?

That's right.

It's more natural. So I think if you can show and tell stories about when it's been successful for someone, people will get that spark and be like, oh, you're right, like I got an EVO Nexus. What if I didn't? Let me go ask Evo and say, hey, can I go and talk to two, three companies that didn't make it through and help them get in because once that company is sitting alongside you, you have no idea what you're gonna gain from them.

Right?

They're gonna, you're gonna spend the next two years together in the same space. Why wouldn't you want to help? Make sure that that person can also help your own company help you and you can learn from each other. So I think there's just kind of a bigger awareness. You have to realize it's, you're not the center of the orbit a little bit.

Right?

We're all better if we populate our community with the people that are valuable for us. We just have to continue to tell the stories of why it's important and how it actually is helpful, not just, oh, it'd be good for you to do.

That's great points. So as you think about, you mentioned talent, right? This notion of anybody is potentially a node or a great relationship to cultivate, or potentially a collaborator or partner or member of your team. As you think about, I just published something the other day that shows you have more people now working in large companies than 25 years ago. It's like almost 40% of the population is working for companies over 10,000 employees. So that's where a lot of the talent is. How do you think about getting them engaged in the startup community? Being curious that those are the ones that in theory have the stable jobs and are just kind of doing, you know, in many respects the same things day in and day out, year in, a year out. As you know, nothing's as stable as it appears or things are. Things are stable until they're not stable. And how do you get those folks to show a level of curiosity and engagement in what's happening outside of the. The various ivory towers that they're in?

Yeah, it's a deep question and I think there's a few pools there or potential points. There's talent who's working at big enterprise companies that could be talent at startups and could be entrepreneurs themselves too.

That's right.

They could be both right and maybe. And certain people need different kinds of. What's the right word? They need like certain kind of validation to. Maybe they need to go work at a startup first before they start their own. But the biggest feeling is what they need is they need comfortability and knowing that there is like you can have a good life in a startup world comparably to your enterprise life, it'll be different, but something needs to give you a push or kick off the ledge. And every person has different risk, different risk profiles. So we can't say, here's the one thing to do. We need to look at different paintbrush strokes and say, okay, for a certain group of people, what you need to do is meet people who have made the jump, right? You need to meet either colleagues who've done it for other people. They need to be shown. Here's your value. So you worked at a big giant company. Here are the values that that brings to a startup. You know how to write a playbook. You know how to be a Systems thinker, you know, how to train and manage people in a really well onboarding process. This is why you're so important to a startup, which is a little bit of chaos until you can get some order to things.

Right?

So I think we need to just describe and show success stories of here's the value of someone at enterprise that goes to startup. That was me. I was working at a 300,000 person engineering company called United Technologies. But I also knew that I needed a little more chaos, a little more disorder for me to thrive in. And it was too ordered, you know, and I didn't find a startup community immediately. I started my company first and then started to look around and say, hmm, are there anyone else like me? Because there's no one like me here at this company, that's for sure. And I think if I would have learned, even if I just would have gone online and be like, how to, how to find entrepreneurs in your own community, I would have probably started my own company differently. So. So yeah, I think there's a thought that bringing enterprise level talent into the community and saying, here's why you're important, here's why we need you. And Evo Nexus actually does this pretty well in bringing kind of VPs into the review process of their, you know, their incubator. And I know you've got that too with OC4, where you've got, you know, people who've come from really large companies who come as advisors. And I think that's a good starting, starting point, right? And say, hey, here's why we specifically want you. You've got knowledge of this industry, can you advise this company? But very specifically not help the entrepreneur because you may not know how. It's more help the skillset piece that this entrepreneur is missing, right? Either BD for an engineer or you know, or sales, you know, that kind of stuff. I think the skill set piece is something we can definitely pull people into, but there's also an awareness that says, hey, we need to tell the right stories that say, here's why it's okay to move around and go to different size companies. You don't have to only work at big, big companies. We can start small and build that small company into a big company, you know, so I don't know, it's different for every person. A lot of people are just looking for different things.

