Betsy Brennan talks with Neal Bloom about running his portfolio companies through the pandemic. He discusses which startups pivoted or got acquired, how remote recruiting changed hiring, and why he built virtual communities on Clubhouse when in-person downtown gatherings stopped.
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Hi, downtown San Diego Partnership members. I'm Betsy Brennan, President and CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership. Thank you for joining us for the next episode of Convos Over Coffee where we get to know DSDP members from a variety of industries, how they're adapting and what excites them about the future of downtown San Diego. Today we are chatting with intrapreneur investor community builder Neil Blum. He's also the CEO of Rising Tide Partners, among many other things we'll get into today. Hi Neil. Welcome to Convos over Coffee.
Hey Betsy, thanks for having me.
Thanks for being here. So how is it going for you personally? What things have you been up to?
Man, it's been a crazy year for all of us and you know, it's in certain sense I'm busier because I feel like I've stuffed all the one hour meetings into 30 minute meetings, you know, over zoom. And in other sense I've had some focus, you know, less driving and more doing. So it's been a wild year. I really miss downtown. I've been working downtown San Diego since 2013, so first time that I really didn't spend much time there at all in quite a while.
We can't wait to have you back and you know, as more people are vaccinated, hopefully we'll, we can slowly and safely open up even more of downtown. What have been some of the impacts to your investments or your business this past year?
So I spend most of my time in the tech world and tech had a pretty big divergence. You saw companies do amazingly well because of this rapid virtualization and you saw many rapidly not do well. And so companies either did really well or really bad. And so immediately it was helping the companies that weren't doing great find either a pivot or a safe landing. So helped a lot of companies with that. Some, you know, got rolled up into other companies or a few shut down. A few got kind of an acquihire or just a straight out acquisition. So that was a lot of the early pandemic timeframe. And then what came after that, maybe because we were helping so many companies, is that we got a lot of outreach of hey, help us with our rapid growth and so ramped up the investing on the companies that were really doing well and riding the wave of this pandemic, which it sucks to say that people are doing so well off of it when so many people are not doing great. But the hope is that we're working on companies that really do have an impact on majority, a good impact and hopefully either give us better access to tools, access to resources for our own businesses or things like that. So that's one area I also with Rising Tide Partners, we do a large part of our work is communications in the economic development space. And so we helped and advised a lot of city governments on what could they be doing to provide resources for their small businesses, the ones most impacted. And so we ramped up content creation, storytelling in a multitude of ways. You know, audio, video, written, short form and long form. And while primarily most of them that we're specifically helping are in the north county area, we're seeing that it's in the downtowns of north county. You know, of the Escondidos, the vistas, that those were the ones, the companies in those downtowns that really needed the most help and access to resources. So we've spent a lot of time on that of just distributing the content to make sure everyone knows where to go to get help.
That's really great. Mayor Gloria has a back to work San Diego task force. I'm chair of the business subcommittee and I think we'd love to invite you. I know I'd love to invite you to come talk a little bit more to our committee and how we can better support businesses in San Diego. We've been working diligently on this committee since May and there's just so much more to do and I can't wait to have you there and engage in a dialogue with, with a really diverse group and many different perspectives. So can't wait to have you there. And what are you finding in the tech community as far as opportunities? Are they geographic or are they sector based or are you seeing more international growth? What's happening with opportunities in tech?
So there's kind of twofold of where growth is happening. Growth is on their own sales and then also on the talent side. And talent is a bit of a throttle on growth. And so immediately we saw a lot of companies jump to remote work anywhere in the world. Right. We just got to fill our seats. And so that happened. Right. A lot of people just said, I'm just going to go recruit anywhere. And then I've since seen a pullback on that. Not necessarily a pullback, but this mentality that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I still do want to build up a workforce in San Diego. So that's one thing that's been great to see and hear is that while people are recruiting heavily, there is always this, yes, well, you can work anywhere you want, but we would Love and will incentivize you to come to San Diego where we are based. So that's great to see. And as they're growing their companies on the backs of great talent, obviously sales are coming with that as the products get out, especially ones that are relevant even more so today. And so what we see is a bit of a double down in the businesses that help small businesses virtualize or help people connect to consumer products. And that seems to be still pretty US focused. I think people who were in the US before have stayed focused on the US because it already is a brand new dynamic in the US on how to sell and the consumer spendings and so the multiplier difficulty of going to internationals even more so like how different it is now to sell into there. So I don't think we've seen too much of a change in terms of geographic selling, just more where the town's coming from and so on the sales itself as well. I think we're also seeing just consumer spending habits change, which also floats into a lot of the San Diego companies which are B2B focused. So, so what you see is companies who primarily were selling business to business, they're kind of relooking at could we sell directly to the consumer? Again, which is actually kind of the opposite you see in tech. Usually a lot of tech companies say let's try B2C first, let's go direct to consumer. And then they find it's really hard to do that. It's really expensive to go acquire your direct consumer. So you pivot and you go to business and you try to sell these enterprise deals, high ticket but to less customers. Well, I think I'm seeing companies go back to the B2C process and see can we try that again. So that's an interesting new trend that we're watching.
