Techstars San Diego Powered by San Diego State Year 3 with Misti Cain

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 keeper. Captains counting beans, Contador Quentan, Frijoles Founders trying to raise some queso la vida san.

And welcome back to the Tacos and tech podcast. I'm your host Neil Bloom and I am so thrilled with tech stars and newest managing director director Misty Kane. What's up Misty?

Hey Neil, what's up? Thanks so much for having me on the pod. I appreciate it.

Of course, thanks for joining. It is so fun to be with you here. You're walking your way to downtown from Carlsbad on your treadmill. I know, yes.

This is what I do. If I'm gonna spend hours and hours on a computer screen I'm like, better get some of those steps in.

Hell yeah. I love it. And I'm getting my steps in today I'm downtown working out of a few different startups offices which is cool to see a bunch of them kind of co mingling together into this office space here in East Village. We've got the retrorate team here, Top Mark Capital, Upcycle and Promissory all under one roof. Which is pretty fun to be in the house with them today.

Which wow, that's a nice little crew you've got going on there.

Yeah. You know when you do like little pop up density like this, it's the best when you just get to share notes, which is exactly what tech stars is. Right. You get a bunch of companies under one roof sharing, learning together, which I'm excited to talk to you about because a lot's been going on since we last had you on I think two years ago, right?

Yes, yes. So it's nice to be back. The thing that you brought up I think is a really salient point about community and the thing that I love about San Diego as a tech community is that it is so collaborative. I can walk into any networking event and I already know people in that environment and then also I can refer people super easily. We've got lots of people building up the ecosystem. So with TXD San Diego powered by San Diego State University, it's taking that and making it global. So now you have this amazing community in San Diego and it's amplified with the techstars network being like a super community and then the SDSU is its own network. That's another super community. So it's like this Venn diagram of networks and communities to help entrepreneurs do more faster and, and that's what I'm really, really excited to bring to the techstar San Diego Powered by SDSU accelerator program starting this fall.

Starting this fall. We love it Year three, which is amazing already. It feels like we just announced that Startup Week that it's coming soon, but man, that's going to. That was like three and a half, four years ago. I don't know, crazy. Since then we've had companies come from all over the world to San Diego. I know definitely not just applications, but actual companies move here from like Lithuania, Norway and Temecula, you know, all over the world, which is super cool.

What have Temecula?

Yes, shout out. You also, I know, have been involved in techstars Anywhere, which operates globally same time as well. Like what, what are now going into year three where you're hyper focused on the San Diego one? What from a global perspective and what you're seeing happening in startups. Like what are you excited about to kind of bring this next cohort here to San Diego?

Well, we don't have as much time as I'd like to talk about everything I'm excited about, so I'll pick a few things and I'll share those. Number one applications are open now, so they opened on April 8th and they will close June 11th. You don't get any brownie points for applying early. Take that time, work on your traction. But we do encourage startups to get their applications in and select txarcenio powered by SDSU as their preference. I am also currently right now the venture partner for techstars Anywhere, which is techstars remote first virtual accelerator program. And here's a fun fact. So I came into the Techstars ecosystem in 2018. And the reason why I came into the Techstars ecosystem is because I attended a Techstars conference back in 2018, changed my flight serendipitously, was sat next to then managing director Ryan Cooter, who asked me between the flight from Oakland back to San Diego if I would be a mentor. I had not heard of the techstars accelerator program and I hadn't heard about what mentorship was like. And Ryan's like, I got you, don't even worry about it. So he brought me in as a mentor for techstars Anywhere. And I have continued to mentor, lead, mentor, all star mentor, executive in residence, investor. And then Ryan said, look, I'm going to be doing techstars Anywhere and techstar San Diego Powered by sdsu. I'm kicking off the first year. This was back in 2022. He's like, we're kicking it off in 2023. Will you join me for that? So I was like, ryan, that would be wonderful. Come on. And had an opportunity to be the investor for both programs. Ryan took over Textar San Diego Powered by San Diego State University full time in 2024. And then I took the reins at Techstars anywhere alongside an amazing team that includes Kurtie Levy as well as Vance Decker. And then Ryan let me know, look, I've had a great run. I've done so many amazing things, been a part of so many programs. I am so well known. He didn't say this. I'm saying this on his behalf, but he's so well known in San Diego as being techstars. That's what people know him for. In the face of techstars and leading the techstars program both anywhere in San Diego. Powered by San Diego State University. He's like, I'm stepping down Managing director. Surreal moment. But I do appreciate the vote of confidence. Humbled and flattered by just the outpouring of love and support from not only the founders, but the mentors and also the partners at sdsu. Shout out to Kathy and Hala. And also honorary. Shout out to Andy Ballister, who's one of the investors in techshaf Senior. Powered by sdsu. Okay, now that I've got all that out of the way, I'm super excited about the global aspect is what you asked about, right? You're like, get to the point.

