This Week in San Diego Tech News - October 23, 2023

Foreign hello. Happy Monday October 23rd to you. I'm putting the date out there to hold ourselves accountable that this is recorded and published in the same day. I'm Neil Bloom. I got my bud here, Fred Greer. Hey Fred, how you doing?

Hey Neil, glad to be back. We have a busy week.

Busy week. Happy San Diego Startup Week to to all who celebrate kicks off today in Carlsbad where you're going to do a deep dive on what the week has turned into and what this what you can look forward to from the week. But we got plenty of other stories to dive into. But first and foremost, I'm Neil Bloom. I am the co founder of Interlock Capital, an investment community here in San Diego as well as publisher of Fresh Brew, Tech and Tacos and tech podcast where we highlight what is being built in the tech community in San Diego and my partner here on this podcast this week in San Diego, tech news, Mr. Fred Greer. Hey Fred.

Hey Neil. Yeah, this is Fred Greer, tech reporter in San Diego. I'm the author of Business of San Diego, a new substack that's covering San Diego's tech and startup scene. And glad to be back talking about the biggest stories this week.

Love it. Let's dive right into it. There's a lot going on but some stories that stuck out to us. There's been interesting connections between San Diego and Japan and I think we can thank a lot of that to Senegal, EDC and the World Trade center who built these linkages internationally. They looked inward and noticed in a unique connection between some of our biotech companies and international biotech companies that have started to put a foothold in San Diego. So what's this new selection in the Beyond Japan program about? Fred?

Yeah, so a great piece and you interview if you want to check it out. The reporter's name, Natalie Rocha, she's a former reporter. I worked with her pretty closely at the San Diego Business Journal. She wrote the news on Beyond Japan which is basically saying San Diego was selected out of three U.S. cities by the Japanese government to host a new program where startups are learning about the the different ecosystems in San Diego was chosen. This is part of a plan to increase investments in startups in Japan. 72 billion has has been planned to be invested over a five year plan. And so there's some entrepreneurs that are here in San Diego learning about San Diego startup scene. And so great, great scoop by Natalie for covering this. And we'll be following closely I think UCSD as majority of his students that are international coming from Japan or China. And so I think it only makes sense for them to be setting up shop at ucsd. So there are. The startups are learning about San Diego at the university. So we'll stay tuned and how that's panning out.

Awesome. Yeah, looking forward to more of that. We'll keep reporting here in that regard. Let's. There's some. There's some pro soccer sports news around. It's actually been an interesting busy. Last week this San Diego Loyal hosted their last match ever last night. Sunday it was a home playoff match. I was there. It was intense. We went into like double overtime and didn't come out ahead. Lost with. With one minute left before we can go into penalty kicks. So this is the end of the road for the Loyal and I think a lot of people felt some sort of closure. It was emotional, it was intense. But a lot of us kind of tipped our hats to knowing that we're all better off because of what the Loyal did for building not just soccer, but a community that appreciates soccer and sport in that regard. So good. Farewell to that last night and us as interlock in capital. We were investors in the Loyal just as a disclosure. So we've been pretty involved in seeing that, you know and there's. It kind of caps off over the last week. The San Diego Football Club, which is the new MLS team, they just announced that name SDFC on Friday, on October 20th and they presented their crest which is kind of the name for logos in soccer. So that is out there. It's for everyone to see. And I think people with the end of the Loyal now, I think now I think people were holding back to show, you know, pride and loyal. Now that Loyals done, I think people start to transition and be MLS fans in San Diego. So you're already seeing employees of the Loyal and others go elsewhere. So you know, I think it's just going to be a progression. I wouldn't call it natural. It's just whatever is happening next, they will now work towards men's MLS here. So you know, and we'll be playing Snapdragon which would be great. Another team at Snapdragon Stadium is the San Diego Wave, which an amazing second year only they've only been around second, but they've only been by the way, the oil started four years ago only. That's it, four years. MLS isn't starting for another two years. And so if you just think about years and time length, the way I've only been around two years, clinched the playoffs and clinched the best Record in the nwsl so got the silver shield for I think best record and best finish. And now we'll be going into playoffs over the next few months Already before they got in the playoffs, the championship for the women's soccer league was is. Is going to be here in San Diego at Snapdragon. So whether we were in the playoffs or not, the championship is in San Diego, which is pretty cool. And now the hope is that we win our playoff rounds and land in the championships and we get super home court advantage. So I'm pretty excited for the off season at the Wave. I plan see at a playoff game or two if we continue on. You've been to a Wave match yet, Fred?

