This Week in San Diego Tech News - May 6, 2024

Hello. Hello everyone. Happy Monday. Neil and Fred, back at you in our first full week of May. Hey Fred, how you doing?

Hey Neil. Doing pretty good. Happy Monday. First Monday of May.

Yeah. Good to see you. I was out in Chicago for a long weekend for a good friend's wedding and looking at Instagram, I saw you were chopping it up on the greens. How's your golf game?

My golf game's getting a little bit better. Got to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, hitting some golf courses. Coronado also went to Oceanside and checked that out, so it was a good time. How was Chicago? Was the weather good?

Oh, fun. Weather was good. Yeah, it was nice to be out there. Good to be with old family and friends, some who are. Who has some entrepreneurial roots in Chicago. It was kind of cool to hear the CPG world of Chicago. Friend, a brother of the bride who's got a big cookie business called Sweet shot cookies. I'll give them a shout out. Do it. And they're in targets across the country and pretty good chocolate chip cookies. So shout out to the entrepreneurs there. Brad and team doing sweet shot cookies. But last week was a busy week for us. We were both at the cool. Well first we had our own fintech founders lunch which was really fun. About 40 founders and funders all under one roof, like mixing it up, having tacos at Weston, Mission Valley. What you think of the event? Did you have fun?

I was really impressed with the turnout and the feedback from attendees. They can't wait for the next one. There was so many fintech founders that are, you know, building really cool companies and VCs who were visiting the area. I thought it was a great, great turnout.

Awesome. Yeah, love to do that with you. I love to see the density of fintech. Like we talk about there's some broadness but there's also, you know, a bunch of say like wealth tech that was interesting to see or a bunch of like mortgage tech that was kind of interesting or real estate tech maybe around that. And, and I saw the corresponding investors too, like, you know, some who have LPs that are banks looking at very specific products and investing in areas where, you know, their member LP banks are interested and could be interested in that. So all that was great to just when you curate a group like that fintech, you can kind of dive a little bit below the surface of what we're used to doing and saying, you know what, what is really interesting in San Diego on the company side. And then we went straight to cool companies event where we had 30 companies, I think it was 15 life science, 15 software and hardware companies all put on by Connect. Beautiful event up at the tower right next to the, to the, to Padre Stadium there where they got to showcase these companies. Did you meet anyone new or catch up with companies you already knew?

I mean, I just want to say that, you know, shout out to connect for their 8th annual VC Roadshow. There was so many great people in the room that have, you know, been helping and supporting the San Diego startup ecosystem. The cool companies. There was a lot of companies actually didn't hear about. There were some familiar ones like the Fintech and you know, hydration Tech. There was like just a wide variety of different technologies as far as like VCs that were there. There was, there were some corporate, big corporate VCs as well as like a smaller angel investors. And so I thought that was unique where, you know, you can meet so many different types of profiles of investors and it's just great what, you know, Mike Crane and his team has just put together for the eighth year in a row. So it was a great congrats on a great event.

Yeah, yeah, completely agree. Really, really well done. To Mike, Christy and the whole Connect team, thank you for bringing us all together. I did meet some new companies as well. There's one that was really interesting to me. Accelerium, they're out of Irvine, but seem like the talent is all Qualcomm Intel. Like they've just built chipsets and they're building it all for bringing AI processing at the edge, like in vehicle and other things like that. So that was an interesting one. That was a new one to me. It's great to see obviously an portfolio company, Natalis, which was fun. Our newest investment. Great to see Alexi representing. They brought their full tail, wing, tail section. Love hardware for that regard. And then to see the Firestorm team in person. I got a little model here of their 3D printed version where you can take the parts. This is their models. They can, for $10,000 you can build a, you know, flying missile in pieces. And it was cool to see Dan and team working on that. And Harpoon Ventures was cool to see them, you know, out there active especially because there's some defense and aerospace tech that they're interested in seeing. So great to see local and abroad funders and founders all under one roof and actually being a pretty good baseball game too.

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 Countins counting beans Contado Quentin free holies founders trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy wrapping fire tortillas jalapenos in these modern times of craft beer and coffee My coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos staying in puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost 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 to 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 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. Well, plenty to talk about from yesterday. We'll dive into our show which also has plenty to talk about here too. Let's dive right into logistics tech world. New article out both in the Santa Business Journal and Union Tribune about Yambo. Long time logistics tech software company, AI company. About them partnering with one of the largest moving companies in the country, Atlas Vans. They have a cool partnership here but really let me tell you jumbo a little bit about what they've been building. They originally started as a kind of way to document everything in your house by your iPhone. So a quick visual inventory management that you could then send to movers who could give you a listing or a whole kind of quote. That was the original application. Take us through this partnership and kind of where it takes Yumbo here. Fred.

