Steve Beck - Managing Partner at Serra Ventures

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And welcome back to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom. We are live at the Nest coworking podcast studio with Steve Beck, managing partner at Sara Ventures. Thanks for being here.

It's wonderful to be here. Thanks for having me, Neal.

And we got a whole crew. This is fantastic. We got Al Bashira from Seismic Angel Investing as well. And Amy Chang, entrepreneur investor as well.

Hello.

Howdy.

We got a whole crew of entrepreneurs and investors. This is a beautiful thing. But, Steve, we want to get to know you a bit. So we got three people who are going to fire away questions at you under the hot lights.

Wonderful. I can't wait. I'm kind of narcissistic, so that'll be perfect for me. I love the attention. Yeah.

Do you want to give us A quick line about what Sara Ventures is.

Yeah. Sara Ventures is a early stage venture fund focused on information technology and ag tech. Founded out of Champaign, Illinois office in Chicago. And then I'm the West coast representative. 90 million AUM. We've got about 85 portfolio companies. So it's pretty fun.

Yeah, that's awesome. How long have you been in San Diego?

I've been in San Diego six years because my wife came down here to become a doctor through a midlife crisis and dragged me down here from Silicon Valley. So, yeah. So I'm here to support her and her career and journey and it's been awesome. I've fallen in love with the town.

What was she before the midlife be a doctor crisis?

She was a stay at home mom. Rolled over in bed at 43 one morning and said, hey, honey, would you support me becoming a doctor? And I ran a quick, you know, spreadsheet and I thought you got to support her because she's been so supportive of your journey and she'll certainly not do it. So I said, yeah, I'm all in, honey. She pulled it off.

That's amazing.

What a student.

Yeah. That's incredible. So she came here for like residency.

Came here for residency and now is a family practice doctor at Kaiser. And I'm just telling her, do not bring the coronavirus home. Seriously.

We've got San Diego, We've got some cases now.

That's what I heard.

Scary.

Yeah.

Well, you spent some time in Silicon Valley before, but you're not from there originally, right?

I grew up in the Bay Area.

Oh, you did?

Yep. Born and raised in the Bay Area.

What part?

Oakland, in the Oakland Hills. My father was a corporate counsel for a publicly traded company in San Francisco called Louisiana Pacific Fiber Board. My mom was a travel agent and hung out kind of, you know, in the. It was in the 60s and 70s, so it was kind of like sandlot, if you've ever seen the movie. That was my childhood. We did crazy things. I remember taking our Stingray bike when I was like maybe 9, 10 years old. No parent approval. Riding with my buddies through the Oakland hills, up into Berkeley, through Tilden park to Richmond, California. No water bottles, no helmets, no cell phones. It was a different time to live, but it was super fun being a kid.

Did you stay in the Bay Area the entire time up until you moved to San Diego?

Until I went to Cal Poly. I went away to college at Cal Poly and got stuck there for 13 years.

San Luis Obispo or Pomona?

San Luis Obispo. Oprah says it's the happiest place on earth. And I really it there. And that's where I kind of got serious about entrepreneurship.

What was your first company?

Well, my first serious company was a skateboard mail order company. If there's a few people listening that are old enough, they might remember ccs. It turned out to be the largest action sports retailer globally. Eventually sold the foot locker for $110 million. And I started on a whim. I was managing a surf shop in college while I was working my way through college. And I used to be a competitive skateboarder during the Dogtown era, believe it or not. And I came to the owners and I said, I got this idea for a mailer company and they gave me ten grand to start the business. And it was a rocket ship. Absolute unbelievable. I got so many stories. No computers back in those days. I mean, we're talking about.

I was gonna say this is before E Commerce, right?

Yeah. This was 1985. It was named California Cheapskates. That was the name. We used to have a 1,800line. It would ring California Cheapskates and then someone would give us a $200 order. Send me a Duane Peters with Independent Truck. We'd write it down as quickly as we could and then we'd hang the phone up. It would ring immediately. As soon as you put it down, pick it back up, California ChiefSkates. And then send me a Steve Olson. You'd write the order and then we'd eventually just unplug the phone, run around and figure out what we had. And it grew into a 46 line phone bank, 24 hours. It was a crazy business. But my big error as an entrepreneur there is I never papered my agreement with the surf shop owners. We agreed to do an ownership split, but when it took off, they cut me out.

