This Week in San Diego Tech News - November 8, 2024

Hello. Hello everyone, it is Fred. Neal, back at you. Hey Fred, how you doing?

Hey Neil. I'm doing pretty good. How are you doing?

Doing all right. Doing all right. It's feel like we actually had a little bit of a lull post election. It's a few days of times to look inward, look forward and it's a little quiet actually. I feel like this week events wise, which is kind of nice to just take a moment and reset. How you feeling post election?

I'm feeling, feeling good. It's been to like to your point, it has definitely been, been slow. I think people were waiting to see the result of the election and now starting to set some more meetings and, and kind of chart a path forward. I know this new election is going to impact not only the life sciences sector but you know, all kind of different sectors. And so I think a lot of executives and investors are now, you know, looking at their portfolio, looking at their company and trying to chart ahead over the next four years and how this might impact, you know, their company and their policies going forward.

Yeah, I, I think it's, it's. You got to compartmentalize some pieces of it to look forward just because of the emotional response. Some are having depression and other having elation. So it's been interesting to talk and just with my peers in that regard and I do think the venture capital world is elated. I think they think now that M and A will come back. I think Lina Khan will get the boot at the Federal Trade Commission and therefore will open up the doors to enable M and A which should jumpstart, you know, liquidity in capital. So I, I definitely am sensing in the VC world excitement there in that regard going forward and just the, what are the possibilities that what of so much change that could come to the federal government? What does that mean opportunity wise? Especially if you've got Elon, who's literally created brand new sectors, right, Carved out his own electric vehicle world, carved out his own space world, carved out his own communications. If he can privatize a lot of things that the government was doing prior, what does that mean for a lot of technology sectors going forward? So you know, I think the tech world is, I would say is mostly excited in general going forward with these results and then capitalize. I had heard this wasn't me because we did two investments just last Friday alone. We wired. But a lot of people were waiting apparently. But people were just saying, yeah, I'm going to hold off on committing to new deals because who knows if one of the Persons wins. Maybe all of a sudden my capital tax, capital gains tax is changing. I'm moving, my fund's moving something. So people also were just like waiting to deploy capital over the last month. So I heard I didn't run into a lot of people like that, but that's not to say I'm running into everyone. So yeah, I think either way, just ready to move forward, that's for sure. Talk about some other stuff that went on this week. I, alongside San Diego State's zip launchpad hosted Grayson lafrens, the founder of Power Digital, Wednesday night at San Diego State in the zip Launchpad Center. And it was awesome to hear his kind of the full story of Power Digital and I think seven companies he started and failed at Priority, which was really cool. He, he really was about 60, 50, 60 students and some Techstar San Diego companies who were in attendance to hear from him and he stayed late and answered all questions. Super giving of, of his guy of, of his time. And if you ever heard Grayson talk, I mean he's, he's the real deal. He gives it to you straight, that's for sure. So thanks Grayson for, for staying out, staying and coming to speak. I know it was a long time in the making and it was awesome to have you there. So thanks. And then the UCSD IGE Med Device showcase just happened as well too. You want to give us a quick download a little bit on some of the companies that were highlighted?

Yeah. So it's great to see, you know, UCSD really invest and really put a lot of energy towards helping the next generation of startups. They hosted their sixth annual showcase where they had about 25 startups tabling. Their theme this year was game changing Impact with the focus on medtech startups. And yeah, a lot of companies actually haven't heard of for the first time. There were some like GoldTechs and Reblood Mercury, Mercury Alert AI. We had some like robotic companies, they had prosthetic leg company as well and you know, really this is like a showcase of how do you, you know, encourage PhDs and master students and alumni of UCSD to, you know, kind of collaborate with the local investor community. There's a lot of commercialization that comes out of UCSD not only in life sciences but also in robotics. And the Jake School of Engineering has done a good job of, you know, promoting early stage companies. I think we've written about them in the past at Freshproof Tech and you know, I think we'll just say that over the years I'm continuing to see a maturity of companies, I think five years ago you might see, you know, one company get spun out and actually, you know, have employees. But now we're seeing cohorts of companies each year, 10 to 15 companies where they might employ, you know, two to 10 to 15 employees. And so I think we're seeing just a maturity of university based startups and that cross pollinization of like the private sector and academia. And it's just great to see.