Yeah, I just want to talk more about the business side. Alex Morgan, she's a superstar and she plays for the Wave. And I just wanted to talk about her investments that she's made off the court. I think she makes I think quarter million on her salary but her net worth is I think over $10 million. And largely that's because of her investments that she's made in the tech and consumer space. She has invested in a local company here called Equip, which is more of a tech mental health startup. It's founded by two woman founders which is pretty cool. She's also an investor in Tiger, Tiger woods news new golf organization called the tgl. And she's also made several investments in Teamable, a hiring platform, Soccer Post, which is a special team soccer retailer. So really cool that she's not only an athlete but also an investor giving back to the community. She's also had a pretty big event for the Alex Morgan foundation. So I just wanted to call to note to that. And then you know the San Diego Football Club, they ran a pretty big ad in the Union Tribune. I don't know if you saw this Neil, but it said thank you San Diego, this is your club. And so really cool to see that they unveiled their logo and now they're welcoming the community to embrace this new organization. So we'll just say there's a lot of things happening in the sports scene with the San Diego ML, you know, football club and then SD Wave and something I'll be watch following closely from a business and money perspective.

Yeah, yeah, I think the business side is going to be really interesting as well. There's other sports investors coming to town like the cr like, like Stan Kroenke who's buying up the. What is that stadium over in the Midway District now. Don't even know its official name. These Days but whole other redevelopment come over there. So yes, the business of sport is worth talking about here because it brings our teams involved like, like say Trust and Will, a tech company who is a sponsor of the Wave. Now every time they score a goal, it's the Trust and Will goal. So you know, it overlaps us with here as well too. So we'll keep, keep talking through that a little bit. Let's talk through some on the investment side. We've got Tide Rock Partners, a private equity firm based up here in North County Encinitas area moving into some new digs, I think.

Yeah, they're going to Solana Beach. So the guy who runs this is Ryan Petticord. They've been around since 2013. I profiled them in the San Diego Business Journal when they raised I think 100 million fund. Basically they're a holdings company. How they, how they described it they were basing as needed is now they're in Sloan a beach. The Ryan shared a post on his LinkedIn on the new office and it looks amazing. Solana beach is becoming home to more investor firm investment firms as well as companies. I know Flock Freight used to be in that area and there's several startups that are setting up shop there. So it's not a good, not a bad place that this holding company is now in the area and continue to throw there. I think 36 employees, but hundreds under management. Some big LPs are investing with them. So keep an eye on them.

Yeah, love it. All right. Well, another company that is making an investment, if you will. Beam Global, a publicly traded energy company. They've got a really cool charging and solar stack where you can over a parking space or wherever build a solar and energy system where you can plug in EVs and charge in real time. And they are making a recent acquisition. Fred, you've covered Beam in the past.

Yeah. So Beam is really interesting. They have been acquiring company after company. This is not the first one. And to see them do acquisitions overseas in Europe, you know, really embodies their their name Beam Global. They are based in San Diego, but they definitely do operations everywhere. So essentially they're creating the charging stations that are used by electric vehicles and obviously a growing market. And they are, you know, one of the players in the space publicly traded. You can follow them and we'll continue to watch them as they, you know, do this m and a strategy in real time. Congrats to them. The CEO said this is the most important acquisition that Beam Global has done today. So if you Want to look up that? That's pretty big.

Yeah, it's huge. I know there are some local investors in Beam originally, Cash F Ventures being one of them, which I think we've highlighted in the past. I am pulling up their stock right now because I'm curious how their, their stock is doing with this acquisition here. And in the case, we'll keep you updated on them as well. There's a lot, I believe they're north county based. A lot of alternative energy, sustainable and clean tech companies I've seen kind of along the 78 beltway there. So just kind of interesting thing to note.

