This Week on San Diego Tech News

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 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 party started. You want tech and tacos, Tacos and tech, you know we got it.

Hey.

Foreign. Welcome back everyone to this week in San Diego tech news with Neil and Fred. What's up? This is the special San Diego Startup Week edition. Fred, welcome to the pod. Good to have you here.

Neil, it's good to see you, man. I hope you're doing well.

Yeah, doing well. Been a busy week. Like, it's one of those weeks that obviously every day is like a month in San Diego because of how much startup stuff is going on. This is year 13 of Startup Week, which has been pretty fun. I've been. And this is the first year where they added the. They call the X category where the community can submit their community events to the calendar. And. And people have done that in force. And in fact, Hussein and I kicked it off Monday, the very first event of the week where we had almost 200 people out in Carlsbad to do Hussein's mixer meets the Carlsbad Industry Exchange meets, celebrating my 100th event ship event, which I did not realize was gonna be such a thing, but they've started a tradition. When you hit a hundred events, they throw you a party. So I'm ready to party with the next person who's gonna have a hundred events. I don't know. Who do you think that'll be? Who's gonna have a events next on. On event ship?

That's. That's a good. That's a good call out, man. Maybe Jonah Peak or. You know, we have a lot of other community builders who are doing some cool stuff in San Diego. Congrats on that 100 event milestone, man. I'm sure you'll get to a thousand in no time at this rate.

In no time, literally. Because that day alone I threw two events unrelated. Like they're just community events for. Besides the Startup Week event that night, there's a big conference in town, Adva Med, which is a big med Dev Life Science biotech conference. And actually a bunch of San Diego groups had parties to kind of coincide with that. So we did one. Me and Arjun Bonsal partnered with Gunderson and Silicon Valley bank and did a med Tech event just kind of across the train tracks from the convention center, which was awesome. I heard Cooley had one going. I heard Biocom had one going. It was great to see San Diego blurring our communities with the general biotech community conference that was happening there. You, why don't we just skip to biotech news real quick because you've, you are. No, I know you're giving a talk on the state of bio. We're already on that topic. Give us a little pre brief of what you're going to talk about.

Yeah, I would say this month has been, you know, a big month for biotech community. There's a global medtech conference happening this week right here in San Diego. There was two big biotech conferences last week. One was hosted by Scripps Research and then there was one on Saturday. It was a biopharma conference in Del Mar. And really the topic was around the state of venture capital and biotech today. You know, obviously there's been some cuts in NIH funding and grant funding and so it has caused some companies to scramble and try to find success in this volatile market. The IPO market is obviously, has been closed larger this year. There hasn't been as much VC fundings and so there's been extra expert panels from investors, scientists also just like pillars in San Diego's biotech ecosystem. The founders of Scripps Research was there. There was UCSD in the room. There was, you know, multiple serial biotech founders who started companies like Kinetics, Janix, Avalon Bio Ventures. And really the sentiment was, you know, obviously 2025 has been a tough year, but we still need good science and we need drugs to get commercialized to help patients and solve tough problems like cancer and obesity, etc. Diabetes. And yes, definitely an interesting time to be in the mix and San Diego is at the leading forefront of it. We're obviously a top three biotech hub. And so it's, it's no surprise to anyone. Why? You know, there's been a lot of conversations around how folks are navigating, navigating this just tough environment. I don't think anyone has seen this much, you know, just volatility since the, the market crash in 2008. So it's an interesting time for sure.

It is, yeah. I'm hearing interesting conversations. There's a lot of, and there's a lot of like fear and panic. But, but I, I don't see it per se from the, at the early stages. But that's because we have to weather 10 plus year storms. Right? That's what founders are up against. And what we talk about is more the lack of liquidity. But yet San Diego had the biggest high point liquidity in 2024. We had like 10 to 20 billion in M and A exits last year. So money got unlocked, which means it is going to flow back. We just got to weather the storm, right. I think there's a few other things happening. The real estate market, which does not work on the same wavelength as by, as venture capital, right. They build a project for two, three years, then try to fill it for two, three years and then sell it. They're out in five. Well, we're out in 10 to 12 and we're overbuilt in biotech spaces right now. So people are hurting on the real estate side. But you know, tech companies don't, they don't always are in sync on real estate. So that's just my perspective in that regard. I see. As long as we can hold on and actually have some perseverance here, things will continue to get better. But I'm glad you're, you're continuing to beat the drum and being a public voice on that. I'm glad we can have that chat here as well too. Let's close out just the rest of what Startup Week is happening. Might as well talk it through it since we're in the middle of it. We had an awesome event Tuesday night at Mintz 11, co hosted with JP Morgan. It was a like startup showcase. I would say it was like almost very much like the cool companies but you know, open to the public, which was really Fun to have two pitch rooms, 30 or 40 companies also tabling just a really well done event. And I didn't know Min Levin's office could hold that many people. There was hundreds of people there. It was awesome. Then Wednesday was at San State which was really fun. Cody Barbo flew in, we had a bunch of other people fly in and him and I riffed off of it a little bit. We did a co founder matching exercise with about a hundred people where I gave everyone stickers based on their skill set and made people find their complimentary pairs to practice finding your potential co founder. And then pitch competition, a college edition last night, which was really fun. And I gave out an award to a San Diego State startup that all the judges in the end actually threw down money for, which was kind of cool. Up the ante for this because the pitches were awesome. Thursday, right now, Tijuana Day, which is super cool. A few hundred people busing down to the Arcus Nexus campus, which Will be always really fun. And then Friday, UCSD day, which we are participating with the Startup Hike, kicking the day off at 6:30 in the morning at Gliderport, which is right there at ucsd. We supersize it this year. Hike, beach cleanup, a startup coffee truck and DJ dance party sunrise session with the Church of Music who runs a weekly dance party on Sundays at Gliderport. So I was like, hey, just come move it to this Friday and then a whole day of AI talk. There's a ton going on at the Qualcomm Institute. I know Cheryl Goodman's leading a few panels. Got Ramesh from the AI school of ucsd. It's gonna be a really fun day. And then the heavyweight pitch competition by the end of the night, Friday night. And I think Irwin Jacobs maybe reprising a role. Year two speaking again. I think so. Really star studded. Last day of Startup Week and then man, we need some rest for the weekend. I just like one day of no event is what I need on Saturday.

