This Week in San Diego Tech News - Sept 16, 2024

Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of this week in San Diego tech news with your boys, Neil and Fred. Hey, Fred, how you doing?

Hey, Neil. Doing Pretty great. How are you doing?

I'm doing all right. Doing all right. It's a little cooler day in San Diego, which is, you know, nice for us. We're freaking out when it was over 80 degrees and a little bit of humidity last weekend. So it's nice to have our weather back. I'm Neil Bloom. I run tacos and tech podcast Fresh Brew Tech, which is both a substack and events, as well as Interlock Capital, a local investment fund. And this is Fred Greer.

And I'm Fred Greer, journalist and author of Business of San Diego Substack. I've been covering San Diego's tech and startup ecosystem for the last half a decade, covering the ins and outs of the startup scene. So, yeah, excited to be back today to talk about the biggest news in San Diego.

Yeah, we like to cover it on a weekly basis. So, you know, sometimes there's lots of bio news, sometimes there's lots of other news. Got a little mixture of everything here. So let's jump right into it with some big bio news, which I know you've had on your radar just because this, this has been the year of big bio. I feel like. Like there's so much going on this year. Take us through the first two bio news stories you got here.

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So the headline is candid therapeutics raises a 370 million round. They just emerged from stealth. The the team behind this is a successful acquisition from Raisey Bio, which was acquired for I think one point, not one point, $4.1 billion by Bristol. And it's led by Kinsong, who is a serial entrepreneur. He started multiple biotech companies, multiple acquisitions. And so I actually did an interview with him. We'll link it in below. But this is the second largest financing this year by a biotech company. The first one was Mirador Therapeutics which launched what, 400 million back in March. So yes, for life sciences early stage companies, funding is definitely back and huge news. And then another biotech company that I talked to was Haya Therapeutics. They just announced a big help collaboration with Eli Lilly, which is a large, you know, pharmaceutical company. It's a billion dollar partnership where, you know, I think they're focused on the dark genome. And so we'll link those two stories below. You can learn more about it. But you know, essentially there's some recent activity in biotech in San Diego, both from, you know, fundraising standpoint, but also licensing deals.

So this higher deal, if I remember right, is kind of like a initial set of cash with an option for them to be acquired for a billion. Is that that's correct?

Yep, that's correct. Yeah.

Which Eli Lilly, I think it's its second deal, it's done this year just like that. And man, I feel like they've been in the news with us at least every month. They've been really active this year. What's your take on that?

Yeah, I mean, I talked to a few, you know, SD experts and they kind of share that it's these large companies, you know, they can do it in house and it might be a lot, it might be pretty expensive to do millions of dollars or they can spend that and acquire in a company. And then, you know, you know, they also get access to talent and they can do it for cheaper than it would for them to do in house. And so we're just seeing big pharma, you know, not only, you know, they, they want us to remain competitive and they're doing it by acquiring small companies in San Diego and then retaining that talent and you know, growing, you know, beefing up their, their innovation pipeline. So that's what I what I'm seeing. What would be your guess, Neil?

Well, I mean I think from a company like y and really we're seeing this all Big bio is just going through these big shifts post Covid world, right? So they're, they ramped up and shelved some things to work on Covid and the related world. Now they're doing the exact opposite. Shelving Covid getting back to they were before making big new bets. Stock market helped for the last few years in bio and get some exits, some liquidity for a big bio. Stocks went up and then back down. And so therefore shareholders are saying what's your new plan? What's your new strategy? And big bio is making some moves like this. So man to see though like a 370 million funding round come out, which is not the first one of these. We saw a $400 million funding round from another team about a month ago. These are some big funding round numbers that are going to semi inflate our numbers as a, as an ecosystem. I feel like we're going to look back at the end of the year and be like look, we did 4 billion or 5 billion in funding but it came from like 25 fundings or something like that. So you know, great news but also really highly concentrated in a few companies now specifically in bio. So you know, my call is like let's, let's show up on the tech side here. Let's get some some funding rounds going to show we have an equal 50, 50 weight here on tech and biotech because yeah, biotech seems like it's leaving us in the dust this year for sure on funding rounds and acquisitions. Not, not complaining at all on bio. Just makes me feel competitive and want to get there on the sex side too. Well, speaking of that, let's transition into the earliest stage of companies. We just got 12 new companies announced at the Techstars San Diego powered by San Diego State accelerator just started. I think they just finished week two actually and we got 12 new companies. We should. You want to talk through each one real quick or how do you want to do this, Fred?