Great, some great, great points in there. So we, we met as you started to adventure north into Orange county, what was that, a couple years ago? And you've now been, you know, banging around here a little bit, comparing, contrasting to San Diego. What have you learned in that couple years about the similarities, the differences, the opportunities from your perspective?

So I ventured north to understand what's another community like compared to what I've been doing for five years in San Diego. I really wanted to compare notes. I really wanted a feeling of catharsis, you know, are other people doing this, you know, and just get energized with other people like minded, like me. And so yeah, so I just started calling up and saying, what's going on? Orange county starting to meet both entrepreneurs, investors, organizations. And it's been really interesting comparing the two communities. It's driven me to now meet a lot of other communities because I'm like, wow, they're doing it differently and they're doing it similarly. Like I got to see how others are doing it too. But Orange county specifically has been really interesting for me. Orange county has this cloak of being under LA many times, right? I mean even actually as a government accountability.

Yes.

Yeah. As an msa, it is actually part of la. It is, you know, Long Beach, Santa Ana and Los Angeles or whatever. So I was fascinated by that because San Diego was the same. I thought San Diego was already under that Cloak of SoCal, but I didn't realize how much more OC was tucked in, but also wanted to be different, want to be unique and had a lot of uniqueness for its own, you know, its own universities, its own great enterprise companies and capital. The part that I think I dug into the most was that there was capital and I was coming from a community in San Diego that didn't, did not have capital, did not have local capital investing in local companies. Well, there's some biotech and mostly pharma, but not on the tech side. We didn't have, you know, the CO fund and Okapi and all these other ones, you know, that I learned about two years ago. So for me that was interesting was just like understanding how does local capital play into local companies. And in that same timeframe, Tecos Angels throughout Southern California started to raise their own funds too in San Diego, Orange county and then la. So it was great to see progress there as well. But I think the COVID was the biggest mind blown moment for me to see that a university invested in this nexus of off campus and on campus saying we don't believe that the university is the ivory tower. We want to bring it to the community. And I spend a lot of time there because of that, you know, and I'd love for that Model to be duplicated in other communities, though. Haven't seen it too much yet, to be honest. So, yeah, it's been really fascinating to watch it and just get excited about that. I think in certain veins, Orange county has maybe more successes and therefore has created more capital, but doesn't have as many early stage resources and early stage cheerleaders to help people get off the ground to get to that success point as San Diego, as I've seen. Yeah. So those are some of the similarities I've seen. I think the proximity to LA has helped a lot for Orange county to being able to go there and get resources and capital, but it also has pulled away people from looking at, what can I do in my own community? I might as well go to la. No, like, let's start and duplicate whatever's happening in Venice. Let's take what works for Orange county and layer that in, you know, throughout our county community too. And I think that that part is a little tough to break still as well, building a unique community. But I think having, you know, physical places that are doing it is what's starting to work. People saying, I know to come to OC4, you know, monthly for Kerry's, you know, events. Those are, I think, things that are starting to work and build density. Because you just need awareness of saying other. Other people around me as well too.

That's right. And I mean, it's been interesting during COVID to see the number of people that have somewhat turned over their shoulder to look in their backyard a little bit.

Yeah.

Where, you know, what I've realized here, and I think this is a big Southern California reality, is that you have so many people in Southern California that have a global perspective on things. Because this, this is a gate, I mean, to whether it's Asia or South America, you know, or other parts of the world. This, this area of the US is just a gateway and there is just so much diversity. I'm amazed all the time at how many people will say things like, I have more contacts in Hong Kong than I have in my neighborhood, or I know more people in New York than I know in Newport beach or something. You know, it's remarkable. But I think Covid has caused some people to sort of look inward, if you want to call it that, and say, wait, there's, there's a lot of interesting people here in my community. How, how do I really cultivate that as well? Because for a long time in this country, community was one of the core four pillars of really a happy life and a fulfilled Life. And I think that's been one of the ones that's really broken down in many places. And maybe this is one of the silver linings that people will start to reinvest back into where they physically live, because that is where we spend most of our time.