No, no, no. Take your time.

Techstars Anywhere is virtual. And a lot of people think, oh, well, TxDar. San Diego powered by SDSU must be hyperlocal. That means you have to come from San Diego. You have to be affiliated with San Diego State University. I get it. And the answer to that is no. We want founders from all over the world. We have founders, as you mentioned before, that came from different countries, moved here to really advance their startups utilizing the San Diego ecosystem, and have since moved here and call San Diego home, which is what we love. So the thing that's powerful about that is you can be from anywhere. We just would ask that you move here to San Diego to participate in the actual accelerator program if you are offered a spot. And then the second thing that I get really excited about, people are like, oh, sdsu. I guess I got to be a student or faculty or staff or have an affiliation. Not at all. You do not have to be affiliated in any way with San Diego State University. Oh, but I get preferential treatment, right? If I'm, if I've got an in or I graduated, I'm like, no preferential treatment. I mean, shout out if you did. That's amazing. We love SDSU alum. Looking at you. Cody Barbo from Trust and Will. However, you do not have to be affiliated with the university. So why does that matter? What is it that's really, really powerful about having a university partner? The other thing I'm excited about is you've got access to a really dope talent pool. You have access to research, you have access to academics and professors, as well as the opportunity for increased brand awareness because you have an entire campus of people that you can share your startup with depending on who you're building for and what you're building. You've got a well respected academic institution which gives you some street cred. And then you've got these really creative, bright founders who, I'm sorry, students who will help you as a founder in terms of learning about your business or even helping you build. So having the partnership with San Diego State University is just really, really powerful for founders.

Totally. I've loved seeing San Diego State even kind of lean in and learn. How do we become more of a sandbox as well? You know, not just how have the innovation and then you know, mentor network they pull in, but they're also like, wait, could you test and try that here on campus? I don't know, let's go find out. Right. And that part's been music to founders ears. Right? To be like, wait, I get like a built in customer potential here as a pilot. So that's. Yeah, and Kathy and Holl are all in on that too. Right. Like they'll like go hunt down like who do you need to go talk to? Right. Like, like they'll sell through you.

So they are fierce supporters for the founders. I love that they're like, oh, hold on. They're. They're the equivalent of if you watch Goodfellas or like the Godfather, they're the equivalent of like, oh yeah, hold on, I got a guy. Like I got.

They always got a guy. I know, it's amazing. Let's go back real quick. We can't. We got to pour some out for, for Ryan Cooter, man. The guy has lifted us all up. Lead from 10 years ago of bringing. He was the first to bring techstars to San Diego with Qualcomm with the robotics accelerator where a few of us got to really get our first in person taste of techstars in San Diego and then. And bring that knowledge, I think is super important to San Diego. Like, what is acceleration? What is, you know, actually bringing the corporate, the mentor network and bring that whole community together because we'd never really had that before. And we know the techstars way, like really, really works, you know, from founder first led communities that all of us at early founder support system have kind of had as our ethos, which is where Startup San Diego was built out of all the way through the, you know, mentality of do things faster and so and founder also give first, like, is such an ethos here that I know you and I have felt as soon as we engage in the startup community, everyone gives here way before they get. And so, yeah, I think it's just like, thank you, Ryan, for what you have done for starting a movement and being a mentor and a leader to so many of us. So I'm super stoked that one you guys met magically on that plane ride and that you're stepping up and you know, the next to get the torch passed on to. So congratulations. Thank you. And excited to dive in.

