The Tech World with "Mr. San Diego" Part 2 of 2

Man the only boy who could ever teach me Was a son of a preacher man ain't no light to see.

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You're watching America Trends. I'm Mary Burke Godwin and I'm talking to, I'm going to say Mr. Tech San Diego, Neal Bloom. He's the managing partner, co founder of Interlock Capital, community driven investment firm. And right before the break, we were talking about this fallout of SVB and all the things that are kind of happening simultaneously in the world, in the economic world and in the tech world to kind of impact the future of startups and how everything's going. So I had to interrupt you, so let's circle back to that.

Yeah. So you've got the last year, this negative macroeconomic environment between the stock market falling and everyone expecting a recession happening soon. Right. So you see big tech laying off lots of people from Amazon and Google, all that. So you have a lot of talent out there who's actually really interested in what's next. And this is actually, we see if you look back at previous recessions, a lot of the big tech companies stories like Airbnb and Uber came from downturns in this time frame. So it's actually an interesting time to me making investments in early stage tech companies because people are taking more risks now as founders while the world says, should we be trusting the startup world when they make a bank collapse like this right now? So it's a really interesting environment and we're excited to be putting more money to work right now when more people are taking more risks.

So I was going to say that that's it's so important is because things like Airbnb and Uber could come out of this because all these people are laid off. That's an interesting perspective.

I think also the kinds of companies that are going to come out of this are going to be even more impactful because of what we've seen the need for, whether it's infrastructure related, you know, like new energy sources and new, you know, mobility solutions. So I think it's going to be really interesting the kinds of projects and products that come out of this next year's.

So you have a good feeling for what's going to come out of this. Yes, we're headed in the right direction.

Yeah.

And you're certainly in a great position where you are because you get to maybe weed through and see all these different, exciting things.

Yeah, definitely.

So if, let's say I'm a founder and I've never raised capital, what are some of the things I should know and, you know, the steps I should take?

It's a great question. And a lot of people think raising capital is the goal. The goal is to build a business, and capital should just help you build an even better business. So what I would say is first really understand the fundamentals of your customer and get to know the real need and validate that you really have a business there. And then look for capital that is smart capital, meaning capital that can do more than just write a check, can.

Open doors like we were talking about before. Make connections, answer questions, open things, be.

Working when you're sleeping. Right. You want capital that is as close to helping you as possible. Usually that means coming from someone who's been there, done that before in your industry. And so, yeah, I really recommend people who take their time to look for the right investors, not just any money.

Right. Okay. And I wanna talk about your podcast, because I was going, I listened to it. Tacos and tech.

Yes.

Right. First of all, I need to ask a non tech related question. Who wrote your theme? So. Because it's fabulous and it's very San Diego.

Thank you. Yeah, we.

Is it a local band?

Yeah, it's a local group. Two guys that I'm really friendly with. They call themselves the school of Rap.

Okay.

And they do both like tech rap. And now they've got a children's line.

Oh, my God.

Where they do rap for kids.

So this can be found the podcast tacos and tech can be found on spot. I found it on podcast, any network. Right. And so then you just pick tech entrepreneurs of all different areas. Tech, right.

Absolutely. We've started even grow a little outside of San Diego. We just want to meet good tech people and spend 20 to 25 minutes getting to know their story, where they came from, where they're headed.

Okay. And then.

And then ask the important question. Favorite taco spot. That's how we always end.

That's what I would hope. What's your favorite taco spot?

Oh, it's like my favorite. That's asking all of my favorite babies. I mean, the taco stand is the number one mentioned one on the podcast, but city tacos has become a new favorite of them.

Well, I don't know what city tacos is.

Oh, well, then we gotta get some tacos.

I have like a laposta where near where I grew up. That was my favorite. Okay. And then you also are the co founder, managing partner or CEO of Rising Tide Partners, which is kind of the over umbrella.

Yeah. So it's a content agency that we started that really came from the need where we were helping the San Diego startup community entrepreneurs get connected. We realized what was missing was an awareness that everyone knew that what's happening here in San Diego. We started the podcast to promote that.

Okay.

And then government, city government, state and even county. Can you promote our startup community? And so we've created kind of this white labeled content service to help promote innovative companies to move to specific cities.

And do you have a newsletter?

Yes, we do.

Okay. So newsletter podcast. And if you are somebody that's thinking about start doing a startup so they can contact you or look up these, sign up for your newsletter, listen to your podcast. What other ways can they get involved?

Yeah. So Fresh Brew Tech is a newsletter, podcast and blog. So they can subscribe and get our weekly newsletter or listen to the podcast. We've got Interlock Capital. You can apply to be an investor in our group or apply to be invested in through our website. So we look for both sides trying to just activate more of both sides of there.

And if you what's your last big tip for somebody that is maybe fearful like after the SVB thing and they think I'm not gonna get enough money, I'm not, you know, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna go back to waiting tables.

So there's a really good quote that I love that says you don't have to be great to start to start to be great. And I think people just need everyone's sitting on ideas. We all have saw ideas be like, I want to start this thing. Well, just start and I think take the little steps forward, whatever that means. Get the website, buy the domain, talk to someone that you've been scared to talk to about your idea. Just start, start making progress, make it down the road.

That seems like it is the way for everything in life. Right. You just need to take the one step instead of worrying about what the mile marker is going to look like. What do I do today to help me? Okay, and then your websites. Interlock Capital is your website so people can go there and what tacos and tech and where else can we direct people?

FreshBrewTech.com will pretty much put you into the San Diego startup ecosystem. And then risingtidepartners Co will help you understand kind of the content that we create for others.

Awesome. Neal Bloom, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me, Mr. Tech San Diego. Love having you here. And we've got more America Trends after this quick break. You can find us on Social mediamericatrends tv, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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