Yeah, totally. I know I went last year, I wasn't able to make this year, but I went last year and met some great teams. Med device is not an area of specialty for me, but that's why I go to learn and see if I can help connect and meet other investors who do have more specialties so that when I do meet some med device companies I can connect them to subject matter experts in that regard. So thanks to the IGE team to, for putting that on. You mentioned Limber, who I had met there I think maybe two years ago, went on to win San angel conference last year and I think got a big investment out of that. And, and they're a really. And they got investment from UCSD's First Venture Fund. I believe they're the first team to get an investment from UCSD's fund directly. So great to see that, that's for sure. Let's talk about some news that's going on. Uh, you got, you obviously been tracking the beat of the life science office market in general. Commercial real estate is, you know, going through quite a slump specifically in class A. But take us a little bit deeper. What are you learning and seeing right now?

Yeah, at a high level. I saw a new article out San Diego. Life science office. Office spaces is kind of sitting vacant. There's over a million off million square foot in office space mostly in that La Jolla cluster, Valley and Torrey Pines, etc. There's just a lot of investors who put a lot of money and developers put a lot of money in creating new office space to office and lab space to serve the booming life science ecosystem. In 2020 and 2021 we saw a resurgence in funding. There was like 9 billion pumped in I think 2021. A lot of that was life sciences, some in tech. And so investors and developers thought that you know, they, they needed more space and so ultimately they overbuilt and there's been a consolidation in the life sciences ecosystem. I think the majority of layoffs have come from the life sciences scene over the last two years and as a result you know, office is, is sitting vacant. So the article, we'll link it in the show notes goes into deeper of this trend. But I am seeing some of the later stage companies, series C and up, they're actually, you know, doubling down on office space and moving into new locations, relocating. I'm seeing more and more companies, not just in life sciences, move more north. I'm seeing companies go to Encinitas in North county and so it's fascinating to see that trend as well. But I think long term, you know, we need, we need space for life science companies and so there will be some, some of these get repurposed to maybe some housing. But I still think, you know, Torrey Pines is always going to be a hot spot for the life science hub. And so when things go things, things get better and more funding gets, gets there, I can see that space getting filled.

Yeah, totally. I mean we talked about recently the Breakthrough Properties property over in Torrey Hills that came online, had a ribbon cutting and was already filled even though it's not even finished being built out yet. Right. And you had Pfizer taking a whole building and stuff like that. So it's kind of interesting. Yeah, kind of. It seems very look geo specific to a certain regard. So thanks for, for giving us a highlight and let's keep, let's keep talking about it, that's for sure. So we kind of can track what's going on. Speaking of med device startups, a local startup, Hydro Stasis as man, I've been watching the team here for five, six years. I first met them either through Ad, Astra and or Stella when it actually was I think known as Hera Angels. And they officially shipped their first product. So congratulations team. I'm so pumped to put on. I'm a junkie for wearables. I've got my Fitbit on my wrist. I'll be wearing now a Hydro Stasis on my wrist as well too. So congrats team and thanks for the little personalized note. Glad to be one of the first supporters customers if you will on that. So if you haven't seen one of these hydration monitors, go grab one. We'll link in the show notes and go be one of the first to test it out, give them feedback so that you know we can build good companies here. Speaking of wearing things, send us your swag. You know we would love to rock our San Diego companies in the wild. Fred and I are constantly wearing hats. I'm wearing my own swag right now. Interlock Capital if you Would like some interlock swag. Send me a note. I'll send you a link to our swag site. I just purchased more Vendi Bean swag. I had their original dad hats and now I think they've made a little upgrade with some sweaters and some new hats. So send us, Fred and I, your swag and we will wear it, that's for sure. On this show and out in the wild, you got, you got some swag you're rocking already. From some.

I would just say, you know, people, people who live in San Diego love supporting San Diego companies and San Diego brands. And you know, us having so many like Life Science, Life lifestyle brands like VA clothing and, and even corporate companies like ServiceNow and Qualcomm. I'm always seeing, you know, just a proudness of just repping San Diego. We all came here for similar reasons and, you know, yeah, I think it's great to see like Vinnie Bean and Hydro Stasis, them launching their brand, launching our product. You know, we should go out and support them because we're the adopters and it's just, it's just great. We all love San Diego.

