This Week in San Diego Tech News - September 23, 2024

Hello.

Hello, everyone. Your San Diego Tech besties Neil and Fred here. Back at you. Hey, Fred, how you doing?

Hey, Neil. Doing pretty good. How are you doing?

Doing all right. It was a crazy busy week last week. This weekend has proven to be a lot more low key though. Cooler too, which we all appreciate as San Diego, who live in a 10 degree, 5 degree maximum in buckets. But you were in Chicago. How's the weather? How's your trip?

The. The weather was great. It was 80 degrees. It was my first time in Chicago. Got some, you know, deep dish pizza and just really took in the scene there. I think Chicago is one of the greatest places on earth. If I wasn't living in San Diego, Chicago would be close. Top three choice for me. It was great.

Awesome. Love to hear it. We connected to some local investors too, which I know you'll be staying in touch with. Well, why don't we dive into some news?

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 Quinta 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 have beer and coffee My coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing Coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero gotta shout out to cost Angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded when San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana SD be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars 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 party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the the party started.

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

But first, quick little backgrounds here. I'm Neil Bloom, run Fresh brew. Tech and the tacos and tech podcast, as well as co founder of Interlock Capital, a local venture capital fund. And this is Fred and I'm Fred.

Greer, journalist and author of the Business of San Diego Substack. I write about the tech industry in San Diego, covering the ins and outs of the startup scene and excited to be back talking about the biggest news in startup this week.

Well, we keep talking about how as the year goes on it's going to get busier and busier. The fall is proving to be some of the busiest from events with the election, it's becoming the busiest from news and everything else that comes with all of that. So last week we had a busy week in event land starting with Monday. I attended Evonex's demo day which was a pleasure to be a part of and see Evo. Nexus is what brought me to San Diego 11 years ago and what was really cool is they did a lot of alum showcases so companies that actually started in Eva the same time as me 11 years ago. We're up on stage showing here's how we're doing now, including House Call Pro with president and co founder Ian Hecht talking about how they're doing 200 million in annual revenue which was awesome to see them doing well. Shout out to the whole team, Reza and Roland and Ian and the whole co founding team on building something great as well as Bio Link gave a big update. They got in same time as me 11 years ago. They were originally known as Electrozyme and their original premise was being able to detect your blood sugar just from your sweat and they've had a long journey since then and they're actually getting back to that now now that they've already figured out Micro Needle, they're getting back to their roots so it was cool to see some of the updates. A lot of hardware companies which was cool that EVO is really good at, especially because of the roots in the chip space here in San Diego of a lot of the early founders and early companies. A lot of serial entrepreneurs in the audience who are there from Mark Bowles, everyone's favorite Eric Otterson and so many more. So it was a great night and it was great to see EVO showcase the impact they've had locally. The rest of the week there's a lot else going on. I know SDX had an AI showcase, we did Dev and Data Night Meet CTO talks at Seismic, which brought out about 80 to 90 technical leaders to chop it up at Seismic's office over in Carmel Valley which was really cool to host on the Panel included VP of AI at Seismic Union and a really fun, fun conversation for talking all technical leadership, both from a tech perspective and leadership. It was great. So look out for our fourth quarter event, which will be more of a holiday party tech the halls. We are going to do a bit of a silent disco meets holiday party meets a bit of a give back, if you will. So we're going to make everyone who attends bring something that we will donate to a local charity as well too. So it's a busy week. Oh, and then I was part of techstars mentor magic which is going on right now, two weeks straight of connecting serial builders with the newest techstars cohort, which also was recently announced. We talked through those companies on the last podcast. So it was great to meet. I met all 12 companies in a rapid fire, five hours, sat down, got to know each one a bit and now know a bunch of us know how we can help and where to kind of watch where they're headed over the next three months before their December demo day. Busy week for us. Same with Fred, who was busy in Chicago. It's good to have you back in town here, Fred. Should we dive into some of our stories or you got some events you wanted to mention last week as well too?

Now let's, let's get into it.

Yeah, we got, we got some big news from the big tech companies to top it off. I'll let you break it here.

Yeah, so I think the biggest headline is Qualcomm has approached intel recently about taking over the company. And this was a kind of a alleged rumor that broke news last week. And it's funny because I've seen in the last two days, Wall Street Journal, Axos, all the big publications are talking about it now. It's been a long, long time rival for Qualcomm, intel, they have chips business, a computer business, PC, etc, you know, they actually have poached employees from Qualcomm over the last couple decades. So it's interesting to see that Qualcomm was looking to purchase Intel. I don't know the details on it. I'm still, I think we're still kind of following the story pretty closely, but this is like fresh news. And you know, this is, this could be huge if it goes through. What are your thoughts on it, Neil?