But let's not talk about the guy like he's passed on to the next guy.

You're right. He's not going anywhere.

Silence for Ryan Cooter. Yeah. People still be here in the ecosystem. Shout out. He's alive and well, y'. All. He's alive.

He's doing great. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You're right. But can let's take it back a little bit. Like, let's. Let's paint a box around. What is the right kind of company to apply for this? Like, they're like, where should you be at to apply? What kind of company should you be? Let's make sure we put some color to to make sure we're getting the right companies to apply here.

I love this. I'm going to steal a couple of quotes because I think they were said so well. Why would I try and reinvent the wheel? The first one is one of my colleagues who. And, and now friend Trey Bowles says that we do not invest in founders that we think we can help make successful. And a lot of times founders give me that like puppy when you put like a squeaky toy in front of a dog and they're like, wait, what? What? I thought that's exactly what you do. You help founders. And what he says is, no, we help founders who we think will already be successful do more faster. And the key difference there is if you were to take a pile of wood and you pour gasoline on it, nothing much would happen. You would have wet, stinky wood. However, if you take a pile of wood that has a little bit of a spark and you put gasoline on it, you can create a bonfire. And as long as you can keep, create, keep adding that, that substance, right, you have to have some sort of implementation mechanism. And what we look for are founders who already have that implementation mechanism. And what I mean by that in a less esoteric way is that we want founders who are already demonstrating that they have a 10x versus 2x idea. And how I define 10x is it is changing policies, it is changing laws, it is changing the status quo. It's one of those things where you look at, you're like, whoa, I didn't even, number one, I didn't even know that was possible. And number two, that's really going to fundamentally change X, Y or Z. For this market, this industry, this vertical, this person, you can show some type of traction. Meaning can you demonstrate that people want this thing? And a lot of times people founders are like, well, obviously that's revenue, right? I have to have customers. Not necessarily. Do you have letters of intent? Do you have a wait list? Can you put up a landing page, drive traffic to that landing page and have the data and analytics show that a thousand people clicked the checkout link. Now they couldn't buy anything. Why? Product doesn't exist. But we see the demand there. We did a little wizard of Oz behind the scenes and we see that had it been available, then they would have purchased. That's awesome, right? It's less about where you are and this one I'm going to steal directly from Ryan, where you are on the startup curve and more about how quickly you're getting to the next milestones. So first you and I, Neil, were like, I got an idea, we should do something, we should solve this problem. So me, I am very focused on founders who start problem first. If you come in talking about, we have built this AI solution that nope, that's great. However, what problem are you solving and for whom? You found an urgent and pervasive problem that people are like, I have looked everywhere for a solution or I have a solution and it's not working, I need something different. So your problem focused first. And then you say, I'm going to talk to some few people to confirm my hypothesis that this is actually a problem confirmed. And the next time you talk to them, you know what? I put together an mvp. Awesome. It could be a Figma prototype. Great. Next time you talk to them. I actually built out something this weekend. I put something down in code. Wonderful. Next time you talk to them. I've got a design partner. I've got two customers who are loving it. We're doing some feedback, data, and analysis. Next time you talk to them. Guess What? I have 10 customers now. Next time you talk to them. You see the trend here, meaning that they are continuing to move along the curve of startup success from idea all the way to whatever that looks like. Exit IPO at a very fast clip. They're providing that spark that our techstars acceleration will help create a bonfire. And then they also have subject matter expertise and or a deep connection to the problem that they're solving and the solution that they're building. And sometimes founders are like, oh, so I have to be basically a PhD expert in this thing? Not at all. There is a founder. I think his name's Ramon Van Meer. I'm gonna. I'm gonna fact check myself. But he sold a Soap Opera blog $9 million. Didn't watch soap operas. So he didn't have a passion and expertise in soap operas. But what he had a passion and expertise for was creating community engagement, getting people really the thing that they were passionate about. He knew how to monetize that. That was the thing he had a deep connection to. And that was further expanded by a soap opera blog. It just happened to be the thing. I don't think Jeff Bezos was like, man, I really love books. Books are so incredible. Right. It was more about how can I capitalize on this explosive growth of digital e commerce. And then lastly, we want founders who can articulate use of funds and milestones and not features. Meaning they can say, if you give me this $1, here is how I will turn it into 10. Same thing. Yeah, I could have had a thousand people purchase this product. I just don't have the necessary capital that I need, human or financial, in order to build it. But I show you data that I could have versus yeah, we got to keep the lights on. I need a paycheck. I got to hire someone that's more opex or. Yeah, I want to build out this feature, this button that's more product focused. We want milestone focused.