Yeah, I mean I don't really know. I'm not too familiar with the partnership exactly, but I can give some details on Yumbo. They were founded by, you know, former Qualcomm execs. We wrote about their company when they raised and got 8.5 million round back in the day and they continue to find success. This new partnership, it shows that, you know, they, they were able to find not just raise money but also, you know, continue to grow their company. One of their CEOs I think Sid, he's kind of like an influencer on Twitter. He has about I think eight, almost 9,000 followers now. He's like blown up as an Internet personality. And yeah, they continue to crush it. And I think this latest partnership just shows that, you know, they're here to stay as a, you know, I think they leverage AI. I wouldn't say they're fully, I think they might be fully enabled by AI. But yeah, they're one of the few companies here, early stage tech companies that have raised, you know, a large amount of capital.

Go Sid. Love seeing that. Both Sid and Zach, both pretty technical, I believe in their backgrounds. So seeing them, you know, go to this. I think Zach has been on the talkers and tech podcast with Hadama in the last year or two. So you can actually go back and listen to an interview with Zach, their cto. But they really, what really speaks to is that, you know, partnering with one of the largest moving companies nationally shows the relevance in the space, which isn't surprising given that San Diego's got a logistics tech subcluster of companies here. Whether it's from all the way up on, you know, Amazon having a big engineering team on their Amazon Fresh delivery and logistics piece to you know, we talked about is Lytics and Flock Freight and platform science kind of your later stage sub billion or just above billion dollar kind of private logistics tech on down to your earlier stage like Airspace up in Carlsbad and even Yambo who's just building technology and logistics. So much so that we've seen the density that Fred and I are actually organizing an event, a private event of logistics tech founders in June at Flock Freight's headquarters. So we've got CEO Flock Freight, Oren Zelanski is going to sit down for a fireside chat and a tour of the really cool space in downtown Encinitas. And we are gathering all the logistics tech leadership here in town. Should be a really fun event and timely I would say, for all these companies who are continuously advancing in this space. Anything you want to chat about that, Fred?

I'm looking really excited to partnering, you know, for that event, Flock Freight. They raised I want to say 400 million from SoftBank a couple years ago. You know, they're definitely a unicorn company in the area and this is a way to, you know, kind of give back and connect him to other logistic founders who are building the space and looking to grow and become the next Flock Freight.

Yeah, really excited to have that conversation together. So if you are in logistics tech world, expect an invitation from us to this private event we're doing late June. Let's talk about some other leadership. Recently we actually talked about on the biotech side, Quidel, which is one of the larger medical device diagnostic companies in San Diego, they kind of had a big changeover in leadership. Really just like they gutted their leadership. Well, they've announced their new hiring of their new CEO coming from a really big biotech company. Fred, why don't you share the news here on this one?

Yeah, so, I mean, the headline news is quite Dale. They appoint a new executive from a very large. A very large company. And this guy they're bringing in comes at a time where Quidel was struggling. They found a lot of success during COVID when they had, you know, released, I think, one of the first COVID testing products and they were flying off the shelves and they had, you know, I think back to back, you know, record sales. They grew up pretty rapidly during that time. And, you know, post Covid, they've struggled and they're publicly traded, I believe as well. And so when their stock went down, they had to do some restructuring and that involved letting go their CEO, which we talked about in our last podcast. And they're bringing in a new. A new veteran to lead the company to new heights. So if you're an investor or just looking to learn more about the space, definitely die, you know. You know, look at what they're doing as a company because I think they're going to kind of go to the next chapter with this, with this new hire.

Yeah. And I think he's come from Abbott, which is also. He ran their, their in vitro diagnostics area, which there's a lot of diagnostics in San Diego, so that's really great. And Abbott already had a presence in San Diego. It has a diabetes tech product called Omnipod. In fact, at a recent event we did for Devin Data Night, we had the CTO of Omnipod by Abbott, I think. Oh, no, that's insulin. No, sorry. Abbott has a. In a glucose company which, you know, competitor Dexcom in that regard as well too. So more density is a good thing. And good to see that quite L is moving forward with new leadership changes, especially in the diagnostic space. I definitely see their logo around there at Padre. They're another big sponsor of Padres. So we'd love to see our industry supporting our community in that regard as well too. So keep your eye on that and keep your eye on new roles that come together there. We got another man. It's another week, another M A in the biopharma world. Right. Fred, take us away on this One.