Yeah, people don't, people don't think that San Diego has, you know, the clean energy space, but it really is booming if you can't go drive to a store without seeing a Tesla or electric vehicle. You know, San Diego is one of the hotbeds for, for electric vehicle adoption. So cool to see that they're one of the many players in the space.

Yeah. And actually one week from today, I am gathering a group of clean tech business leaders for a little informal happy hour in Carlsbad. So if you're listening to this, hit me up if you'd like to come join us because we've got some great, great companies around together and just share notes on cleantech. San Diego will be a part of that as well too. Last but not least from the tech news side, one cool company, Sochi, which is a enterprise social media software vertical SaaS platform. Not vertical SaaS. SaaS, I would say in the social media space for enterprise, mostly food providers. So imagine you are McDonald's and you are needing to manage different content for every location. They build a software that helps you manage that. Well, they're making a big hire today with the co founder of Seismic Software who is becoming the president and CRO of Sochi. This is really cool to, to hear especially between these two companies actually, because a thief, the CEO of Sochi, who actually him and I were both in Evo Nexus way back in the day, 2013 days. He brought on the CEO of Seismic, Doug Winter, onto his board about five years ago. So built a really strong relationship there with a company that had already made unicorn status, was already doing hundreds of millions in revenue. Obviously continue the relationship through having a board member at another successful company here. And so you can only imagine where the relationship went from there in terms of getting to know, you know, other great talent here in town. I hear a lot of founders talk about, you know, the need for very experienced executive and senior management Talent, especially in the software technology space. And you know, Seismic's been at it 10 to 15 years and to see that talent move as a co founder from one company onto another fast, high growing startup. Here is great news from this regard.

Yeah, just to tag on, on that, I would just say that they, they roll. They raised 120 million earlier this year that we broke the news around AI and how they're, you know, amplifying their marketing capabilities. But it's really great to see that another local startup is recruiting from another San Diego startup. And instead of just going to the Bay Area or going to New York to join a big co, it just really speaks to the quality of company that they're building here in San Diego and you know, maybe they go public in the next few years. So that's a big addition to the team that they brought on.

That is exactly what we want to see, you know, experienced talent helping our companies propel forward, grow faster and then have the big exit that our community could really use at this point from a recyclable capital and recyclable talent of talent knowing how to go the full gamut all the way from start to finish. Let's jump into, you know, events that are happening because it is a busy week as always. San Diego Startup Week. This is officially year 10. So 2013 was the first year of Startup Week. It actually was started by a group of entrepreneurs including my now partner Alba Shara, Mel Gordon, previously a tap, Hunter Brandt Cooper, Tim Ryan, Austin Newdecker, and I'm missing one more. Oh, and Falon who. So that group came together and said what if we looked at other events that are happening in town and happening all throughout the month and say hey everyone, why don't you coincide yours over like a two day period and we'll do like everyone go to each other's events for two days. Because the feeling was there's a lot of like startup little meetups. What if we made them all happen same time and build some density? And so in 2013 all at Evo Nexus that used to have a downtown campus was the two day version of Startup Week. I was there as an attendee. I had just gotten into EVO Nexus. I took two days off work from my LA Aerospace job to come down. I think we eventually got word we got into evo. I hadn't even got into EVO Nexus yet. I just applied, came as an attendee. Those two days blew my mind of meeting the community. And like literally the next day I raised my hand and said, I'm in to help organize year two. And so that was when I got involved in the startup community was from 2014 onward of building Startup Week. Through the years it was very much the focus has always been about accessibility and inclusion and that means a number of different things from the content, the physical place that they're in, the business model of it all. We've tried everything, I would say at this point of how to get more people to come to just be inspired to take the leap to start and I don't just mean start a company. We've also done just as much around the talent side. How do you start working at a startup when it feels risky? And so there's just as much if maybe you're not ready to start your own idea, a business from an idea, maybe you're ready to actually like take on a new role that could be, you know, jumping inside your comfort zone. So today, day one is North County Day. It's in downtown Carlsbad Village. It is very much kind of highlighting what's going on in North County. There's just as much kind of CPG, brand building, sports, tech and innovation and SaaS and software as happening. So if you're there right now, you're probably meeting a bunch of the companies that are tabling. There's mentor hours that start a little bit in the afternoon and then a bunch of individual panels and talks about what's it like to build a startup ecosystem, how to how do you build your own brand from companies like Prana and Vuori. And then kind of kicking off the tonight's party if you will, the opening ceremonies is a fireside chat with the CEO Vuori, one of San Diego's most successful athleisure sports and active lifestyle companies. And so that's day one which will be really, really fun to be. I'm as soon as we're off this recording, I'm heading that way right there. Day two is in Tijuana, which we've been doing Tijuana based events for startup week since 2016. So excited to bring day two there. It will be at Arcus Nexus's campus. So they are providing transportation from the San ysidro border. Around 2:30 there'll be a bit about what's it like to build a company on both sides of the border, what's the talent pool like on both sides, showcasing a few companies like namely one of the biggest ones in San Diego is Drata, which has over 100 engineers based in Mexico at Arcus Nexus. And so they're going to kind of showcase some success stories of how San Diego and Tijuana tech companies have grown together tremendously. And then there'll be office hours, networking and of course tacos because. Come on. And then transportation back to the border. So pretty excited for that. I will be. I'm going down early. I'm going down like 10am tomorrow. I'm working from the ARCUS office all day because I just love hanging with the team there. You want to jump in here Fred, or you want me to keep running?