What?

Yeah. I never made a dollar.

Oh, you're kidding.

It was a very interesting life lesson. It's just a 23 year old kid just going for it, you know, that seems so wrong. It's all worked out. It's okay. It's all worked out. I actually think it would have probably ruined me to have made that much money that young. I don't think I was ready for it. So maybe it was God's mercy in my life.

Interesting.

Yeah. Interesting journey.

That was in slo.

That was in San Luis Obispo. Yeah.

Cool. And what'd you do? Did you stay all the way through acquisition?

No, I left slightly before acquisition.

Okay.

Yep.

And what was next for you?

Well, there's some hidden years in my life very few people know about, so I'm going to be upfront with you. I became a church planter.

Okay.

A church planner. A church planner, Yeah. I grew up in a very strong atheistic home and I had kind of a dramatic conversion to Christianity as a teenager. Came to know Christ and that kind of carried with me all these years. But what happened was I started a Bible study at the beach and it turned into a church of surf kids, turned into a surf church, and I gave that away. Then I started a. A skateboard church. We built a big ramp. And then I eventually started two more. Started four churches. That was an eight year period of my life. Went to Fuller Seminary and the very last church I started, one of the guys in my church said, hey, let's start a tech company. I get bored after three or four years. I'd like give it away and do the next thing. And so we started a tech company in his room. And that turned out being a good exit for me.

I'm curious, have you ever asked God to have something in your portfolio?

I'm not sure how much it helps.

But Amy has a story of asking for her first exit.

Yeah. The second time I had a positive outcome for my portfolio is because two days I was driving to my car and I basically said, hey, God, if you could have something in my portfolio exit, that would be amazing. Then I'll take the money and I'll join TCA and reinvest it in more startups. Then two days later, I got an email while I was in Memphis, Tennessee, offering to buy my shares back.

Wow. Actually, I've got a story. I'll be very brief with it, but we started this company in the guy's bedroom called Beyond News. And we received a $50,000 investment from LexisNexis. Just a little seed investment to get this. It was a news. It was a client software news push service. So you would. This is people. Unless you're an ancient dinosaur, you don't even know what this stuff is. But there used to be something called pointcast and you would. I want to follow these sports teams and I want to know the weather in these cities and I want. And it would get pushed to your desktop. And we did that, but we added professional channels from LexisNexis and we ran out of money and we had to go get work. And we were all sitting around. We decided that if we don't get funding by this date, we set a date on the calendar. We're Going to just walk away. And I said, guys, how about we just, we've tried everything we know. Why don't we write a letter and just acknowledge we've done everything we know how to do and if somehow this thing works out, we'll always remember that God helped us.

Was it like a Dear God letter?

It was. I got the letter. I could show it to you. It's in my office. We all signed it, all three of us. The very last day we were to shut down, the doorbell rang and a guy was standing at the door, handed us a $200,000 check, said, Hey, I just felt like I should come over here and invest in your company. I'm not sure what you're doing. Tell me what I'm investing in. That's honestly what happened.

Wow.

24 months later, his $200,000 was worth $20 million. We sold the company to a publicly traded company called Ink to me in the Valley. And I think they acquired it for 137,500,000 in the stock. During that crazy era, they acquired us at a 3 billion market cap and it went up to 28 billion market cap while we were there. So that guy just kept riding it. I sold. I'm like, get me out of this thing.

Yeah. But maybe that guy was driving around in his car going, hey, God, could I have an exit in my portfolio?

And it benefited you too.

It's a weird topic, but I tell you, it really happened. And I still keep the letter meaningful to me. And it was a really interesting learning experience, that whole journey with Beyond News.

Wow. Yeah, Interesting.

Awesome. You guys have some high level contracts going on there.

So my prayer for this year was for God to bless me beyond my wildest dreams. Like, I have no idea what that's going to look like.

But going big.