Yeah. So this is kind of under the radar. I didn't see too many publications talking about this. A company called Accient Pharmaceuticals, I wrote about them when they raised a series A in 2020 and since then they've gone on a raise multiple $100 million rounds. Think their last one was like 120 million series C. They're a biotech company that was acquired for 750 million as of last week by a large biotech firm and these guys that co founded it, one of them is a former alumni of a previous major success life science company called Receptos which was acquired by $7.2 billion a few years back. He then went on to start his own thing with a few other of his buddies and you know, they've only been around for four years and to have a $750 million acquisition, it's pretty massive.

It is especially for it being that recent of a company. A lot of the more recent acquisitions have been Companies that are 10 to 15 years old on the bio. This is you know, good to see that newer bio as well is also being acquired in that regard too. So we'll keep reporting on these and expect to see even I think more M and A in the biotech world here as well too. Let's talk about some other fundings and this is more in the clean tech space and Dara Motors which I think you covered in the past. This is an electric power plant company so they're building electric motors and they're. Right now I think they're having the most success in the small bus space. So they actually are like electrifying the fleets of those, those buses at airports that like bring you to like the rental car facility or like shuttles in that regard. I believe they're actually a bunch of SDSU alum that started this company and while I believe they've they originally they got some a big contract in la so they might have been in LA and LAX for a while. They're definitely still San Diego, San Diego based. So they raised a new round of 6 million funding after raising, I think it was about 20 million two years ago. I think you covered this friend. What's kind of the details here on Endera Motors?

Yeah, some of the just facts they were found in 2019. At the time they had about 70 employees and they actually work with San Diego International Airport providing them, you know, kind of free electric shuttle buses. So Enduro makes that model which is pretty cool. And yeah, they're one of the, you know one of the key Players in San Diego's, you know, EV scene. When I've written about, you know, kind of a special report for the business journal Endera Motors came up, you know, as one of those key players.

That's awesome. Really cool. Glad to see it. The clean tech cluster in San Diego is really interesting. We just, I just hosted an event in Carlsbad bringing together kind of like the, the battery tech companies of North County. I didn't realize there were so many and seeing Endera is another one because kind of this tech cluster. So congrats and keep it up. Why don't you take us through this this next one Last piece of news here. Yeah.

So last headline news is New Fund Venture Group. They have reached their hundred startup investment. New Fund Venture Group formerly known as TechOS Angels is San Diego's largest angel group. They are now kind of a, you know, nationwide venture capital group where they make investments in startups beyond San Diego. But you know, they're a group of lots of very Smart executives, former CEOs, investors who put capital into life science businesses, tech businesses and others. And so this is a huge milestone for them to hit their 100 startups and supporting the local ecosystem and beyond.

Yeah, this is really cool. They, they're really close to my heart. They funded my startup back in 2014 when they were Tech Coast Angel San Diego. I actually did get fund from all the chapters of Tech Coast Angels so la, Orange County, Central coast and in an empire during. So something new that came to new to TechOS Angels was a full time CEO executive director which is Ashok Kamal. Honestly that was one of the big cat catalyzing moments for the group. I joined as a member pretty much immediately after my exit or I think actually even before. That guy's just. I love Ashok and his and his energy I've invested in and what they started was an annual fund. So instead of just the opportunity for individuals to do group diligence and then write their own check, he also organized the very first way to create an annual fund where you could just invest in the fund and get in every new fund deal. And that really I think has changed New fund for the better. It's brought a lot of people in who maybe would be busy and don't have the time to write the checks, but now are in every deal and are just putting more money in every year which is something I, my and my, my partner Al Bashara also participated in every year. And so to see the group grow into new fund, I think there's 400 members now. You mentioned there's national, like only two. I think only 50% are local because there's been such interest across the country, if not the world, in the unique deal flow that new fund has in this model. So congratulations on 100 deals. I think this is 100 deals since they became new fund. Is that, is that what it means? So it's only talking like the last two, three years, Fred?

I think that's correct.

Wow, that's a lot of deals per year. That's awesome. That's a lot of capital, by the way, that has already seen some recycling. So we talked about DTX Pharma had a billion dollar exit last year. New fund members combined had 20% equity in the company. That all that money is going right back into more deals, into the fund and into more deals. And I think that means, is that they'll hit their $200 million milestone quicker than they hit their 100 million milestone, which is great for San Diego and for all the companies that they do. So congrats to Shoak, to Dean, to Caitlin Wege. The new president is Sirhat Tala, an experienced investor. These are all the leaders of the group and to all the members as well. Thanks for what you're doing and congrats and let's go hit 200 checks now in the next year. Which kind of leads us to our events. Should we dive right into events?