Awesome. So, okay, that's great to know from a. Who are the right kind of companies to apply, which is it's broad to a certain regard in terms of industry and all those pieces. But it's very much also like, what can you get done in three months. Right. Because the program is three months. Right. So do you looking are you hyper focusing in on asking them like are you going to show us what you can do from September to December? And they set that milestone once they're in.

So our you brought up two really good points. Number one is there is a timeline to an accelerator program. Hence acceleration is extremely important. And that leads into a little bit the thesis, our thesis is agnostic. So we're talking healthcare, med tech, AI obviously covers a multitude of technologies. Defense tech, even consumer could be interesting. Fintech, life science tech is not off the table. It just needs to be able to be accelerated within that time frame. But obviously as we all know, San Diego is expertly poised to help a life science tech company. Digital Twin Tech. I get excited about that. Security, cybersecurity data. Those are also really extremely exciting for me. However, you're right, we have to show demonstrable progress in 13 weeks. That's what an accelerator is for. And so when we're looking at these founders, we are really betting on team in the beginning because it's a pre seed accelerator. So we are looking can you show us that you have grit? Can you show us that you have the ability to be a captain? I was at a networking event and I asked the audience, do you know what it means to be a captain? And then good old Andy White Cash Adventures yells out it means you go down with the ship. I was like Andy, that is so pessimistic. No, that is not what that means. Essentially what it means is can you test the waters and ship like it's your full time job? I had the pleasure of giving a TEDx talk this past February with TEDx San Diego. And at the risk of cannibalizing my talk, the thing that I love about founders who focus on problems, but they also move fast, whether that is internally within their business. You lost your co founder. You have issues like outside of actually the building the product or raising funds, you move fast there and you also move fast externally. Customer discovery, you move fast. Building product, you move fast. You see that this particular way of building your company isn't working. You're not getting the traction that you want from this idea. You pivot fast. So as long as you have that speed mechanism within you and we learn that through the interview process. So you apply, we review the application, we, we have interviews with founders who we find interesting and we're reviewing every single one. So it's not like we put it through an applicant tracking system. We're actually Opening them up, looking at them, looking at the criteria, and then setting up interviews with founders. And we're looking every time we talk to you. Are you sending us updates showing that you can make demonstrable progress? That's really key.

Amazing. Well, we're so excited to for the application process to be open so we can be sending people their way when our applications do.

So they close June 11th. Okay. So 11:59pm Pacific time on June 11th. You can also go to SDSU Techstars info and that'll give you all the details on the application, open date, close date, the program start date. And then you'll also be able to click on a link there to see our events calendar, the whole shebang. I do have another really saucy update for you if we're ready for it.

Yes, I was going to tee it up for you. Bring it.

Okay. So Tech Stars provides a little bit of money. Lot of love that little bit of money comes in the form of an investment. And we also take equity. Since 2012, it's been a very specific deal terms and those deal terms were recently updated. Previously it was $120,000. There was a 20k common stock and then $100,000 convertible. Note that you could, as a founder, choose to accept or not. Because we had a cap of 3 to 5 million, we could float up to 5, but it was basically capped. And so if you had a higher valuation or you had raised more than say $250,000 and it didn't make sense, didn't have to take it. Now the deal terms are $220,000 total and it is uncapped. So we do not have a capped. It's a $200,000 uncapped MFN safe. And then we also have a $20,000 post money convertible equity agreement. You can find all of the details about the new term on our Techstars website. So if you go to techstars.com and look up the investment terms, it'll show all the details there, including a really awesome video from our founder and CEO David Cohen about how it works. But we really believe that it's better for founders.