Keep on running? I just said people, people reach out to me. Founders and entrepreneurs, lawyers ask me if I'm going to be there. I will be there covering on the ground. And we'll also talk about a recap on next week's podcast. But yeah, finish, finish other yeah.

So Wednesday is a bit lighter of a day. It's just kind of an evening happy hour to get to know one of our startup incubators, Logic Boost Labs. So they're doing a networking event at Liberty Station which would be nice. Starts around five. So come out to Liberty Station and meet more of people kind of interested in the incubation side which is great. Kind of a great starting point for taking your idea and when you're ready to actually, you know, go full time on it, it's a great time to go look at an incubator. Day four is Al is at SDSU starts around 2 o' clock and it's in partnership with both San Diego State and techstars Powered by San Diego State are really kind of owning the day. Techstars Powered by San Diego State is just in. It's only like week four of its accelerator happening on campus at sdsu. And so together they're going to do a giant mentor madness where you can sign for 20 to 30 minute quick fire quick fire mentor sessions. There'll be I believe like dozens of us as mentors. I know I'll be there mentoring from like 2 to 4pm Then there'll be a pitch competition I believe. Oh there's a few workshops. Great. So there's some mastering your product market fit. Start with confidence. So some great kind of interpersonal skills of the entrepreneurial journey marketing and sales talk workshop which would be great. And a keynote by Cody Barbo who is an SDSU alum founder and CEO of Trust and will. He'll be given the opening keynote to that evening as well as a fireside chat with a few other experienced CEOs like Sam, the CEO of Pfizer, Adam Riggs, CEO of well now he's working at Founders First Capital, but I know him from CEO and founder of prior companies and Suman Kanaganti, founder and CEO of personal AI. All will be kind of talking about their, their founder stories. And then the lightweight pitch competition which will actually is split into two. It's kind of cool. They've got 10 companies that are all university based from every university you can think of in San Diego, from community college to Scripps Research, everything in between. There are companies who are pitching. So Thursday night you can come watch that pitch competition. And then there's after hours bowling with techstars San Diego all on campus at SDSU that night. So Thursday should be super fun. And then last but not least, Friday, day five, kind of talking about growth stage and beyond. So it's later stage companies all happening at Qualcomm kicks off at one o' clock with exhibit exhibit booths from and I would expect more like later stage companies exhibiting there, showcasing that they're hiring and what they're building. Some opening remarks from the Startup San Diego team as well as Carmen True from Qualcomm. And then a AI demo day. So they're going to have demos and discussions about what's the current state of AI. And I'm talking from startups all the way through. What is Qualcomm and Illumina doing on the AI side? Open source developers track sdx. Our newest kind of AI event team is doing a hacker club all afternoon. There'll be talks around startup innovation ecosystems from the Design lab as well as UCSD and Qualcomm Ventures, talking about how they're helping power the innovation ecosystem here. And then a keynote talk by Qualcomm's Chief Commercial officer Jim Cathy, which should be really interesting to talk about here because Qualcomm is just big in this different. It's gotta, it's gotta diversify. It can't just be a handset technology platform. And so gonna hear a lot about where they're powering both their hardware and their software technology into so many different industries. And then the heavyweight pitch competition, Founders Fight Club comes back with eight companies pitching. I will be on the judging panel then. Should be fun alongside Adam Harris, CEO of Cloudbeds and a few other experienced entrepreneurs. Investors judging that. And then an after party at at Qualcomm, powered by personal AI and Kesha Ventures. So what's cool about this whole week is how, how much the community is integrated into it, right? We're talking Qualcomm, Qualcomm Ventures we're talking Tijuana investment firms. It's gonna be a really great cross section of the community, but over five days, so it's not necessarily, you know, you can kind of bite off a little bit what you want. Just, you know, you want to meet more later stage or you want to just see a pitch competition, just come to that evening or that event, if that's all you can make. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing you in person, Fred, because that doesn't happen often with us. So where, what event are you looking forward to? Where are you coming out next?

