Stories about Brant Cooper with Ashok Kamal

Hey, Shook. Hey, man.

How you doing?

Good. How are you?

I'm doing all right, thanks.

Brandt brings us together again.

He does. He brought us together from the very beginning. And I'm really happy to be doing this with you now as well.

Right, right, right. Yep. He. He'd be happy to see it.

Oh, for sure. He is seeing it.

Amen.

We're going to do actually a series of these on know. It's really just giving a space for people to share, just like we did in person last weekend. You know, there's a lot of interesting and good stories about the community, about brand.

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos? Tacos and tech, you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keep accountants counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times A craft beer and coffee my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing Coronado eating tacos El gordo the taco stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero gotta shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shows entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popp in the summer oceanside the Tijuana est? Be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon. Hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech podcast where we interview tech leaders in the San Diego tech ecosystem. We also read the latest tech news on this Week in San Diego Tech news. Follow us and subscribe online to your favorite podcast network. Welcome everyone back to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom. This is a special edition podcast. Here we're doing about stories about Brant Cooper in the San Diego startup community. Brandt, who recently passed tragically and meant so much to so many people in the community both locally and abroad and he brought so many people together. And so we're going to have a series of podcast conversations where we share stories and we want to share them with you the listener. First up here to have is a dear and close friend who we brought were brought together by Brant Cooper himself. And this is Ashok Kamal from Executive Director for New Funds. Sure. So good to have you here.

Thanks, Neil. Rest in power. Brandt, we're going to miss you. I heard the news last week. I knew that you were battling health issues, obviously, like everyone who knew you for the past few years, but I heard about your passing last week. I shed tears. I've had other close people, friends and family sometimes that left us. And I felt more emotional about hearing of your passing than many other cases in my life of unfortunate news. And I think that's because it wasn't just me who lost you, Brandt. It was an entire startup community here who lost you. And we all feel that collective pain and loss at the same time. The tears are partly tears of joy when you lose somebody like that who has empowered so many people and will continue to through your legacy and spirit in so many ways. And. And it's apropos that I'm here talking to Neil, not just because, like he said, we're good friends and I've done a bunch of these tacos and tech podcasts with them and did the rap song opener, and we do things together all the time, both as friends and colleagues. But Brandt introduced Neil and I together, and I think there are hundreds, if not thousands of people in the San Diego startup community and beyond because Brandt traveled the world. Who could say that they were introduced and connected by Brant Cooper? He was truly a super connector in the purest definition of the word. And when I moved to San Diego in the summer of 2015 and I was kicking around after working on startups of my own for the past five, six years and just starting to dip my toes into angel investing, I was fortunate that Brant Cooper was the first person that I met. And we had coffee in the back room of the Surf Dog Java Hut, favorite and famous place. It's sort of one of our sandhill roads, I guess you could say, here in San Diego, it's Pacific Coast Highway 101. And he wanted to orient me to the scene and give me a little bit of advice in the classic Brant Cooper way. He showed up with no shoes on, by the way. So that was a signal for me in San Diego tech and just, I would say, culture in general. And one of the things that I remember him saying is in talking about his experience going back and forth to the Bay Area and again, having a global perspective, that San Diego is an awesome place. It had a growing startup scene, which he loves so much, but it was also a place where people get deactivated. And that stuck with me and continues to stick with me to this day. What he meant was it's easy to spend your days surfing, hanging around on the beach, not necessarily grinding the way that the typical stereotype, for better or for worse, you know, startup ecosystem of the Bay Area, New York, Boston, where I'm from originally, by the way. There's a lot of things to do in San Diego. It's a great lifestyle. That's why I moved here. I didn't move here per se for the tech scene, I moved here for the lifestyle. But I stayed because of the community and the San Diego startup and innovation and tech community. And Grant was my entry point. And I met Neil at the next event that I went to, which was a mixer at the Beer Garden in downtown Encinitas. And in my life, a lot of history has happened from that point forward.

Amazing. Do you actually remember how you met Brandt? Did someone intro you to him?