Yeah, because you're supposed to go bold, right? So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

Well, someone says that if you are blessed, you're blessed to be a blessing. So, you know, I was fortunate enough to retire at 40, and I've been working for another 18 years, very hard actually, as an investor. And my primary motive is it's just such an honor. It really is an amazing honor to be able to serve young entrepreneurs and help them try to succeed and experience some of the joys I've experienced and to also just be lifted up by the intelligence, the energy, and participate in amazing things like what you're doing Al, or have done. And I don't know about your business. Yet, but I hope to learn. But it's fun. It's an amazing industry to be a part of. I couldn't imagine not being an entrepreneur.

So I'm curious. I believe that angel investing has to do with the parable of the talents, because God told the. Well, God didn't. It's the parable where the master had like three servants and he was going to take a trip and so he gave one 10 talents and five talents and then like two talents or one talent. And then the guy with the 10 talents went off and he like invested it, doubled his money, and came back. And the master said, you know, well done, my good and faithful servant. The guy with the five came back, he doubled it. Well done, my good faithful servant. The guy with the one talent went and buried it in a hole. And then he said, I was trying to preserve your capital for you. And then he got ripped a new one in my brain. There's something about the parable of the talents where we're supposed to go and invest whatever we have for the greater good of the community. Now, I think I've gone a little too far and invested too much. But the reality is you look at the capital that you have and you start thinking, but I could put this capital to good use in a company. You're helping to make some founders dreams come true. And. And then not only that, it's going to create innovation in your own city and then that's going to fuel growth and create jobs. And this is good for your whole economy. Right. And so when you start thinking that way, it's kind of hard to just sit on cash. Right. I don't know. What's your perspective?

Yeah, well, I have a lot of conviction around what you're saying. The interesting thing about the famous parable of the talents is that the one person who didn't provide return was afraid.

Right?

He was afraid. And you can't be afraid and be an entrepreneur. So I think you're right. I think entrepreneurship, matter of fact, I think entrepreneurship's almost an illness. I mean, if you're going to be a good entrepreneur, you're going to be irrationally optimistic. You are going to be unwisely tenacious. There's several qualities that aren't actually great qualities all the time, but you have to believe and you have to go for it and do it. My partner sold his home to make payroll in our company. He sold his home to make payroll. And if he hadn't, I'm not even sure I'd be here talking with you guys, right now, it might be a different story. I'd just be another guy washed up. So that's why I have humility about the good things that have been able to come. I'm grateful because I realize there's a lot of smarter people, harder working people that are more deserving for better outcomes than possibly me. But I'm certainly grateful. But yeah, being a part of entrepreneurship is such a dynamic. I tell people being a venture capitalist is the best job in the world. It's very hard to become one. You got to have some good fortune or be profoundly smart or however you do it. But how wonderful to really innovate and change and do exciting things versus sitting in corporate meetings drooling in the corner, you know, like wanting to put a fork in your head. I mean, you've done that, right?

I think we've all been here.

I've done that totally. But I really respect founders and also the other angel investors because to me, these are the people that are willing to take a risk, right? Like a pretty big risk. And so that really resonates with me.

Not much risk for me as an investor, I can pretty much guarantee no.

But mine is my personal money. This is a huge risk.

No, I write my own checks as well and I'm invested in my own funds and I have my own portfolio of startup companies. But venture math does work. I mean, if you do 10 or more deals and you're somewhat good, you're going to get your IRR that is going to be as good as the S&P 500 better. It's the entrepreneur that has a challenge.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah. Because, you know, we know that about 60, 70% of the deals are not going to perform. It's going to take five years to find out. And so if you do the math, you could be really smart and really good and not have good fortune and, you know, burn 15 years and then turn around and realize you've sacrificed a lot of wage earning potential in the corporate world. It's tough being an entrepreneur.

What point did you actually think you want to be an investor? Was there an actual epiphany or you were just looking forward to it?

Well, so when I exited this company, I eventually exited, which we haven't talked about, was C2B. I sold it to Ink to me and I did my one year. Handcuffs ran out the door. The day it was over. I couldn't do one more corporate meeting. It was just acid to my soul. And some people, that works. I mean, different strokes, you know, But Anyway, me and my buddies, I called them and I said, hey, I've been doing a few investments. My other partners were doing some. I said, why don't we just get together and put our portfolios together and do this together? So we formed a small venture fund of $25 million. It was all our own money, and there were four partners, and we just collaborated. It was just natural. But I didn't know what I was doing. Honestly, I didn't. I remember getting a hold of our attorney, going to his office and explain to me what, you know, what's liquidation preference? You know, I mean, he would sit there and he would teach me. I was a speech major at Cal Poly. I knew nothing, you know.