Right, yeah. So I can kick us off on the first one. So May 9th, this Thursday, Sando Angel Conference comes back to San Diego. Their tagline is bringing entrepreneurs and investors together. They have like a pitch competition where, you know, five companies will pitch their ideas in front of their group of investors and we'll, you know, I'll be there attending that event and writing about, you know, what are the interesting companies coming out of the, you know, pitching at the Senegal Andrew conference this year. They also do different curriculum, curriculums and education on how, you know, new, new folks who want to start angel investing, you know, they walk into the whole process of how to get involved. I'm actually speaking with the, the leader, the ringleader behind that, which is Misty Rusk. She's been doing the Angel Conference for a few years now and she's looking to expand it, I believe. So. Yeah, we'll have the whole scoop hopefully next week on the winner and what, what they're going to be doing next. And they're going to be expanding this model to other cities.

Yeah. When Misty started this, I think it's been five years now. I think either year one was 2019 or may have been during the pandemic, 2020, can't remember. And the really the goal was how do we train a whole new group of angel investors by not just learning it, you know, in the classroom, but learning while doing it. And so it's actually a six month program. You sign up six months ago to learn to be an angel investor and along the way you see the full process of marketing and soliciting people to apply for angel conferen difference than doing pitch competitions in like little mini pitch competitions to select down, do diligence, get and bring down. I think from they may have had 50 to 100 applicants, bring that down to five this week. Right. And, and they've, they're ready to write the check in the room at angel conference this Thursday, which is really big. Right. A lot of pitch competitions, it's just kind of for show. Right. And so in the room pitching is just, you know, it's the showy part. It may not you not actually get the merits of the company. This is a totally different thing. Like you were really pitching as a company and you might be getting $250,000 check from your actual investors in the room. I know sometimes they may, you know, negotiate on some terms after the fact, but the winners are, are given real like the real dollar amount that comes in. Usually what actually happens is more people come to that event and say I want in on that deal and they'll actually soak in a bit more. So if you're still interested in seeing these companies investing, you actually can come on Thursday, hear the pitches and join San angel conference and become an investor in those companies. It's a really cool event. I, I emceed it last year and I'm sorry I'm going to miss it because I'm part of two day near shoring event that's happening. So Wednesday night into Thursday, I am moderating a panel about the growth of nearshoring. What is nearshore? Nearshoring is this idea that you can have talent on both sides of the border, whether it's in Tijuana, Mexico, other parts of Mexico and your companies in San Diego or somewhere on the west Coast. You what the panel should show is that you can have reduced cost but the same if not higher quality by working in same same board, same border regions and same time zone. So what's a really cool story and thread to pull on is that a Carlsbad company named C Comp, they're a electronics design and manufacturing company, they've been doing all their Design and engineering work in Carlsbad and then they manufacture in China and Hong Kong. Well, during COVID they decided we should have a spot a little closer and have officially opened their manufacturing center in Tijuana. And so we're going to have a conversation about what's it like as a company to design and build on both sides of the border, both software and hardware. There's companies like Drata who does that. They actually have 100 to 150 software developers in Mexico while their company, you know, grows on this side as well too. And so hardware companies as well. So we're going to have a conversation about that. Like about that. So the, the event is Downtown Wednesday May 8th and then on Thursday a bunch of us are getting on buses and actually going down to see the Tijuana based plant. Arcus. Nexus is pretty involved as you can imagine since they've been very involved on building a cross border community. So it should be a good day and a half of events. A lot of people come into town to see the C Comp building that are like C Comp clients or prospects. So they'll get to see what's unique about San Diego and maybe that leads to further development here in town as well too. So come out to our near showing event on May 8th in downtown and then anything you want to comment there?

No, no, you covered it.

Cool. And then we'll cap off the week with our May founders hype. Normally first Friday of the month but it is the second Friday this month, May 10, 6:30am at Torrey Pines south parking lot. So park along the beach there and then walk down to the bathrooms at the south lot kind of just at the base of the hill and hopefully we'll have a low tide day so we can actually walk the beach. That would be nice. We haven't done that in a bit but should be. I haven't checked weather but either way we're doing it no matter what. So come on out 6:30am this Friday and we look forward to seeing you. And that's just this week and there's so much else going on so make sure you check the Social Coyote. The link is in our show notes here. That is everything that's going on this and next week. Subscribe to the Social Coyotes newsletter to get it hit your inbox every Monday. Subscribe to Fred Substack the business of san diego.substack.com to make sure you're getting the deep dives and fundings, acquisitions and what else is happening in town and make sure. You're sharing this podcast, the Tacos and Tech podcast, and fresh protect events with your friends as well too, so that we will see you out there in the community and we're sharing this and building this all together. So thanks again for tuning in, Fred. Always enjoy doing this with you.

Always a pleasure, Neil. Until next time.

Till next time. Thanks everyone. Have a good week.

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 taco stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero got a shout out to coast angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Hoya shows entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana St. 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.

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