Yeah, absolutely agree. I mean, I think before because of conferences being around the country and ease of hopping on a plane, our community and our own industry was at conferences and it didn't matter. And I completely agree. I think people are very much saying what's. What's right around me and Orange county being like the sixth largest county in the country.

Yeah. We'd be at. We'd be a top 20 MSA if we were our own. Our GDP. Orange County's GDP is at least in most recent couple years is just slightly larger than San Diego and just, I mean, almost identical. But. But it. That. I think that cloud or that cover is. That you mentioned is absolutely a factor in the missing identity that we're starting to think about. How do we at least create a. There is this SoCal region that I think is a big thing for us all to be tied together around, but each element of it, as you've spent time in those communities, and I have as well, that those. Those I think stitch together, but also uniquely have great individual opportunities too.

Right. Totally agree. They play together really well. Orange county being so populated, has so many industries represented.

Right.

Companies there. You know, you get the standard question, like, what is Orange County's industry, startup communities known for? All of them.

It's literally one of everything. Yeah, yeah. People come to me, they'll say, well, are there any other people doing this? And before they even finish, I'll say yes, because I guarantee you there's somebody here doing it, whatever it is.

Yeah. And it's. And it actually is an interesting blend from LA to have some of the B2C that you don't see in a lot of other communities. The gaming.

Right.

And even the consumer, just the consumer finance.

Right.

With acorns and stuff like that. It's actually really. It's a really great blend. And that means that there's a lot of talent working at those companies, which means that that talent can spin off to start something new, you hope, and build density in that every. Every little industry. So, yeah, no, I've been. I've been really excited. I spent one to two days a week last year in 2019 in Orange county, committed to every week being an OC and I miss it honestly, being up there. I miss sitting in The COVID or Evo, and even would love to come spend more time at OC4 just because, you know, it's just nice to be in another community where people realize, are starting to realize we got something here. It's early. Let's lean in, let's start building. And I love that phase of community building.

Yeah, I love it. Well, we're both committed. Let's go, you know, a little deeper. We're both committed. I mean, what is it you mentioned, you know, you love that early phase, but I, you know, that idea of inviting others in the fold, even drawing attention to them. I mean, you do it through your podcast, through your newsletter. You know, I'm trying to do some of the same where often I'm outreaching to a founder and saying, I think you have a great story. Here's a platform for you to tell it. Connecting people to know each other. What is it about all those things that you really draw fulfillment from?

I love. I love ambitious people who are acting like owners of their own domain, and I love evangelizing them because of that and not getting in their way, but saying, let me elevate you and make sure that I'm not the only one who sees you. So that's what fresh squeeze text all about is aggregation.

Right.

And saying, here, send us your news. Send us anything you're proud of. We want to make sure more people know than just me or your LinkedIn feed.

Right.

If 500 LinkedIn feed sees this, great. Right? So I like that part. I think it's actually hard to find evangelists who will evangelize others, you know, kind of carte blanche, But I think that is a gift of a good community builder. You know, that the feat that you and I have is that we will promote others kind of with no agenda, more just so that we know that others will know about them, too. There is selfishly, the little pieces that, like, if I'm the only person that can help you, like, it's going to take a lot of my time. And. And my time is valuable too.

Right.

So I need to make sure the whole community can help you. And so that part is why I do it as well.

Right.

Is the knowledge can't be lost in my brain. It's got to get unlocked. And many people have to know about this person, of what they're doing. But we need more people. We need. I'm still unlocking, like, what makes someone an amplifier, like, what makes someone consume content and say, oh, that's really cool. What makes you share that? What Makes you say, I have to tell people about this. I'm still missing that link there. And I'm learning. I'm learning trying to figure out that part. Because if we all become not just consumers, but amplifiers, we're gonna raise this even quicker and get the voices out.

It has to be authentic. Right. I mean, this, like, gamification element of it is not, I think, you know, for you and I at least try. I don't want to put words in your mouth if it's not true, but I think, you know, we want it to be real and legitimate. I mean, I try to do my part at least to say I'm gonna vet it enough that I feel like if I'm going to amplify it, I'm a supporter.