So do you want to talk through that company a little bit more that you said?

Not really, no. I'll just say one thing about it that is kind of funny. Part of the story we started beyond news. You heard, you heard about that company was a push, new service. We eventually got an investment from Draper, Fisher Jurvetson for 2.2 million. Tim Draper sat on the board. We became friends with John Fisher and Steve Jurvetson. It was a small firm back then. And what happened is we had just. We were in stealth mode. That's when you used to release software, you know, on a disk. And we were in stealth mode and we were building this thing out. And then all of a sudden, Microsoft and Netscape announced push channels resident in their browser for free. And before we even released our code, released our product, we were out of business. So we had burned through some money. We had 1.6 million left. We sat in a room with a whiteboard and we threw up over a week. 60 ideas. What could we now do? 60 completely new businesses. And we picked one out of 60.

Wow.

And we went over to Tim Draper in our board meeting. He goes, so, what's going on? We go, well, we're out of business. These guys gave away our product for free. And it's better than what we built, but we got 1.6 million. We could just return it to you if you want it. We'll give it back to him. But we have an idea. What's your idea? We said, well, there's this thing we think is going to happen called E Commerce. We think people are going to buy stuff on the Internet and we want to build an E Commerce engine. We want to crawl everything that's for sale on the Internet, make it searchable and sortable by price. And he's like, yes, let's just do that. Let's go for that. So this was before the word pivot ever existed. And that's the business that worked. Eighteen months later, we sold it.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

And what was the brand?

C2B. C2B. So, yeah, C2B tech. It became Yahoo Shopping eventually.

Oh, wow.

Ink, to me, bought it, and then Yahoo bought it.

What time frame was that?

Well, Inktomy bought it in early 99.

Okay.

And then Yahoo picked up all of Intimi's assets eventually. A few. I mean, probably 2003, I would guess. Yeah.

Wow, that's exciting.

Yeah. Funny story. The pivot.

The ultimate pivot.

Yeah.

I want to hear a bit of the story about Baidu.

Yeah.

Can you talk us through that?

Yeah. Baidu. I mean, what. I should be an encouragement to anyone listening to this program. I'm an example of how a common person, average intelligence, could become a part of something. Truly amazing things. It's just really remarkable. What happened is when we exited C2B, we made some money. We found a guy over on the peninsula named Bob King, and we knew that he was a wealthy man at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. And we were looking for a mentor because we were trying to figure out how to handle newly minted money. Everyone was calling us for donations. And, you know, all of a sudden, everyone was our friend. And we're like, what do we do with this? So we hung out with Bob King and we said, hey, Bob, would you help mentor us and guide us? So we were hanging out with the guy and he said, I've got a daughter who's got a startup company in San Francisco. Would you be willing to help her? It's called Biospace. So we started hanging out with his daughter. We put some money into her company and we counseled her and helped her along, and we developed a friendship. Then one day we get a call from Bob King, and Bob says, hey, I. I've got these two kids I know from China, and they got this idea for a search engine in China. And I know you guys came from Ink to me. A lot of people don't know this, but Ink to me, controlled 70% of the global search market before Google. Yeah, I mean, it was when you searched at Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, anywhere, it was powered by Ink to me. A lot of people think Google won the search business because they had better search technology. Not true. I can promise you. I was at ground zero watching the blind tests in the room. They won the search business because they invented the business model, pay for placement, and learned to. And so they they we were just selling enterprise software to aol and they were selling banner ads. It just didn't work. Anyway, so Bob King says, hey, I know you guys know something about search. You came from ink to me, got these two Chinese kids that want to start a search engine for China. I don't know what to make of it. You guys know about it. Let's meet. So we drove over to his office. We sat down. Matter of fact, there was a guy there named Greg Penner. He's the chairman now of Walmart. And we sat in the room and these two kids threw up a deck. 12 slides, black and white, no color, no animation. And they start talking through it, and we start asking some questions. We realized that Robin Lee wrote the infoseq code for one of the top search engines in the world at the time. He had written the patent for link analysis, which is really the major breakthrough for search accuracy. Back when we first got started, when you searched, you used to put meta tags at the bottom of the page, and a lot of times they're invisible. And the more of them you put, the more you could get more weighting. So if someone would put skateboarding 100 times and then they'd be more skateboarding.