Yeah, I mean jump right in. I think techstar San Diego, you know, they're just, you know, one of the largest accelerated programs locally and it's huge news. Do you want to just kind of, you know, walk through the list?

Yeah, absolutely. So one, this is what's really cool news about this. This is year two of accelerating 12 companies over a three or four month period. I think it's 12 weeks is the program it feels longer especially as a mentor going out there. I'll be I just presented to them last week giving them kind of like a welcome to San Diego overview. And then this week is mentor Madness which is where every day they meet with 12 times 12 mentors per day kind of thing. It's nuts for for everyone. I'm excited to meet all the companies in a rapid spree. I think it's about a the split of San Diego and non companies which is pretty cool and I think it actually is a pretty good cross section of the San Diego's industries where we have good mentors who can actually help. So we've got Ellie, which is a company that kind of takes looks at chronic pain and uses sounds to treat it. And so it's kind of like I feel like it's like calm the app but for medical and pain management. Everlearn is a medical is a med. Sorry. EdTech Marketplace helping actually seniors retirees learn new areas and skill sets. Flow Circuits is actually changing its name I believe to H Vac and they are a smart software for designing flow systems for H Vac Folo and and I'm not going to call it which one's which we got a link in the show notes by the way to all these but I'm just giving a high quick I can't believe I'm going to do 12 pitches here for them but you know, whatever it is. Folo is a logistics tech management platform in the TR in the constructions industry. Loopholes is a AI powered marketplace that is helping marketing teams identify text and content and everything for any kind of legal issues before you go live and launch. So it's kind of a compliance engine for your marketing team. Mommy Bio is building hyper Aller Hyp sorry hyperallergenic food molecules so they're discovering new molecules that are hypoallergenic to create food from. Mana is a SaaS platform for the event industry specifically focus on Latam Latin American market menu data. AI is a AI platform for doing real time global menu innovation across trending flavors, ingredients and menu items. So for beverage and the food industry, Rhubarb is a smart food and gardening platform that's really helping people personalize what they want to build with things that they've got access to and kind of real time help around there A few more Steam Frog Austin, Texas team moving here, which is pretty cool is a new platform for streaming for anyone kind of using content creators who previously been on Twitch and YouTube and other platforms. This is kind of a mix of AR and AI to create new content for streamers. So much AI team that moved here from Lithuania and Poland, which is pretty cool, built a no code business automation platform to help one tap into the big existing LLMs for small businesses to be able to tap into them and help them on the things that they don't even know that they need help with. And the last is the stands, which is a team. It's a solo founder, I think Josh's name moved here from London to help sports teams add or enhance their revenue streams. So whether it's looking at their supporter group or other areas, it's a platform to help sports teams, you know, connect with fans and find new ways to make money. So we're stoked to have them here. Like we said, we're here through December through demo day, which will be a really fun event, A really call for everyone to come out and try to get a chance to meet these people here. Last year, I know that of the 12 teams, half are local, half are not. And I believe two companies ended up moving to San Diego because of the experience that they saw. That's great. We want, we want companies to move here because they see that there is value and support from the ecosystem here and in all capital ultimately invested in one of the companies last year. So we're on the lookout for meeting new companies and seeing which ones we can be helpful to as well there as. Thanks. Cool. Take us into the San Diego International Airport 1. That was a lot of pitches. Did 12 pitches in 12 seconds.

I feel like a lot of companies, but I would say, you know, looking back at techstar alumni, San Diego companies, Cody Barbour from Preston Will, we had Morgan Splinter from Crafters Bar Seeker as well. There's a couple companies that have really found success post techstars. So I'm really excited for this next cohort. And a lot of companies that you went over shout out to Ryan Cooter.

Who'S, you know, led techstars for now over nine years. He brought the first techstars San Diego when he partnered with Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator. Then they took him abroad and then he came back and was running techstars anywhere. Always had local companies, even though it was a fully remote batch in that and. And, you know, shout out to both Ryan and Misty Kane, who are local and very focused on bringing the techstars brand and ethos to our ecosystem and tapping into local experienced entrepreneurs who help mentor those companies too. It's a great thing for the whole ecosystem.

