Neal Bloom How to go from grass roots to great event
Neal Bloom, a Startup San Diego board member, talks about growing the organization from a 2013 grassroots event with 10 gatherings and 250 attendees to 275 events drawing 3,000+ people by 2017. He covers founding experience, the EvoNexus incubator, investor partnerships, and expanding beyond tech into craft beverage and biotech.
Questions this video answers
startupsd.org
About 10 events and 250–300 attendees.
About 275 events and over 3,000 attendees.
Over 15,000 subscribers.
Hi, welcome to Startup Show San Diego, a TV show about startup companies. I'm your host Tony Boucher and we're here during Startup Week and at our HQ WeWork Co working space. And today I'm here with one of the board members of Startup San Diego, Neil Bloom. Neal, thanks for being here man.
Thanks for having us.
So Neil, what was it that really got you into startups?
Yeah, so when I graduated college I immediately went and worked in the aerospace industry for five years. Worked on the space shuttle, pretty fun. But it was a big giant corporation and I found I was constantly disrupting little things within the company. Started to read up on a lot of startup companies that were growing right around 2009, 2010 timeframe, and eventually started my own software business. And this was in Los Angeles. We started looking around who could help us, me and my co founder get off the ground. We were first time founders. We really had no resources besides reading blogs. We really needed some mentors and so we started reading about what resources were in the region. We found Evo Nexus, an incubator here in San Diego and we applied, actually the only incubator we applied to and the second we got in, I quit my job that day, moved from Los Angeles to San Diego and lived on my co founder's couch for about two months. And that was my injection right into the San Diego startup scene back in 2013.
Well here we are in 2017, a couple years later now. So how has Startup San Diego became from the genesis to now? What has happened?
Yeah, back in 2013 when I first got here, it didn't even exist. So for sure it's changed a lot in that sense. That first year 2013, a group of US founders in Evo Nexus and a few just graduated EVO Nexus founders came together and said there are a few random events that happen throughout the year that we like, but it would be really nice if they happened simultaneously so we could get larger participation, add a little bit of fun to it as well. So maybe some mentorship, some pub crawl kind of events and a bit more resource heavy things for first time founders. And so that was the first Startup Week was back in 2013 that we participated in and it was 10 events over three days or so, maybe 250, 300 attendees. All just founders of companies.
Right.
So these are people who were mostly first time founders who just needed to come together and learn from each other. I think in those four years since our focus has definitely broadened, our audience has definitely broadened and the region has come to us saying, we want more.
So back in 2013, you said you had 10 tracks, 10 events, 10 events and only 2, 300 people. Now, what are we at this year?
This year, we're at 275 events.
Wow.
So we have more events than people attended the first year and over 3,000 attendees this year.
That's incredible. And even though being a startup company, I know it might be hard to get funding or to get people's attention here, so was there a way that you kind of overcame that?
Yeah, in the first years, it was almost all the conversations were around how to get funding.
Right.
And it was a little bit in a vacuum. We were. We were saying, other entrepreneurs were saying, here's how I got funding.
Right.
But it took us a while to realize we need the guys who are writing the guys and girls who are writing checks to be in the room also saying, here's how we fund startups too. So over the years, we've started to collaborate a lot more with angel investors and venture capitalists and having them side by side with us on panels, at events, as our keynotes. And so, yeah, we've added a lot more of them to just kind of collaborating with them throughout the week to create that content to. To make sure it's coming right from their mouth, right to the entrepreneur's ears.
Wow, that's incredible. So, I mean, just to see how it's all came about and where it's going. What was your favorite event this week during Startup Week?
I think the Crawl always, every year, is my favorite event, because you just see in other people's eyes when they actually see someone else's space for the first time. It's kind of like seeing is believing.
Right.
Like, you hear that there's 100 plus software companies in downtown.
Right.
And you may not know who they are, but when you actually see, like, oh, whoa, there's the control group. Oh, whoa, there's Classy's office. All of a sudden, you have this image in your head where you can conceptualize this is where people are spending their time and spending all of their hours of their day trying to create a great company. And so it's really kind of catalyzing event to actually see where people are, because you're like, I can picture myself here too.
Right.
And so you get students who are like, oh, my God, I don't want to leave San Diego. Or you get others who say, I want to move here just to work at these companies. So that Seeing as Believing piece is always pretty cool.
Yeah. And I mean, we can even see how Startup San Diego is getting involved in the community and bringing it together. So I mean, we've seen kind of throughout the week and also in the past how you guys have been a real key part in the community. How do people reach out? How do people get involved in that too?
Yeah, so we have a website, startupsd.org, that you can join our newsletter. Over 15,000 strong now have joined and just are getting the information that we're putting on. I think a lot of it has been word of mouth. I mean the community, this event started as just an event and it was the community that helped put it on.
Right.
It's by the community, for the community, financially venue wise resources, the speakers, everyone is putting it together for themselves in a sense. And so that word of mouth has grown significantly to the point that we've added other industries in it.
Right.
Like we've brought in the craft beverage industry, the biotech industry, even industries across the border in Baja, Mexico. And so it's been so far a very grassroots kind of word of mouth effort of how we've grown this audience. What we'd really like to continue doing is have a year round presence.
Right.
We don't want to only be known for putting on a great week.
We.
And so we've added content throughout the year. So we do monthly mentor hours, we do quarterly career fairs, making sure our companies get the talent that they need. And then we do twice a year content based weeks. So we do Startup Week in June and then we do a mini version of it in late January called Convergence. And a big focus is getting students involved. So we want K12 and universities to see what we're up to because usually they're out of school ready by this time though we have over 700 students here this week. So yeah, a big thing is just growing the audience base and making sure people realize we're not just trying to create content just for the founder of the company. Now it's that plus all the employees, their investors, their customers. How do we make sure that everyone is learning and growing the region together?
Yeah, man, that is incredible. So what are you looking forward to most next year? Being said, all these cool events are happening. I know there's a lot, but do you have something you're really excited for next year?
Honestly, the professionalism every year just keeps growing. So I'm really looking forward to just the product we're going to create next year.
Right.
Like we have really documented the process of putting on a great event. We have some amazing leaders who have come in now a few years in a row to help us put this on. So, you know, it's next year starts next week. And what I'm really excited about is everyone coming together saying, this is what we did well. This is what we could improve on. Let's make an amazing product. And so I'm just pretty stoked about next year already, just from how well this week went. Yeah.
And even then, those who can't wait until next year, you have mentorships, you have other events going on. So, once again, what was the website where people can go and find out more about that? Startupsd.org startupsd.org okay, Neil, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.
Tony, thanks for having me.
And thank you all for watching.
It.