Why you just don't know.

Everyone just faked it. So Robin looked at that problem. He said, how can we solve that? So what he did is he goes, we'll look at who externally links to your page on a certain topic, and if credible sites link back to you, then your page rank's gonna go up. Link announced.

That was kind of the Google big thing that they brought to the table.

Well, that was Robin who invented that. He wrote the patent for that. So when we were looking at this, we'd go, wow, this guy's a gangster. He knows what he's doing. China's going to be big, you know. So we tell Bob King, we go, hey, just, we need to talk to Bob. So we walk into the other room and Bob goes, what do you guys think? And we're like, dude, we can't let these guys walk away. We got to get a deal right now. Like, this is the due diligence, a 12 slide deck and a brief conversation. So he goes, what do you think? So I said, why don't we put. Let's just put 1.6 million in. We'll do 800K. You do 800K. So we go in and we negotiate a 3 million pre money, 1.6 million, you know, as you know, and I ended up being on the board for Six years in the trenches with Robin and Eric, helping them figure out the business, giving them bad advice half the time. Thankfully, they didn't listen to me. There was one board meeting when I actually tried to get Robin fired. He's now the seventh wealthiest guy in China. They went to 80 billion market cap, you know, but, you know, what a gracious and wonderful and fantastic learning experience and really an example of how relationships is really what drives this business ultimately.

Yeah. Wow.

I hope I'm not being too wordy.

No, it's fantastic.

That was an awesome story.

I'm a story.

Yeah.

The investor inside me asks, like, how long do you hold? What is that? Is that something? How do you even decide how long to hold something?

Well, I'm still holding.

Okay.

But, you know, it's a very personal decision. My wife and I, this is kind of a different topic, but my wife and I noticed how wealth transforms people. And mostly for the worse. There's very few really wealthy people I like, actually. And people get a grandiose view of themselves. They think they're. They're. Their opinions more important than others. They underweight their good fortune and luck in life, and they overweight their intelligence and their hard work. And it can be repelling at times. And we also noticed how the human appetite grows. Grows, grows and grows. So we've seen people, you know, I need a second home, a third home, a fourth home. Now I need a G5 jet. And it just goes. And now I need people to wash them all and clean them all and take care of the. And it's, you know, it's not. It doesn't seem that attractive to us. So early on we decided, what's our enough number? And long ago, you know, fortunately we're able to go that. Now we're just focusing on more important things, you know, I hope that doesn't sound like I'm being moralistic.

No.

Do you have the Bill Gates plan or something? At some point in time, you want to maybe take that money and do nothing for the world?

We've already done it.

Okay.

Yeah. We're. We have no legacy, multi generational anything. We just took what little that we. The amount we got. That was more than we deserved. And we just. I mean, I mean, I'm hold. Look, I'm not a martyr. We're. We're blessed and we're happy with that. But. But yeah, it's. It's. No, I mean, I've met just this week with a guy who has a multi generational family office, and it always strikes Me as a plan for cocaine addiction about three generations out, so I get it.

So at some point, besides coming to San Diego for your wife, you obviously had to think, this is a place that I can do business to or something. Not business. Maybe just surf. What were you thinking was going to happen when you came to San Diego?

Nothing.

Okay.

Support my wife, love her, help her. I mean, you guys know, as entrepreneurs, what you take your significant others through. The journey is stressful and long hours and unknown. And, you know, and I felt so profoundly supported by my wife. I mean, I had a really special woman. She never once complained or questioned. She was just fired up about it. So it just became my chance to go, okay, let's do your thing. And then when I came down here, actually, I was still doing my angel investing because that's how I help and serve other entrepreneurs. But when I came down here, I started interacting with Tim Hare from Sarah and some of the guys, and they're like, come work for us. And I'm like, dude, I can't see working for someone, you know, and being responsible to LPs, like, where's my money? That just sounds horrible.

How'd they talk into it?