Right.

I mean, I think that's often similarly why I end up writing checks and investing into companies, because I feel like if I can't put my own money in, it's hard for me to really promote others to do so, or I'm gonna be a lot more convicted to encourage others to do so as well.

Totally agree, though. That brings up an interesting point. We can't write a check into everyone. I know.

I wish I could. I'm sure you've had that feeling as well.

Totally. But we also have to draw that line where just because we're promoting people doesn't mean we've invested in them. And vice versa, though.

That's right.

People we've invested in. You know, so there's that. That is an interesting dichotomy. And so you sometimes feel like you're playing. We're wearing different hats at different times.

Yes.

You can't wear every hat at the exact moment.

Right.

I can't put everyone in my newsletter and say, I fully back this person, but I am proud of what they're building and this community should know. And they're going to find their own sub communities because I've amplified them, you know, and that's got to be good for the Orange. For Orange County.

Yes.

So, yeah, I believe in that piece for sure. What I think the investing parts, what's interesting is it kind of came backwards for me. I was spending so much time amplifying people and getting to know people through, like, events I was hosting. Saw my own natural data points that said, okay, I've now seen you three times in three quarters. I'm seeing you're tracking up into the right. How can I get. How can I invest? How can I be involved?

Right.

So for me, it's talent spotting as well, is what's helped is like, looking at talent that's good for me for my own business for me to back, or talent that should be connected with this company. How do I help connect you? Because, you know, it's all about that.

So.

So a big part is just kind of learning to be a good talent spotter.

Yes.

Which I think is what all investors and really our CEOs, need to learn to be.

Right.

If we're writing you a check, we're expecting that money to go into hiring the best person possible.

That's right. I gotta tell you a great story. So a friend of mine who I had on Accelerate show last year, she sent me a note, so at least filtering it down a little bit. But she sent me a note last week from one of her new hires who, in the process of deciding whether to join or not, tracked down this podcast, listened to it, and was so inspired by her that he agreed to join and was super excited and even expressed his gratitude for that being out there for him to listen to. Right. And so, like, that is all I need. Right. Like that. Just that I said, well, that keeps me going for quite a while.

Absolutely. No, this is great. Keep doing what you're doing. I love these, that you have these conversations week in, week out. So now, real quick. Also, I've invested in people who I met for the first time, having them on the podcast, you know, it's a great time for them to not realize I'm, you know, vetting them to a certain regard.

Right.

And then follow up and then get to write a check afterwards too. So, yeah, it's a great vehicle. Thanks, Kerry, for what you're doing.

That's awesome. No, same thing. I think it's, you know, I get inspired by you doing the same thing. So we gotta. We're in it together. Right. So with everything going on right now, I mean, it's. I feel like that you've got a group of people, for sure, that are just sort of gripping and holding on and saying, I just need to wait it out. So much uncertainty, whether it's economy, their job, you know, we've got these uncertain political environments, you know, what, what. What are you saying to startups or entrepreneurs or others right now to just sort of orient them to how they should be thinking?

It's been phases during COVID already. I would say in the beginning, month to two months, it was like very capital kind of conversations.

Right.