Are you, are you been rocking the hat company that you reported on?

Yeah, Hugo House, they're taking off. They just had a new collection. I wrote about them earlier this year when they crossed 1 million in run rate. And yeah, big fan of those, of those guys. Young, young co founders and continue to crush it.

Yeah. So whether you are a clothing company or you're a tech company with clothing, send us, send it our way. And we will support that for sure. Speaking of support, the Brand Cooper Leadership Fund, which was originally announced late summer after the passing of our dear friend and mentor, Brant Cooper. The fund was, has been recently spun up to support ecosystem entrepreneurs in a sense, people like me and Fred, people who are out there not just building companies, but building community for companies. We've got a fund where you can apply with your ecosystem project to get grant funding, cash and mentorship. And so the application we announced being live at Startup Week. So the link is in the show notes here. Applications are due by end of year and then they'll be awarded in 2025 and they'll be like, kind of like a mentorship slash incubator in a sense. So there's a group of us who have been building ecosystem who are going to mentor kind of the next generation of leaders, which is really what Brandt did to a lot of us. Brandt really built stuff, then kind of gave us the playbook and said, go Build and we're trying to pass that on so that we can scale ecosystem building so we can continue to build good companies. So look for a link in the show notes there. That's our recent news, some events coming up. There's still some stuff happening before Thanksgiving including the March Mini Mingle coming up next week, November 14th. I'm so stoked to see them do a second event throughout the year. Especially because you go to March Mingle in March and you're like man, we gotta wait a whole year for this is so fun. So I'm stoked. So look out for and sign up to join the March mini mingle November 14th. You know where it's at Fred, where it's happening?

I think this setup, it's at a the second oldest bar in downtown San Diego. We need, we need to get the name was in downtown. It's the second oldest bar and they're expecting 100 people to be there. Tickets are limited, so get it soon.

Okay, awesome. Also I think it's 14th, 15th or 15th, 16th. The Don Norman Design Awards. So if you listen to this podcast, you may have heard we just interviewed Don Norman, kind of the godfather of user experience, human centric design, which he turned into humanity centric design. And now he's creating the Don Norman Design Award which really is a global set of awards for upand coming leaders who are doing societal change. So human humanity, focus change. So it's not people who've already done it for four years. So it's kind of the anti Nobel prize if you will. It's the up and comers early career to give them a nod early on of kind of a life of greatness, if you will. So go back and listen to the episode with me and Don because what a journey and what a treasure. We have him here in San Diego and then you can actually go to the summit. Year one is going to be in San Diego, but I don't think it'll ever be again. I think next year it's going to be summer in Asia. He hinted at. So go check out the Don Norman Design Award and summit and that's coming up soon. We've got tech the halls, a holiday warehouse party, silent disco at Shitcom's office in Carlsbad on December 6th. Already got already just booked, I think one of our two DJs. And we also do it on a call for if you've got some kind of hardware, like some robots, we want some robots out there doing some demos, maybe doing some robot dancing, but doing a kind of a call for robots to come, you know, fill the space of tech the halls, which will be super fun. And then lastly, not lastly, but coming up, just keep it on your radar. TechCon SoCal is coming back. Tech ConSecal 2025 is coming back in mid January, so keep an eye out on that. We've been, I've been, I'm helping again this year curate some of the talks. I'm helping on the fintech and deep tech tracks and we're already starting to announce some of the speakers but got some good ones. So excited. Excited for that.

That's it on my end.

Fred, what do you got anything else left on your end?

We covered it. You know, I recommend. Yeah. Plugging up to the social coyote to understand, you know, what's going on from an event standpoint. And yeah, we'll continue to bring you top funding, news and top headlines in San Diego Tech. Yeah.

Make sure you subscribe to Fred Substack the Business of San Diego substack link in the show notes and mine as well. Fresh Brew Tech substack. We appreciate all of your support, your sharing and we're here to build a bigger and better ecosystem which stands to benefit all of us. So thanks everyone, have a great weekend and we'll see you out there. Cheers.

Cheers.