Well, they said, be a venture partner. Just consult with us. And we started sharing deal flow. I'd invest. And then I just realized how much fun I was having with these people. Like, they are such great folks. And I told them, look, I'll join, but I won't raise money. I'm not going to go out and beg people for money. Of course, now I'm doing that too. So they tricked me.

Sucked you in. That's awesome.

But they were in the Midwest, and they still are. And they were okay with having a San Diego partner?

Oh, they very much wanted one. I mean, Tim lived here for 10 years. He started McGladdery in San Diego. He still owns a home here. And. And they love it. I think it's a secret plan to get back out here one day. We'll see if it works for Tim.

Or for the whole family.

For Tim.

Okay. He comes out a good amount.

He does, yeah.

And so you've invested in a few San Diego companies?

Yes.

Homebay, Gosite. Who else have you seen around here?

Well, homebay, Gosite, Rapify.

Okay.

Clarifai, Cardea.

Okay.

Gosh, I'm gonna miss someone and then be in trouble.

No, it's okay. Yeah, this is why Amy brought it on a piece of paper.

Yeah.

I brought my segmentation spreadsheet.

Oh, you did? Good for you.

We're all showing our notes. But you've also, I mean, you've GoSight.

We said that, right?

GoSight, Alex, good team. But you haven't kind of operated. You can operate in your own little box. You've done it with other partners in town, like, like more venture partners. Right. And techos, angels and stuff like that, which has been. How's that experience been?

Local investors, unbelievable. And also some of the guys like Okapi, you know, and Alex Rubelkava up at Stage VC and a few others. Great. I am just. My favorite thing about the SoCal ecosystem is the collaboration and just the sweet. I mean, the kindness. People just want to work together and they want to make things succeed in the Bay Area. It's so competitive and arrogant and it's a put off at a certain level.

Every single founder that I've spoken to that has moved from, well, definitely the Bay Area, but even other places, the first thing they say about the community is, wow, everybody actually wants to help. Like, I'm not used to that.

Right.

And yeah, that's definitely, I think our calling card as the San Diego community.

Very much so, yeah. I mean, the danger in San Diego is that we're competing with every other region on ideas. And there is a pace of an intensity level in the Bay Area that's just different. I mean, people come here for quality of life and they don't want to completely lose it usually. Now that's not true with guys like Alex at GoSight. I mean, those guys are on fire. They've got, I mean, if you put them in the Silicon Valley, they're working just as hard. I mean, it's just that thing's hot. But you do see founders that are, you know, they're wanting to keep the balance in life. And really, entrepreneurship is imbalance in a lot of ways, in my opinion. Unfortunately.

Yeah, and that's how you stand out though as well, right? I mean, look, 90% of the businesses in San Diego are small businesses. Venture math is a special breed. Right. The entrepreneur that is going for high growth, trying to hit a grand slam. So, you know, the hustle sometimes is real.

Takes a certain personality, that's for sure. Yeah, that's where you get like the whole founder market fit kind of concept. Right. Like, are these guys, is this team, do they know the product, do they know the industry? Are they hustlers? Like, you know, you really analyze the people because that's who you're kind of betting on most of the time anyway.

What's a good time to Bring up, like, what do you then? Do you have other traits you look for in founders?

Well, I think I look for smart, very high energy, intense. I like it when they're almost, in an unhealthy way, narrow and singularly minded. And I think that's one of the reasons entrepreneurship does work well sometimes for younger people that haven't built the families as much. I remember talking with one of my entrepreneurs who's got a ripping hot company called White Fox. And they do drone defense. I'm like, luke, what do you know? He's a CEO. What do you do for fun? Well, I work about 16 hours a day on White Fox and then I go fly drones. Okay, well, you're not a very interesting person. Sorry about that, Luke. But you really know your space and you're killing it. You know what I mean? And for a season, that's fine. As long as it's not your entire life.

White Fox, San Luis Obispo company. Yeah, they're slow company. Okay, It's San Diego. We have to know. You came here from the bay. Bay's got some Mexican food too, but San Diego is kind of a cut above. Do you have a favorite taco spot?