It was very much saying. People were scrambling to say, should I. I need a raise now? If I'm going to survive this or I'm not. Because immediately businesses were impacted so they had to make kind of longer term decisions. And so you've seen that widen even more. You've seen the divergence of companies doing really well or companies not doing well. And at this point if they aren't doing well, I think they've probably shut potentially or know they will be. And so what I'm doing to talk to founders is help them figure out kind of for the ones who aren't doing well. You know, let's start having conversations around what is next for you Already is there M and A. Can we introduce you to a bunch of people who can help tell you about how to wind down, shut down or sell or Aqua Hire, you know, if you're super early. Aqua Hire still absolutely an option. So there's definitely a bulk of that that we're spending time on. There's the groups are doing really well and saying and getting a little wild eye and saying should we go raise a bunch of capital now and probably accelerate what we were doing? And so we're having the kind of bringing them down to earth conversations to say, you know, this environment is not forever, but maybe, but maybe the industry you're in is if you are in kind of this a new virtual meeting space, like you may have something that will never slow down for sure. So it's kind of a grounding for everyone. You know, I think everyone's feeling a little manic, a little still like, you know, on edge. But for the talent that is interested in starting or maybe have started and shut down and start the next, it's a really interesting time right now. It's very much like I have a little bit more time on my own destiny because I'm home and I'm not commuting. What can I be doing incrementally to start validating an idea? How do we spark that and how do we go and test that and say here's your pool, your audience. How could you do that virtually without doing it physically? Maybe so there's kind of three different buckets that I'm seeing of the groups that, that we're helping out a lot and having a lot of conversations with the other whole area is the people who are physically moving. They're moving from the bay or somewhere else, but a lot from the bay right now.

Well that gets back to that like onboarding. You know, there have been some people show at a conversation yesterday with someone who's been here for a while and realizing I really like it. Here, but I don't know anybody here yet. And so it's that whole how do, how do you create that onboarding opportunity?

And I'm finding those, a lot of those are starting from Twitter. A lot of people are saying, new from sf, just landed in Newport Beach. Anyone else around kind of thing, or even before thinking of moving, gonna spend two weeks here, two weeks there, two weeks there. And just joining in the Twitter conversation is enough to start, right? Just saying like, hey, SoCal local here, how can we help? Like send a DM real quick that says, hey, love to give you 20 minutes of my time to help orient you on what's going on around you. So I'm finding Twitter is definitely like the starting point right now for a lot of people. It's because they're not showing up physically anywhere. So I'm spending a lot of time there and saying, get connected. And then tagging other people, saying, hey, these three people also are here too. Did you know that? So that's kind of interesting, watching people move. And they're moving and starting. They're staying with their company potentially, but they're gonna, they're gonna, they can move anywhere they want.

Right.

But now they want to be closer to family or whatever, the beach or something. So that's another chunk of people are spending a good amount of time with and just helping them get integrated. Because once we get back to physical events, we want them to come out, we want them to show up and feel immediately connected. So, yeah, I love working with everyone right now, but it's definitely very manic still. Like, I've never been busier, you know, and luckily I'm not driving, so the commute time's gone, but now I've filled up the drive time with calls.

That's right. Yeah, that's what I found. I've done the exact same thing.

Yeah.

So as you think about, you know, the next. If people here that listen to Accelerate show are thinking, what can I do to be more of a connector, more of a community builder, more of a contributor? What suggestions would you have for them?

So there's a few roles you have when you can give back to the community. There is quick kind of one off conversations you can have where you can dispense some knowledge and help people either learn about an industry that they want to get into. And so you can do that in like an office, off, open office hours environment, you know, giving an hour of your time, meet with three people, 20 minutes each and just say, hey, happy to give information out about you Want to break into blank company or break into industry? I think startup founders always could. Would love to learn more about how to break into big entities and big businesses. Another step is mentoring. And mentoring is a longer term commitment. Once you've done a few of those office hours where you will give 20 minutes to a few bunch of people, maybe after that you say hey, I really liked one of those persons and I will now dedicate, you know, over a longer period of time, check in points with that person and what it could be for something very specific like someone just needs to learn how to break. They want to sell directly to, you know, Houzz and you've worked at Houzz for three years, like help them right over a little bit of time, just give them advice or something like that. So mentorship is another piece. Another part is join one of the advisory boards for one of the organizations in town and so help them, help guide them and understand them and give light but also be exposed to a bunch of either entrepreneurs or community members of that way. So get join, you know, the COVID Evo Nexus's screening committee, one of those where you can give back but also learn about what's going on in their respective community. And then and those are kind of the main things that come to mind. I think those are easy things to do without over committing yourself, you know, but at the same time you'll give information while also learning about a new community that, that you didn't think existed. So yeah, those are very good.