Yeah. So jumping to the next the next story. Sorry. Notice anything else you want to mention on that?

Nope. Take it away.

Yeah. So the next story is on the San Diego airport. They just actually got awarded a, a pretty big grant, a 26.3 million grant from the FAA. And if everyone knows, if you're local, you probably know there's a lot of construction going on at the San Diego airport. Currently they have a, currently they currently have like a 4 billion dollar project that's been going on since 2021 I believe. And yeah, they awarded, they were awarded one of the largest federal grants to help finance their single biggest project in its history. So you and Tribune, they did a piece on it, what the funding would be used for. We will link it in the show notes. But yeah, I think it's going to be this is going to be a huge project once what's finished. San Diego has one of the most, you know, most traveled airports in the U.S. i believe. And so it's good to see this project finally, you know, move forward.

Love to see it. Love to see more coming to San Diego. Unfortunately. Next story. Talk about a company that's leaving San Diego. We've, there's been a lot of drama around Too Simple. We've talked about them for a while. We've been following them I feel like since their early days when they were an autonomous trucking company that actually had real trucks driving on their own. I think it was out in Arizona at first between Tucson and Phoenix, then it was extending out to Texas. They went public during the, the COVID boom. We were so pumped. Our first tech IPO in forever. And then it all came crashing down afterwards. Whether it was legal issues that they had from, you know, they're, they're Chinese backers and board members and executives which I guess was not disclosed with the US Government. And man, now there's some. I feel like the news just keeps getting a little crazier to be honest. Like from it changing from a trucking business to a gaming company and now ultimately leaving I think United States completely. Like a lot of news on Tusimple. Unfortunately this is the news is that they're officially leaving San Diego. But what's your take on the latest here?

Yeah, the Business Journal did a pretty good piece break it down. So we'll link that below. But I think Tusimple is looking to relocate to either China or Japan. Not too much of a big surprise given that a lot of their investors were in that, you know, based in that area and you know, they had hundreds of employees in San Diego at their peak, they only have 1212 in San Diego, 250 globally. Yeah, it's interesting to see them kind of pivot and go the gaming route. But yeah, we wish them the best. But hopefully, you know, we, we do see some of those companies who work that some employees that worked at Tusimple go and work at other tech companies in San Diego. Hopefully, you know, they, they retain the talent ultimately. Hopefully not hopefully. You know, I just think it's, it's important that when companies shut down that it still gets recycled into other companies. For us to continue to move forward as a tech hub, it's really important that you know that growth goes to other local companies.

Especially for a company like this that did the full distance in terms of growth, start growth, exit through IPO and then even the shutdown, like all that takes really important talent that you're right is really important that it recycles. I know that some of that talent actually ended up at Flock Freight, which is, you know, good that it found a next home. Hopefully that also means that it is going to help clock rate go the distance here as well. Crossing our fingers for every unicorn to go public here. Just kind of gonna keep putting that out there aspirationally. But yeah, I agree the talent staying local is a big deal. I still am scratching my head on how whatever tech they had was for autonomous trucking, they believe the IP and everything now plays well for building a video game. That's, that's what this article is. And a movie. I think they're taking a screenplay or a comic book and creating a video game and a movie out of it. I don't totally. It shows my lack of understanding of what their technology is. But I feel like this isn't the last time we report about Tusimple, you know, even if they're leaving so the drama may continue here. Let's talk about some, some local sports news. San Diego State just officially announced they're joining the PAC 12 conference. It's big news to Santa State who you know, has been rising the ranks from, from its football team lately. Having both big stadium and now joining, you know, one of the preeminent conferences here. What's your take here on this, Fred?

Yeah, this is huge news. I saw ESPN and a few other big accounts posted out on Twitter and online and you know, I think SDSU entering the PAC 12 is huge. They're entering with four, four, three other schools. Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State. And that's supposed to be going effect in 2026. And my takeaway is San Diego has truly evolved into a thriving sports town. You think about the Padres, think about the San Diego FC that's coming here next year. Even San Diego wave with Alex Morgan just recently retiring. You know, if you looked at San Diego as a sports town, you know, five years ago, I don't think, I don't see this kind of energy from a, from a global and national, you know, press perspective. You know, SSU entering the PAC 12 is just another tally on the mark of San Diego making progress on the sports in the sports world.