Yes. When I got here, I knew a couple of local people who were working on startups in Encinita. So there was a cluster of folks, Andrew Hewitt is one, who were doing mostly impact type investing and social impact startup work in that, you know, that cluster of north county, coastal, kind of from southern Carlsbad to Solana Beach. And when I move somewhere and I've only lived in like five places, I try and find a few tastemakers and then spend some time with them, hopefully share with them what I'm looking to achieve and how I can contribute, you know, to the community. In this case, it was angel investing as my first, you know, kind of foray. And then I asked them who they could suggest for me to connect with. And by the way, I've had many of those conversations being on the other end of the table and in the subsequent five plus years. And it's pretty how often, Neil, does somebody say to you, I just met with, with Ashok, or I just met with, you know, Austin, or I just met with Melanie and she suggested that we talk to, to you next. Right. And so I get a lot of today, hey, I just met with Neil Bloom and he suggested that I talk to you. And I'm always more than happy to take those conversations one, because people like Brandt and Neil took those conversations with me. So it's critical that we return the favor and pay that forward. And also it's interesting and that's part of the reason that, you know, I'm here is to try and, you know, learn from everybody that comes into the community and continue to be able to, you know, give. That's one of the Principles that Brandt in his rant, you know, talks about is how successful startup ecosystems, you know, have a pay it forward mentality. I think looking back and I did refresh on his rant a couple of days ago, just, you know, kind of eulogizing Brandt in my, in, in my mind. And a lot of the things he said were true. Obviously he was a bit polemical and that's by design. If you know Brandt's part, you know that it's always in the right place. But I think Brandt would certainly acknowledge that a lot of the problems he pointed out got addressed or are actively in the process of being addressed, because some of them are long term issues. So I think we've also come a long way and I think a lot of that is because of the mentality that people like Brandt, you know, kind of bestowed in just being welcoming and connecting the dots to other people who you can help and can help you.

Yeah, it's true, man. There's a lot to unpack there. But I do know when I immediately met you immediately felt you were part of the startup community that we were trying to build. We would have already done three startup weeks by that point, which I was an attendee of the first one, but not an organizer, but immediately raised my hand immediately after, and from 2014 on helped organize and create a convergence because we've realized we're missing all the student population. During the summer when Startup Week was, which was also a very Brandt inspired thing, he was all about accessibility. Are we getting everyone in? Are we thinking broadly enough that everyone has an opportunity to get in and both give and get, which is the other trait I immediately felt from you.

Right?

Which is this, not just fellow founder, which is always cathartic, but also like, how can I help? And here's what I'm working on too. And so it was immediately that feeling from you, which is exactly right. Brandt sniffed that out as well and curated that and made sure that those kinds of people and culture proliferated. That's for sure. By the way, I have an intro to make for you of a company that I just talked to. Cyber Security. Come on. I'm saying it now for on the record, but you know, one of the accessibility pieces that brand actually pushed in and I don't know we'll get more of this story, but the, the tech crawl that became really the cornerstone event of Santa Startup Week, it became what everyone. I think it was such a social, fun event and it was like a pub crawl, but through different startup offices, through downtown and I think at its peak we had 10 different trails going simultaneously throughout downtown, all to end at one big party, probably on a rooftop of some empty parking building that the Irvine Company gave us often. But that is, that is my first kind of physical memory of you jumping into the ecosystem where you showed up, surfboard in hand maybe or just wetsuit. I feel like you were carrying something. Walking into Evo nexus in the 101 Broadway building.