Awesome. Super cool. Especially to get that kind of optionality. I know from an investor's perspective with our hat we love and by the way, me and my partner Al are mentors in the San Diego State program. Al went through the program 12 years ago in Seattle and then has been pretty much a mentor ever since. I know he's helped in Austin and other programs in anywhere. And so you know, longtime supporters. But what we love about being mentors and now mentor slash investors is getting to know companies over time and you know, tracking the milestones that they're doing, but getting to know them as people because we can come as often as possible, really beyond mentor madness and then stay in touch, see where we can help and invest in them. And so we've since invested, we've invested in multiple anywhere companies, by the way, and we've made, within the last year, made our first investment in Texas San Diego, powered by Sano state site Bionics and you know, we're ready for more, ready to take on more. So, you know, super excited.

Shout out to Adam Blair and his co founder as well. That's, that was a year one company. So super excited. Thank you for the investment, of course.

No, we're, we're stoked to Adam and Don just powering ahead, changing retail technology for sure. And we can't wait to, to meet the next class. So we're excited to just open our network and make introductions to say, hey, you know, we've been tracking you make sure you're applying because we'd love to see you perform over time. What do you get from other mentors? Like, I mean there's a lot like you mentioned Andy White, Kesha, another investor. So there's a lot of investors who are mentors in this program and a lot of other mentors take us through some of the background. Like there's like a rich, deep tapestry of backgrounds in the mentor network here.

Oh my goodness. So here's the thing. I like to joke that, you know, our team is super smart, just really brilliant, super humble, but we just couldn't do what we do without mentors. We have as part of the techstars San Diego Powered by SDSU process, a interview, like I mentioned, so applicants founders can apply, we interview them and then we have what's called a screening committee where we do kind of like a gut check and put these founders in front of mentors, investors, faculty and academics within SDSU because they're an amazing partner and they talk to these founders. Well, if you look at the breadth of technologies we're investing in, it would be hard press for me anyway to know everything about each of these industries so we can go out into this incredible network and tap into other people's brains and say, hey, can you take a look at this company and tell me what you think? So we have mentors from all different walks of life, people who are founders. So I know Greg Moser with Shipcom. He's a mentor. Right. So he has been through it, lived through it. We have Hussein Yapalfi, who's not only an exited founder, but he's also a community builder. Right. He puts on community events. You and Al, who are investors, community builders and. And you have also built. We have academics at the university level. Stanley Malloy, who. That man, no matter what company we bring in, he's. Oh, yeah, I know about that. I once did a workshop on that. I was guest lecturer on that. It doesn't matter. Whatever the company is building, Stanley knows something about it. So we have so many incredible. Shirley Yeager, who actually came from Qualcomm, has since retired, but she was a part of Qualcomm and has so much deep expertise in tech as well. So we have this incredible pool of mentors who all they want to do is altruistically give back. They want to be the resource that they wish they had when either they were building and. Or they're looking to see how they can invest in the next wave of innovation and. Or they're just trying to help founders avoid the speed bumps and challenges that they know are sure to come faster and easier than they could do on their own.

Yeah, it's one from mentors. It's awesome to meet other mentors and build our own network from that. But then to see how diverse the backgrounds are is perfect for the diversity of the companies that get. Come through as well too, because like you said, it's really pretty broad and it's on your team to do this pattern matching. But then mentor madness really is. Actually helps self match as well too, where mentors are saying, I like this team and the teams are like, I like them. So some really cool processes of how to take like 90 mentors and boil it down to, you know, a variety of expertise for each company that needs the help that they. That they need. So, so excited for that. Excited for. Already excited for like demo day, which is always a super fun day at Snapdragon where they've got entrance music, hundreds of people cheering each other on. It's like I'm already thinking about that yet. We haven't even had applications yet. So I know I'm getting December of.

2025 and we have not even made it through April yet. What are you doing to me, Neil?