Yeah, it's, it's massive. It's this big storyline that Qualcomm has been at the epicenter of for so long and specifically around handsets and chips in our phones. Intel used to have a really big play in this, actually making modems for phones. And they actually sold that division to Apple not too long ago, within five, six years ago. And that included a San Diego office that Apple was, that was their first presence in San Diego was the intel modem office over in Scripps Ranch, I believe. Then there was this whole big play of Qualcomm versus Broadcom, which is another big chip maker that eventually Broadcom, an Irvine originally funded company or based company that got acquired by a Singapore company and it was trying to take over Qualcomm that Trump stepped in and said, nope, it's a national security interest, can't let that happen. And then you have the Apple and Qualcomm battles through IP as well too. So some major storylines here. I can just picture Mike Friedman, former Union Tribune writer, just salivating over the storyline here as he loved to do. He was he's so good at getting the deep details. So I hope we're, we're doing it some justice here. But we will stay on this story and if we hear, as soon as we hear of something more, we'll be sure to share this. That's for sure. Let's go to our next story. Oceanside is officially opening its Front Wave arena basketball stadium, slash mixed use stadium, but primarily for actually I think it's indoor soccer. The soccer is going to be playing there as well as the Clippers D League team, the San Diego Clippers. It is officially open and I think the season begins late October, early November for the Clippers. Is that right, Fred?

That sounds correct. I think the details on it that I saw is yeah, this new Frontway arena is going to seat about 7,500 people with brand new amenities. This is an $85 million project, 16 premium suites, you know, the whole, the whole nine. This is a pretty big deal. You know, I think Oceanside, North Counties is having some momentum and San Diego is, is definitely benefiting from a sports perspective with the soccers and the G League coming to town. I'm actually trying to go to the G League. One of their events is happening, you know, later this year I think October or September. It's actually October I believe. I think it's, I forgot who they play. But anyways, it's just a good way to engage the community down at North County. And yeah, just opened up on Monday. They did a ribbon cutting. So yeah, great news.

Yeah, yeah, it is great news for sure. We love to pepper in the big sports news here and why don't we stay with sports for now. I'M going to mix one in before the one we have here. We didn't actually talk about Landon Donovan coming in as head coach for the Wave. Landon Donovan, legendary soccer, men's soccer player. I think the MLS MVP of the Year award trophy is called the Landon donovanovan MVP of the Year award. And he's resided here. He's. He was the co founder of the San Diego Loyal. And then over the summer when the Loyal, when the Wave were looking for a new head coach, Landon stepped up and is coaching them through the end of the year. And now our men's pro team has stepped up with officially naming their new head coach. The San Diego FC don't start till next year, 2025. So we're actually probably, I think, only like six months away from their season beginning, but they just announced their newest head coach. You want to take us through this, Fred?

Yeah. So they hired a head coach from New Zealand and basically, you know, Santa Football Club, they haven't started yet. They're kicking off their season next year in 2025 and the, the club currently has about six players on a contract. And I think people are really excited. You know, I see a lot of marketing from San Diego Football Club on Instagram and Twitter. Seem like they're really trying to engage that fan base from SD Loyal and SD Wave. So yeah, it's exciting that they've appointed a head coach and expect to see more news from them coming soon.

Yeah, the, what's been really cool to follow is their Chrome Ball tour. They've been doing, you know, one to two events per month where they bring a big full day, not just soccer, a sports celebration, to a different city in the community. Whether it's Escondido or Carlsbad or Chula Vista or Lakeside, like every, you know, few times a month, they're bringing this community together and really making it city by city. I see the roots of that is from the Loyal. A lot of the loyal staff went over to San Diego FC and you're seeing a lot of similar, like grassroots, local connection community, which is very San Diego. It's how you got to do it. We are not big on big overarching marketing campaigns. I feel like you win us at the local wineries and I mean, sorry, breweries and bars one by one. And it's, it's, it's great to see SDFC kind of leaning into that aspect. So congrats to the, the club for naming Mikey Virus and let's get, you know, ready to see some new sports here in town, which will be exciting. Speaking of new in town, we have a new venture fund officially here in town. Connect has spun up the TL foundation, or as it's known as the Tree lady foundation, which has some backstory there, which I'll let Fred share, but they have made their first official investment in four companies. I think all four are or part of this year's cool companies as I recognize that name. And it's a unique spin on this venture fund as it is a non profit venture fund. Do you want to take us through some of these news, Fred?

Yeah. So the TO foundation, which is led by Mike Crin, who's the president and you know, CEO of Connect, which is a non profit supporting early stage companies and connect them to investors. TL Fund foundation launched earlier this year and their fund is actually a flagship model where they engage kind of like senior leaders, people who, you know, have been successful in the business world and now want to give back. They raised, you know, a couple million from these folks to invest in early stage startups. And their motto is once they invest in these companies, these LPs that gave them money aren't respecting return. They're actually going to, you know, return that fund into an evergreen, evergreen fund. So I think they just made 5 investments, total investments 400k. Natalie Rocha from the Union Tribune did a great piece highlighting those companies. I believe Mike Prin will be going more in detail and.