I think I might have had a boogie board. And yes, so everyone I know today, generally I know through the context of either, you know, new fund venture group, my kind of day job, you know, as an investor or my ecosystem work with say startup San Diego. You know, I've been on the board of that, you know, with folks like Neil in the past and you know, other programs, you know, that we are part of in the community. But initially. So the first year that I was in San Diego, I was largely stealth at the beginning, just getting my, you know, life settled on the ground, living in Cardiff and you know, kind of learning to surf or trying to at least. But I was mostly involved with a company called Outside that was setting up shop in San Diego. It's a co living network, you know, now there's, I don't know, 100 plus locations around the world and it's, you know, done really well. But the second location coming from Santa Cruz where the company was founded by a guy named Emmanuel, the second location was in Encinitas and I used to hang out with Brandt there periodically after I met him. So he was, you know, a neighbor practically and you know, that's one of the places that we would chop it up as we started to build a relationship. So he knew that, you know, I was pretty involved in Outside, both as an investor and you know, hands on at that time. And this event called Convergence was coming up, which was sort of a Startup Week light. I hadn't actually been to a Startup Week yet but you know, would then, you know, know be more involved in the future and just because of the timing. I think Convergence was in like February if I, if I recall, they. It was the first, yeah, January, February was the first big kind of tech ecosystem event that I got to participate in. And the call to action was, you know, represent your startup one way or the other. So for me, you know, outside part of the culture is sort of the surf tech vibe and you know, the, the original location here in Encinitas overlooks Grandview Beach. People see whales when they're, you know, writing code in, you know, one of the, the boardrooms. So I chose to wear a wetsuit to Convergence. It was, you know, a, an evening. Fortunately, it wasn't an August evening, but nonetheless I was a, a little, let's say it was a little balmy, you know, in the suit itself. And you know, with, I think I, I just brought a boogie board along with me since my, my, my eight, my eight foot longboard wouldn't have, you know, quite worked, you know, walking around downtown. But it was an awesome event and like, compared to some of the other events that I'd been to, you know, in my prior, whatever it was 35 years, let's say, or you know, 15 years of working, you know, in startups in various places. The, it was uniquely San Diego, you know, right in that, you know, here we were having fun on rooftops and people are a little bit, you know, kooky and, you know, I wanted to, you know, tap into that in myself and you know, in, in the culture of the event. So I wore my wetsuit, you know, representing. That's a lot of what outside was about. We, me and the founder used to do these different talks, like from the wetsuit to the, from, from the, from the, the boardroom to the surfboard. Right, like, so suit to the wet suit. Those are, you know, a couple of the different, you know, a couple of the different, you know, kind of tags that we used to share when promoting outside and representing outside. And I had a lot of fun, you know, at the event and I, I, I met other people like Chuck Long, Chuck Longenecker, who, you know, then became sort of my next, you know, circle of, I would call them supporters, you know, that were connecting dots for me and, you know, giving me advice and, you know, you know, sharing opportunities, you know, with me to, you know, help cement my feet, you know, in this ecosystem. The only thing I'll say about the wetsuit, it was great except for we were basically drinking beer and water, you know, throughout the evening. As Neil said, it was a crawl. So when I had to go to a bathroom in Evo Nexus, it was, I was probably the only person who ever walked into a bathroom in Evo Nexus with a wetsuit on and, you know, had to figure that out. But I figured it out.

I, I looked up, I found the 2016 schedule of convergence, by the way. February 4th, 5th, 6th.

All right, still got it.

You nailed it. The first night, ecosystem orientation and poker night, which startup poker was very strong then and actually still is gone. Second night was mentor night and startup Crawl, and then we did A Saturday event at ucsd, how to successfully intern at a startup intern fair and Demo night. Like I read these in half of these. I feel the, you know, the foundation of Brandt in them. Like Brandt. Well, first of all, Outside was such a Brent mentality, like ecosystem and density and gathering, like all of his ethos. And Outside obviously makes sense why he would have immediately been involved and interested in that, especially in his backyard. But then to see, you know, I don't know, year two or three of getting start San Diego up and going like all these pieces. Demo night was a brand thing that he was doing separately. We had it run under the umbrella of this, the crawl. I very much feel the mentor night kind of the mentor madness, tech stars feeling was also something he always kind of was him and Austin, I feel like, really got those going in Evo Nexus. So I don't know, just looking back, I just see his fingerprints all over all of that.

Yeah. And that, you know, digital footprint is enduring, you know, and you mentioned Outside because Brandt was one of the most involved, let's say San Diego people in Outside, which was like me, you know, a. An immigrant into San Diego. Like, I guess it was a month after actually the convergence conference, I h hosted a fireside chat at Outside with Brandt and Leo, who's the co founder of Buffer. You know, Buffer's a, you know, tremendously successful social media management company and Leo was an investor in, you know, Outside and a digital nomad who would, you know, use the properties, you know, kind of, you know, in, in many different places. And Brandt was the first person who stepped up to be a speaker for, for me, organizing the first in a series of events which, you know, a lot of people who are, you know, our kind of mutual friends and you know, longtime community members would remember some of the subsequent events that happened, you know, in various Outsides, you know, around the San Diego network that we built over time. But Brandt led this fireside chat with Leo and it's a fascinating talk. I mean talk, you know, it's just right in Brandt's wheelhouse on lean startup. And Buffer is a very kind of lean startup originated, you know, company that organically grew to, you know, kind of significant size. And I would encourage, encourage anyone who, you know, wants to both see Brandt and, you know, hear about his philosophy to check out that video because it's still online. I checked the other day and you know, lo and behold, and even has a little rap intro, you know, to boot. So we'll put that in the show notes. But you know, that was Brandt. You know, again, first, first person I met, introduced me to, you know, now one of my first and, you know, best friends in the community. Neil was the first speaker at, you know, my series at Outside, which I did maybe 20 or so similar events over, you know, the next few, few years. He was just always ready to open the doors.