That is. That's really interesting. And what about you? Where are you finding community? Maybe you can tell us a little bit about some of the time we've spent together on Clubhouse. But I'm sure there's a lot of other ways that you're finding community too.
Yeah. So pre Pandemic, I have a very much an in person community feel and vibe. I've hosted on average about nine dinners a quarter for groups of entrepreneurs in three different cities. San Diego, Orange county and actually Santa Barbara. And so all those rapidly had to move to virtual environments. And so we've maintained that, which has been great. And actually right after this I'm bringing together a group of Orange County CTOs to just share Notes about what's it like building, being a tech leader in your community. So that virtual piece is continued. Luckily, we haven't been too burnt out on virtual happy hours with groups of small 20. But the piece that I really miss is San Diego Startup Week, which has been downtown since 2013, always in the summer and last year we had to go to virtual, so 3,000 of us didn't get to see each other. And we went online in October, which was fantastic. But we still miss each other. So what I've found are smaller groups popping up that are more frequent. So instead of once or twice a year Startup Week, we're now moved to weekly San Diego Startup chat on Clubhouse, this audio only platform right now, unfortunately only for iPhone. But weekly we've had very consistent groups of people, about 60 to 70 people showing up and just chatting about what's it like to build and grow a community, a startup in the San Diego community. So I'm seeing more frequent for curated communities is what it seems like. And I think we're still lacking the real high touch curated communities for everyone. I think we need to see more of that. I think we're all used to kind of the big banquet style, the great downtown partnership dinners that you guys throw. Those have kind of had gone quiet and so small get togethers, virtual curated for your peer group. I'm still kind of waiting to see more of those pop up. So I'd love to start more of those. And I think Clubhouse is one way that we're starting that. Betsy, I know you've been jumping in, joining weekly. What are you taking away from that conversation that happens on a weekly basis?
I get a lot of energy and enthusiasm from them, especially a lot of the people sort of starting out their career and taking that plunge into startups. I mean, that's a pretty brave thing to do. And the community there is so supportive of them and giving them resources and connections and following up on that. It's not just talk. And I think that's really unique and special to San Diego. There's a lot of people willing to give you numbers and names and contacts and I really enjoyed it. So thank you for that idea and in having it bloom. So kind of like rising tides. I mean, rising tides will lift all ships. Right. And I can't wait to keep working with you on, on that and a lot of other things too.
Yeah, I think, I think just real quick on that. Just the diverse voices that are joining in there has been great. Right. People who haven't even aren't haven't even moved to San Diego yet, but are like, huh, I'm willing to check it out. Like you said, people who are at a career transition, that's something that you actually can track in every either downturn or just like major catastrophe. Unfortunately, that when you already have to grapple with change, you open yourself up to a lot of change. And so people will go through like, relationship change, career change, like geographic living change, all at the same time, which is fascinating. They'll just kind of take the leap, rip the band aid off. And so it's a really actually interesting time to see a whole new, you know, generation of entrepreneurs start out during the pandemic over the last year.
That's great. And we are doing some small group things with the partnership too, and they've been great. I've learned all sorts of things about board members I've known for years and are just learning these things because we have the opportunity to kind of have more intimate, smaller groups and conversations too, and that's been great. The final question for you today is you talked about missing downtown and we each have our little cups here, but if you, you had the opportunity to have something special in that cup or visit a special restaurant or brewery, what are you missing the most about downtown?
I have so many favorite coffee shops downtown. So, you know, like from West Bean to Lofty to Copa Vita, Papa Leco, like, I'm really missing all of them just because it reminds me of one, the different neighborhoods and two, how accessible and how close they all are and you can just walk to that next meeting there with them. So that's one, you know, I'm really missing. Just being able to pop in and out of those downtown works, you know, is another place where I've had many coffees and really is where we've been headquartered for quite a while. And so I miss being there and being with so many other companies who are working. And lastly, you know, I didn't mean to represent them, but Snake Oil. I really love the guys, the whole team there and checking out a movie with Symphony out on the water. I've done every Harry Potter to date until it was cut off last year, I think at movie seven or eight. And you know, I'm missing that. I really, really. That was like a twice a year thing. I love to look forward to, to have some cocktail Symphony in Harry Potter.
Well, that Symphony shell is gorgeous and it's gonna be beautiful and it's gonna come roaring back around September. So we'll have to meet there and do a movie or something?
Absolutely. Yeah. It.
Yeah, it's amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today and your dedication in downtown San Diego, the region, and actually all of California. If you would like to reach Neil, you can find his contact information and email for this video. We look forward to seeing you all next time as we have a conversation over coffee with another one of the Downtown San Diego Partnership's members. Stay safe, stay strong, and thank you for your commitment to our organization and the economic prosperity and cultural vitality of downtown.