But that's like, you know, part of that is like the excitement and the, you know, peace, because I love to just reverse engineer everything, which is what is the, you know, year three going to look like and hang Our hat on that we brought another, elevated another group of amazing founders and brought them to the community and vice versa. And that's what you're leading now. So you are the captain of our ship, which is leading the community forward in helping amazing founders run through walls.

So I love it. I definitely want to give first to our community, make sure that we not only support our founders, but support the people who have done so much for techstar San Diego powered by sdsu. My ask is that if you know amazing founders and you know amazing mentors to refer them to us. If you go to sdsutechstars.commentor-reference or sdsutechstars.comfounder-reference, you can complete a form and send over great founders who fit the profile we were just discussing earlier. And then if you know, mentors really, I mean, exited founders are always great because they've been through it and they have the scars to prove it. And subject matter experts, if you are the goat in, you know, go to market or in sales or we have incredible legal mentors as well. Shout out to all the legal assistance that have has been given to the founders for, from the program. I mean, legal fees, they can get a founder in trouble. A lot of times they're like, oh, I, I met this lawyer and he helped me with this. And then we have some of our legal mentors who are like, yeah, they did not help you, I'll just tell you that much. So any sort of subject matter expertise is really, really helpful for our founders. So if you do have someone in the network, it would be wonderful to refer them.

Okay, good to know. You know, something that you guys are great at doing with techstars is a lot of community events to get the community to know the, you know, the mentor network, the founder network. You do that usually over breaking bread or having tacos. I know there's the weekly. Isn't there like Wednesday nights you do a meal at some. Yeah, yeah. So food is a big part as we have this program and tacos are a big part of the San Diego ecosystem. So the people need to know. Misty, where do you go to get your favorite taco? Where do you take your.

Okay, so I know you were going to ask me this and there are so many places that I like to go because food is so integral to my happiness. I absolutely love food. I but I'm going to say not only have they been an incredible partner in terms of providing us with spaces to entertain and to hold events, but also they serve incredible food. I'm Going to give a shout out to Puesto. Puesto Valley is one that we have been to quite a few times. I love their tacos. I also love their enchiladas. But we will stop at tacos. I would love to give them a little bit of love because they have also given so much back to us in terms of support for our program, but also just taste bud support. Yeah, very happy.

San Diego founded company. I have been in touch with the founder to do episodes live from Presto, by the way, and he's open to it in the future. So, you know, another good founder in town.

The founder of what I'm hearing, Neil, is you need someone to go and test tacos with you as you do the podcast. And I mean, I guess if that's what you need, I'll, I'll give first. I'll be that person.

Thank you for sacrificing yourself for the cause there. 100. The tacos are great and like they've got, I would say I put them on the higher end of, of the taco landscape there. Like a great huge menu of tacos and I don't know if I've actually tried every single one. Like it is a big menu of selection.

Definitely an elevated taco experience for sure.

They've got like three or four just in San Diego alone. So you're not never too far away from a good taco, that's for sure. Misty, this has been awesome. Thank you for being on the pod. How many steps do you happen to know? How many steps you took while we were talking? Is that something you trap?

You know what, I'm not going very fast because I didn't want it to sound like I was completely and totally out of breath. So I probably only have like 3,000 or so since we've been maybe, maybe 2,000, 3,000 steps that I've taken so far. But I'll give a. I'll give you a count. You can put it in the, in the transcription.

But you know, that is the founder journey, by the way, is, you know, sometimes a decade long and I think you represented it well of taking one step, which is what you got to do to start to even have the startup. In fact, San Jose or Startup San Diego has this great quote that says you don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great. And that is taking the first step and then every step after. And there's a community that wants to support you along the way, but you've still got to keep taking the steps. So thank you for demonstrating that through this entire interview. Thank you for leading the charge here for techstar San Diego, powered by Center States. And we're so excited for this next program. So thanks for being on the podcast.

Thank you for having me, Neil. It's been a pleasure.

Likewise. Cheers.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started?

You want tech in tacos, tacos in tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper countins counting beans contador quentan frijoles founders 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 pesto lucha libre and sombrero gotta shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La jolla shows entrepreneurs trash to get funded When San Diego Startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana sd 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 tekkin tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it, hey.

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 and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it hey, it.