Yeah. And. And he really invested and pushed Thought Leadership in this regard and bringing outside great speakers and entrepreneurs into San Diego. That was the SD Tech founders Thought Leadership series that he had already been running on his own. Though he didn't usually interview. He usually would intro and then let someone give talk. And he brought Eric Reese, Steve Blank, Dan Martel, Justin Mares, Dave McClure. I remember all those. And then he sat down and did a fireside chat interview at Outside. And I think he got a little bit more of brand action because he got to actually interview in that regard, which was really cool. To kick off that Thought leadership series, which continued running it outside for quite a while. I remember.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, we did other events with Brandt then, you know, in other, you know, locations like Founder Fight Club, you know, so they're, you know, like you said, you know, sometimes he would tee it up for us, sometimes he would swing the bat. He was just always ready to serve. Yeah, right. And he was enthusiastic, you know, about that. I mean, that was his mission. Yeah, right. That was his mission and his legacy.

Let's talk about founder of Fight Club a little bit. Which him and Jeremiah Gardner, his partner at one time would co host or they would flip it to each other because they both are really good hosts. But that I feel like is synonymous with school of Rap. For whatever reason in my head, I remember you guys doing intros, rap intros, and together with Founder Fight Club. Why. Why is. Why are those together in that?

Yeah, well, it's just so, you know, to be clear, I'm not a rapper. I just play with on the Internet sometimes.

But including our intro song here.

Yeah, before there was the tacos and tech rap theme song, there was the Founder Fight Club rap anthem that I think probably at bra, my partner Miguel and I wrote and then performed live at a startup week and it kicked off the actual Founder Fight Club event, which was not the first Founder Fight Club. So there were, you know, Founder Fight Clubs. That happened before, but when we did the wrap, which that video is also still floating around the Internet, so we can put that in the show notes. But Brandt was one of the judges and in fact, I think he had had A few years of a break, you know, when other founder fight clubs had happened, you know, in different places. And I remember talking to him and he wanted to get back in the saddle, you know, on at this one, you know. Right. It was probably like 2018 or 2019.

He had been traveling a bit, I feel like for the last few startup weeks he hadn't.

Yeah.

Because he was traveling.

Yeah. And then he was back, you know. So, you know, we. It was downtown, you know, this time, the event. And we did a founder fight club together. And you know, it's just another example of one of the, the many memories, you know, and little bit of magic, you know, that we got to collaborate with Brandt on.

Totally. Yeah. I mean it's kind of off the wall, but also worked obvious enough because you guys took it on the road. I feel like there were like five events in a row where you and Miguel opened up doing a freestyle at least after that.

Yeah. School. School of rap. In fact, I think I've hung up my, you know, hat or my kangal hip hop heads will, know what I mean? After the Interlock Summit, which was last summer, you know. Right. Well, I'll come back to the Summit. You know, I, I don't write raps as much at least, you know, tech raps, you know, these days. But we did do the, the welcome to to San Diego opener for your interlock summit in 2023. I think that was.

Yeah. First time was performed live, which was really cool for you guys to do that. Brandt was also at Summit. I remember Brandt did reprise his role with founder fight Club last year, 2023 Startup Week. So he ended it in a big way. We did it at Qualcomm Hall. I was a judge and he brought like a professional ring announcer to actually kick it off in an emcee, which was really like real deal. We had a full bracket and everything. But Brandt was like, that was his event. He owned that. And it was really cool to see him both back on the board of Startup Center. He hadn't been in four or five years and back like running events at startups Startup Week, which was pretty cool to see last year for sure.

And you know, Brandt was this kind of dichotomy of a personality. Like on you know, the one hand he could be very, you know, serious. Like he didn't, you know, hold back, know. Right. Which could come off as being serious. But at the same time he was so fun, you know, too. Right. And on the one hand he was so intense, you know, he probably intimidated people Accidentally at times, but at the same time he was so zen and so, you know, thoughtful as well. And that was just his personality, you know, you. He could come off to some people maybe if they're just reading his words, you know, let's say online as harsh. But, like, who was more loving, you know, to me in this community and of this community than Brent Cooper, you know? Right. That's part of what made him so unique. And it was a dichotomy, but it was also a harmony.