Those are great, great actionable points. So very good. How do you keep yourself sharp and keep yourself on the front edge of things?

It's talent spotting. I look for the people who are the best at or the smartest at what I don't know. And I try to learn from them. Some of that involves there's two areas. One, there's people who've done it many, many times and I love obviously gleaning from them and they've been at it for a while and then there's the people who are solely focused on learning it right now. So for me this area, maybe angel investing, I want to go learn at who is 100% full time angel investor right now and is doing it just on doing way more cycles than I am because for me it's a bit part time. So I want to go and like glide from them almost be like a, what do they call a pilot fish alongside a shark. I learned that actually expression from Howard Lindsin where you know, you want to find the bigger fish and Swim with them and you'll catch some scraps, right? You'll, you'll learn from them. So yeah, there's a bit of that. And you can do that digitally, you can do that in person, you can do that through your network, you know, asking people, I'm looking for the big fish in the blank. There's a multitude of ways, but you have to kind of learn also how you take in information. For me, it's very hands on learning. I really only learn hands on. I'm not good at gleaning from a course, not a great student. I have to go and try it, bang my head against the wall and figure out my own way forward. So that usually involves like trying pieces of it and learning who's doing this really well every day and day out. So that works for me.

That's, I think a great, great again, piece of advice. So much, so much good stuff in this discussion. So we're getting down to the end here, Neil. One of the things I always like to end with is that final. You've had so many but that final piece of advice or key lesson that you've learned along the way. So if you were thinking about early entrepreneurs right now that are trying to figure out how do I drive forward, what advice or lesson would you love to impart with them?

We are all victims of like perfection. We all wait to start and that could be starting at the whole company or starting a new initiative or starting a new conversation with someone. We just got to jump and start it. We just got to try. You just got to put your toe in the water and see that it isn't fire. And that goes for everything. We're very much just as humans like risk averse and we'll shy away from things. So there's a great quote that someone said last year at Startup San Diego, San Diego, Startup Week that said you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. And I love that. Like I just got chills even hearing it again. Yes, you just got to try and whatever that means, that could be in anything you're doing. But if you're waiting to have that conversation with someone because you want to have like a product to show, don't tell them about your idea, just start pitching, just start talking about it and your pitch will iterate. So many times goes the same. Not just entrepreneurs, I think investing too. I think we could be spurring up a whole new generation of angel investors right now who could be writing $1,000 checks way sooner. Than they think they could. Not everyone has 10 25k checks that they can write. But how could you learn to be an angel investor by just writing a few $1,000. Just try it and determine what do you look for in companies. It actually might help you pitch investors to be on the other side.

Right.

Learn that side. So just get started. You know, in everything we're doing, today is the best day to start it. That's for sure.

Yes. So good. So good. Thank you so much, Neil, for finally joining. We're gonna have to do this as a regular recurring segment. Maybe we do a crossover or something. And I'd love that. You know, there's, there's, I think there's just so much about this journey and, you know, I may steal that triad of entrepreneur, investor, community, builder, because those are really the pillars that I think I also tend to really lean on day to day. And so your perspective, your wisdom, so incredible, so valuable to me. So I thank you. If I'm the only one that listens to this, I am so grateful that I know the community around accelerated show will greatly appreciate it as well. Thanks for coming up to Orange county and really investing here and sharing all the lessons and things that you've learned. And hopefully we can continue to invest into you as well. You're doing your part to accelerate around here, so thanks for all you do.

Thanks, Kerry. No, I think it's on us to find more people like us in other communities, but also in our own cities. Like, we have to find early ecosystem entrepreneurs, as I'm calling it.

Right.

People who don't just want to build companies, want to build community. So let's keep sharing notes on that. Let's find the next leaders, let's empower them, let's bring them on the show. You know, and you know, it takes a village, so let's, if we're going to be building that village, might as well build it with people we want to work with. So I appreciate everything you're doing and loves me building alongside you as well.

Awesome. We'll talk soon.

Thank.

You.

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