Yeah, I think it's, it's in a sense we've diversified our sports in a good way. Right. But at one point we had one pro team here. Once the Chargers left, we just had the Padres. But now I go to all these other sports that maybe it's finding a home and saying, you know, hey, we, San Diego doesn't like just the same kinds of sports that other cities just have from a legacy standpoint. So having, you know, pro lacrosse and pro rugby and now we're going to have the Clippers minor league team based in Oceanside. You know, all this is, I would say, density and stacking and we'll see if that leads to a better future for San Diego here. I will say a little piece about Pac12. There's a huge change up of who is in the PAC 12 these days. So from its beginnings in the 50s until this year, you had the same exact teams from. It was like two from Washington, two from Oregon, I think Utah and Arizona's and then you had all the California teams from UC Berkeley, LA and USC. I think in fact this summer 10 of those 12 teams left the PAC 12. So it's not your same PAC 12 as it was before in terms of whom is the makeup of the teams. But the Pac12 has notoriety nationwide, right? It is right up there. You know, it always plays in the biggest bowls. So I think that will be great for the Aztecs to be have more prominence at a national level in that regard as well too. We look forward to having some bigger teams come across the country from other colleges play here in San Diego as well too. So all good news for the Aztecs, which continue to build on their platform. Let's speak about another company that's come into town. Actually a former, a group of former Aztec alumni founded the company called Sand Cloud, a blanket company, Consumer Packaged Good or cpg, opening their first retail space that I think you spotted here in Pacific Beach. What do you know about the Sandcloud team?

Yeah, I First heard about Sandcloud, I think they were featured on Shark Tank a few years ago. It was founded by a comp, a founder named Stephen Ford who I believe is based in la, but the company is based, you know, it was started in Origins where in San Diego. So they create blankets and apparel and they also have like a Tom's model where I think if you buy a product, you know, they donate those, those profits to a charity partner, probably give some products to charity as well. And yeah, I just saw they had a new retail space in Pacific beach right next to Dave's Hot Chicken and you know, Mavericks and that whole street there. And you know, I think San Diego is overlooked from a consumer perspective. We hear biotech, we hear some tech stuff, but it's also good to just highlight consumer companies and to see them start on Shark Tank and expand to retail space. You know, this is a cool company. He's talked about blenders not too long ago and how they've, you know, expanded via retail. And yeah, San Diego is just, is continuing to see more, more consumer companies and SoundCloud is the next example. So we'll hyperlink that company out as well. They're pretty cool and definitely going to keep my radar, my eyes on them.

Yeah, and it's not the first. The Blanket company moved to town. In fact, Sackcloth and Ashes moved, well, not moved, Oregon based, but the executive team opened an office in San Diego and then I think our retail store as well too. Bob Dalton, who has been on this pod, and I think you've interviewed him or will be soon, is, you know, another Blanket founder, if you will. So good to see some density in that as well too. Let's talk about some other news on the tech side. Platform Science acquired Trimble. Platform Science is one of our logistics tech unicorns here in town. The serial founders in the tech world have been serially doing logistics tech, in fact, from Omnitrax being the prior company that CEO Jack spun out of Qualcomm and then increased its, its growth and sold it to Vista Equity and then started Platform Science with Jake Fields to build kind of like the ecosystem marketplace for the truck. Think of the Apple App Store, but in the truck, if you want to connect anything, sensors or digitally, you use Platform Science in any truck. And so they've made an acquisition here. Take us through a little bit more on this, Fred.

Yeah, we covered Platform Science back in April when they raised 125 million. I think it was a series, maybe C or D around and this is their first acquisition. That I've heard heard of, they've acquired a company called Trimble Inc. And yeah, Jack Kennedy, the CEO, former Qualcomm guy, he put a post out on his LinkedIn, just kind of recapped, you know, back in 2027, 2017, him and Jake Fields and the founding team saw opportunity to connect everything that moves. And yeah, this is basic acquisition to move forward achieving their their mission which is to bring products that treat the biggest fleets in the world. And yeah, I mean they're a company that is on track to be a unicorn tech company in San Diego. If you're looking for a tech company to maybe join, I would look at platform science. I think with the leadership and what they've been able to accomplish in the short period of time, you know, they're here to stay and seeing this acquisition is great. You know we've seen Sochi do an acquisition last year as well and Seismic is continuing to grow. These are kind of like the late stage tech companies in San Diego and you know they're paving the path for the next generation. So I'm really excited about this continued growth.