Totally. I've often felt like he's been our heart of the community, like the beating heart. A lot of us felt like his. A lot of the things that we did was because we just like felt the ethos that kind of flowed from him to a certain regard. Like we just got it. The culture was a fusing from him and it flowed through a lot of us. So, yeah, for the longest time called. I've kind of called them our beating heart of our ecosystem.

And people would say that about you, Neil, and I think, you know, you've carried the torch, you know, and I know if he could, Brandt would hand it to you himself. And he probably did, you know, kind of in his own way. So, you know, thank you also for everything that you're doing in the spirit of Brent.

Of course. No, that's the least we can do. I think it means so much that, you know, even without him, we miss him. We. We know the path we're still charting, like we still know where we need to go. I still feel the do more, do faster, do better, you know, kind of ethos from it. And, and so because of that, a group, small group of us, have actually created a fund in his name, the Brandt Cooper Leadership Fund, that will be housed within Start San Diego, but as a separate fund and separate committee where it will inspire the next leaders, community leaders, whether it's San Diego startup community. But it doesn't, it's not explicitly for that because he obviously inspired people worldwide to go and build, you know, communities, whether that was within a giant tech company or within, you know, a tiny little town that you believe you can make better through rapid iteration. So that is now live at Startup San Diego's forward slash donate button. And every year we will host an application and select that year's winners of the scholarship for the Brant Cooper Leadership Fund. So I hope that's at least one piece we can do to keep his learnings and teachings forward through mentorship and resources.

Well, that's news to me and welcome news as soon as I finish this conversation with you. I'm going to go on there and I'm going to donate $1,000 right now, and then I'm going to continue to support that in the years that go by. So thank you, Startup San Diego team for getting that set up in Brandt's name. And I'll say this in closing, you mentioned that you still feel like we have so much more to do here in San Diego, and there's a path of progress that is a ongoing and I'd say really never ending journey. As an entrepreneur, in my view, you always have to be pushing forward. You've never done enough. If you think you've done enough, you're dying. It's like a startup, if you're not growing in some way. It's not always, you know, users, let's say, but if you're not growing in infrastructure, in culture, in revenue, you're dying. Right? You're going backwards. You can't stand still. And I think one of the things that I appreciated about Brandt the most is that he was not afraid to hold people in institutions and himself accountable. And that could rub people the wrong way if somebody's sensitive. But I don't think that that's how we get better. As an entrepreneur, you have to listen to your harshest critics the most carefully. That's how you get better. And Brandt was one of the harshest critics for San Diego, but he was also one of the biggest champions for San Diego. Both of those two things at the same time. That makes you a leader, not a sycophant, and at the same time, you know, not a hater. Right. The spectrum between sycophant and hater is a wide spectrum, but the sweet spot in the middle was when you love it so much that you can hold it accountable and be constructively critical. And that's what Brandt did. He struck that balance.

He absolutely did. He absolutely did. Man, even right into his last few days, the last time I was with him where he could barely, I was really tough to put a sentence together, to be honest. He, he had had a stroke and so every two to three words, he couldn't remember the word he was trying to say. He's like, oh, and you could, we had to start playing a guessing game a little bit. And I mentioned, you know, someone said hi or something, I think it was. Well, anyway, and he, he, he had an opinion immediately.

Right?

He's just like, you know, like, they were so successful as a company, as founders, yet where are they? You know, like, where were they in the community. Like, here's what we. And he was trying to get out. Like, here's what we could do. He's already, like, criticized, but also, here's what we could do for. For people like that or them directly, like. And even to the last. He was, you know, all the way right there. I totally agree. It's really easy to talk. Brant walked the walk as well, too, that's for sure. So, man, we'll miss him, but I'm glad we're able to obviously have known him and continue. Continue on in his spirit. So thanks, Chuck, for spending some time and sharing with us.

Thanks, Neil, and again, thank you, Brant. We'll miss you, we'll remember you, and we'll honor you.

Thanks, bud. See you soon.

All right, send me that link. I'm going to do that right now.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started?

You want tech and tacos? Tacos and tech? You know we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keep accountants counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping Fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a craft beer and coffee My coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero got a shout out to coast angels by the ocean watch the sunset la hoya shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded when San Diego startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana est? Be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started.

You want tech in tacos, Tacos in tech? You know we got it, hey.

Startups get the party Startups get the the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party? Startups get the party started?

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech? You know we got it? Hey, you know we got it? You know we got it? You know we got it.