Yeah, I'm very serious about my tacos. You know, I've got a whole philosophy about tacos. So first of all, I appreciate the gourmet taco scene. You know, Pronto's or Galaxy. That's awesome. Presto puesto. Puesto Galaxy. Look, I love their tacos. It's great. But that doesn't even count. That's just not really a taco. And then you have the chains that are really good, like taco stand and city taco. I think those are great tacos. But I look for the family owned business. I want to see that authentic Mexican family back there making tacos. I'm looking for the handmade tortillas. Tortillas. I'm looking for quality meat. And then I'm looking for the salsa bar, you know, and you know, I like the street taco. That's where I go. I don't know different taco theories. But there's this guy, Tequizas los chuches.

Okay, where?

Well, that's the point is they're like mobile.

You gotta find them.

Yeah, you gotta find them. Tequilas. I think someone told me that means like taco party. Okay, so it's lotuches taco party. And oh my gosh, where has he.

Popped up around town?

Well, I ran into him in Del Mar. Okay, but I know that they're out of Chula Vista, so maybe they have a stand permanently down there. But I love them.

Okay, yeah, we'll look for them, see if they're on social media somewhere. There's gotta be some.

Are you keeping a list of all these interviews and tacos and everything today?

The thinking, especially seeing the spreadsheets, I'm like, we need to be tracking this by who is given what recommendation. Yeah. And then we need to do, like, a best of.

Yeah. Now, is there a repeat winner that you hear a lot of?

We get a lot of tacos. El Gordo.

Yeah, I've heard that.

And we get a lot of taco stand. Especially if I meet a founder who's in the downtown wework, and there's a taco stand across the street. Everyone is. Taco stand, can't go wrong.

Yeah, taco stand, solid.

Very consistent thing.

Yeah, but it's not family owned.

Right. And then there's the anything with a Bertos ending. Right. Which is chains, but, like, authentic. You know, Ali Burto's, Robertos, you know, all those Rigobertos.

Did you know that there's a Rigoberto? Yes. I mean, it's like, really? Are they all, like brothers?

Yeah. So those are the common ones. My personal is sombreros. That is a bit of a chain. And I actually go more for the California burrito.

I think Sombreros is family owned.

Is it? They got a shout out in a Blink 182 song. And I went to it after I heard that song.

Oh, that's legit.

Yeah.

I've got to check it out.

It's the song called thank Girlfriend. He says she brings me Mexican food from sombreros just because.

Okay. There is a little spot. Just shout out for this little spot called Cancun's in Leucadia. Behind the 7:11 at the gas station.

Okay.

Little hole in the wall. North into Leucadia. Family owned. Unbelievable. Baja Fish taco.

Okay.

And they're salsa bars off the Hasek.

Okay, we'll look for it. What's the one? Let's keep talking tacos. There's a, like, Jamaican Rastafarian taco spot in Leucadia as well. Do you know that place?

I don't.

I can't remember the name. Do you? Nothing comes to mind.

Not juanitas?

No, no. It's not that far north. It's a little further south of Leucadia Boulevard. Anyway. All right. There's a, like, a Jamaican taco place that is really good.

Just doesn't seem Legitimate to me.

I'm sorry. I know. I hear you. I get is a pretty hole in the whole place. Steve, are you active on social. Can we find you on Twitter?

No.

Okay.

No. Instagram? Srbexter.

Okay.

Yeah.

Find you pictures of you surfing.

Yep. And mountain biking and injuring myself.

You're a big mountain biker.

I am.

For a long time. Or is it a recent hobby?

Nope. I've been mountain biking for a lot of years. Did a bunch of racing and, you know, now I'm just kind of getting old and mellowing out.

I caught you. I think I caught pictures of you doing up in the Santa Monica mountains. Right. Were you there recently?

A few months ago, yeah, I was.

I cut my teeth on trail running there.

Oh, right.

On Great amount of hundreds of miles of trails there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Steve, thanks so much for coming down, being on the podcast, getting to know you, and doing amazing things for entrepreneurs here in the community. And thanks for Al and Amy for hanging out and thank you.

Thank you so much, you guys.

Thanks, guys.

It's an honor.

Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Bloom. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. Big shout out to School of Rap for our rad intro music. And thanks as well to Nest Podcast Network where we are recording live inside their studio at Nest Co working in Bankers Hill. You can find Neil Bloom on Twitter neilbloom as well as as fresh brewed tech and tacos and tech pod on Twitter too.

You know we got it.

Hey, Ra.