Yeah, so it should be a good time, I would say, you know, New York has their Tech Week. LA has their Tech Week. This is our Tech Week and Startup Week. And so just really recommend, you know, at least coming to one event. I'm looking forward to the networking hosted by Logic Boost Labs. Also coming to the San Diego, San Diego State University event as well as the Qualcomm event on Friday. Should be a good time to connect and connect and reconnect with people in the ecosystem.

Yes, awesome. Looking forward as well too. We will see you out there. A bunch of other stuff happening, like Qualcomm's got its Snapdragon summit happening this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which is a big global summit, both happening in person and virtually. I think, I think it's happening in San Diego, but I don't know why. I remember them also having some Hawaii component as well.

Yeah, this year it is, it is in Maui, Maui, Hawaii. All the analysts. This is kind of like Qualcomm's demo day. Like similar to Apple, when they unveil a new technology, they really showcase AI VR their latest happenings in tech. So I assume it's gonna be a lot of AI announcements and they really, you know, share stuff that they haven't, they haven't shared with the public. So should be a cool time and I'll be report, reporting on the findings soon.

Okay, that's great. And maybe we should, you know, pull in our friend angel onto one of these sometime as well now that we'll be there.

So we should definitely, we should pull.

Them in next week, especially since we're missing out from Mike Freeman's coverage. Might as well get a local analyst's coverage. Someone who knows Qualcomm quite well, that's for sure. A few other things happening this week. Data Science alliance is doing their Data Science Nightmares event this Thursday, the 26th Data Science alliance brings together all those interested in Data science from students, professionals, experts. So a great organization and a great event happening this week as well as Biocom CEO Summit which is happening in San Diego focused On obviously biotech CEOs coming together. I think they put on a summit about once a quarter or three times a year. And so this is the once a year in San Diego for Biocom. And then next week, 0111 conference, which is the CTO conference that is put on by 7 ctos. Probably have about 100 to 200 ctos from around the world traveling out to attend this. It'll be a mix opening night at Snapdragon Stadium and then the rest of the conference I think downtown at the Hard Rock Hotel. So a lot going on just in the next week and we will be out there. We will give you reporting back of how these events are. But mostly we want to see you out there as well too. So stay, stay listening to here. Stay sharing this so that others know where and what to find and send us some stories that you want us to cover too. We will happy to do that in the future. So make sure you check out Fred substack@sdfounders substack.com and you can get this podcast delivered right to your inbox@freshbrewtech.com as well too. With as always, Fred, it's a pleasure. Thank you.

Always a pleasure. I'll see you out there.

See you this week and we'll see all you soon. Thanks a lot. Take care.