Yeah, it's great to see. Congrats team Jack and Jake, who I think might be neighbors, that might be how they met in Mission beach, which is pretty cool. Which is where Treeline, Jake's company originally kind of more of like a experience digital experience agency started and spun out platform science, which is really cool to see. Last on our list here of news is TwitchCon is coming back to San Diego. People might know Twitch, the big streaming platform to watch gamers and other kind of influencers on a streaming network and they put on a conference every year that is coming officially coming back to San Diego for a few years here. Have you been to TwitchCon before?

I haven't, but I have seen some of the pictures and I think over 30,000 people are expected to attend this next one. It's a big event. I would probably table it a second behind Comic Con. Yeah, it's huge.

It's a very specific slice. It's a piece of Comic Con kind of the audience. I went actually in 2019 when it first came to town with a few other locals. I know I went with Andy White and a few others. We went and checked it out. It was amazing energy and audience there. So I'm looking forward to coming back and maybe we can connect some of our gaming tech and studio tech and AR VR communities to this. So let's look for doing something around the TwitchCon event next year for sure. So welcome Back to town. TwitchCon. Speaking of events, we've got, you know, a number of them. It feels like it's gonna start being every day there'll be two events you're gonna see on the Social Coyote, which you can connect, you can link to here in the show notes. We pull out a few that you know are on our radar that we're either putting on or going to, including Monday's EVO Nexus Demo Day, which is kind of their yearly showcase of companies that they've been incubating over the next one, over the next year. But come on out, it's held at Qualcomm's campus. Speaking of seismic, one of the software unicorns we're hosting Devin Data Night meets CTO talks at their office on September 19th. And I don't know if we can go. I mean there's a few just over the next few weeks. There's, there's so many events. Like we said here. Carlsbad is hosting Tech Gathering at Shipcom, one of the larger three PL3PO tech companies up in the north county area. So if you're a North county tech leader, come on out to that event on September 23rd and then the big event, Connect Innovation Day 3, 4,000 people taken over Petco park. Should be really fun. We are doing an interlock gathering on that day at 4pm at Gallagher Stage. So if. Or Gallagher Square Stage. So if you're in the area around 4, come meet the the Interlock community at innovation day on September 24. The top tech awards September 26, which is in a yearly award show celebrating our technical leaders, CTOs, CIOs VP of engineers. It's really fun to see them in families come on out and get celebrated in that regard. And then Plug and Play, which is one of the Bay Area's larger incubators and investors who start to have a presence in San Diego. There's two GP partners, two that live in San Diego who are starting to, you know, have look for a fiscal presence here and therefore going to do a start doing an event series showcasing what Plug and Play brings to the investment scene. So I'm really excited for Alex and Steven to be doing a showcase on October 2nd there. We're actually doing some deal flow sharing lately. We've got some deals we're both looking at and I'm excited for them to have a fiscal presence here in town. So come on out, meet the Plug and Play crew. I would consider them kind of similar to techstars, so it's great to see Another great brand like that. Take a, you know, more physical presence here in town. That just takes us in October. There's so much more like get ready for Stocktoberfest and same as Startup Week, but it's only September. We'll, we'll plug you more into what's going on in October as we get there. Anything else on your radar, Fred?

No, I think you covered it pretty well. There's a lot of different events to get involved with either this week or next week. Stay tuned and check out the Social Security by Jonah Peak and we'll catch you next time. We'll look forward to sharing the biggest news of the following week soon.

And make sure you are following Fred on Substack the business of San Diego. Give him a follow and be a paid member. Support local journalism in that regard because Fred is putting out great content and if you want to keep hearing this podcast, please share it and follow Fresh Brew Tech on Substack as well. Thanks all for tuning in and we'll see you all soon. Have a good week. Thanks, Fred.

Thanks, Neil. See you next time.

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You want tech and tacos Tacos in tech you know we got tacos in tech is all smashed for the green guacamole keeper 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 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 Gotta shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shows entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana SD be full of hustlers from country out 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 hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

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