Yeah, I would just say yeah, it's just great to see the vibrant ecosystem from Crossbat to Tijuana to UCSD and La Hoya. There's literally something for everyone. And I'm looking forward to checking out Friday's event. I think there's a robotics event at UCSD with some local faces from Model AI to Robo Link, among others. So yeah, if you see me out there, we'll have to say hello and catch up and hear what's new. There's stuff going on in SF for their Tech Week. LA Tech Week. Seems like this is, you know, an opportunity for, you know, there's something for everyone to get involved in the startup scene, whether you're in San Diego, Bay Area or la. And you know, we're looking forward to kind of highlighting, you know, who are the, the winners of this year's pitch competition on the next episode as well.

Yeah, good call. Yeah, it. Depending on when this episode goes out, I will have already gone up and back to San Francisco to throw a GPLP funders event in SF for SF Tech Week, which is happening now. And then LA Tech Week next week. I'm throwing a a panel on the convergence of media and technology in the city of Burbank on Tuesday, October 14th. We've got 160 people signed up for that event, which should be super fun. All the events are on the west side, but we said let's throw an event for on the east side where so everyone can come to that. So looking forward to that. I know A bunch of people are going up to LA for it. I know Andy White reached out from Buyback Ventures and said what events you going to? Just so we can sync up. So yeah, October is a good month where everything's ratcheting up before the holidays start. So get the conferences out, get the fundings done so that we can close the year right. Speaking of fundings, we've got some recent funding news that was both on tech, biotech and consumer. Let's dive into it. You got the first scoop here, the first funding news of the week.

Yeah. So we actually had a seed round in the tech space which is not something I've been seeing a lot this year we had a company called Turnout Technologies. The CEO on his bio says we're building the first modern consumer advocacy platform for everyday Americans. This is kind of new on my radar. This is a former two time entrepreneur. He used to run a company called Flair and he's now back with a new company. So they had his merge out of stealth. Thanks to Connect for curating, you know, the recent fundings. We also had a life science company, huge funding round, Crystal Therapeutics 205 million Series A. This is led by a serial entrepreneur, James McKay, who's also on the board at Connect. And this was, yeah, a huge partnership they did with the big pharma company. And so it's great to see some funding momentum in San Diego on both technology and all, as well as life sciences. I think you have a scoop on a consumer company if you want to take that one.

We do, we do. We've got an IPO which we gotta ring the bell because a San Diego founded company is about to ring the bell by the end of the month. Once Upon a Farm, which is an organic baby food company started here in San Diego by Ari and Cassandra. We had them on the pod during COVID Pretty sure they were in I think Cassandra's garage when they recorded the pod, which is where they started the company. And then shortly thereafter brought Jennifer Gardner on as a co founder, the actress herself and things just skyrocketed from there. Brought in a CEO who took over for Ari and they've hit the 100 million revenue mark and filed to go public. So very excited to see this. Ari is already on to his next company, Coconut Colts, which he would. Then we'll take that one coconut yogurt company to new heights. So we continue to talk about the cpg which is the consumer packaged good industry of San Diego, is super strong both in foods and in apparel and in sports. And active lifestyle gear. And so seeing an exit and liquidity come to fruition just tells me recyclability because people are going to go create the next thing after that, which we're excited to see. So congrats to Ari, Cassandra and team. Maybe we'll do a little ring the bell moment together with them on the pod, which would be pretty fun to get them back in order here. But great news here just recently. Let's talk some big tech. Qualcomm did its annual summit. I think it's the Snapdragon Summit they do every year in Hawaii. Was it the last month they had some news. You know, it's usually a time for them to talk product releases, which they did. A number of new chips applying to new markets. That's been the year over year, multi year trend for them is diversifying out of handsets, getting into new spaces like drones, like automotive. And obviously anywhere AI is going, they want to be powering that too. That's just part of the chip chain for sure. Another local startup who's been a partner with them, ipop AI also was on hand at the summit, the Snapdragon Summit, and also had I think a big release there as well too. They're a vision as a service startup that actually Interlock we invested in about a year ago and what they do is enable you to add in kind of the classification layer into any product. So think about if you've got a camera as part of your app or your software, this enables auto classification of imagery and using that data back into your app. So image classification or vision technology as a service is kind of how I look at them and it's cool to see them continue to have a really strong relationship with a large enterprise customer here that is doing enterprise grade technology. Push out. You have any extra further here, Fred.

Just to add, Qualcomm obviously is one of the largest employers in San Diego. Homegrown company, leading semiconductor firm. They actually made an acquisition, I was doing some research and they acquired a electronics maker in Italy. This will allow them to get closer to robot making and robotics. So it's interesting to see them make that move as well. I was just curious on how their stock is doing. They're actually currently up 10% on the year to date, trading at $164 and their market cap is around 177 billion. So yes, they seem like they're still moving along, coming along. And you know, one thing I've been thinking about just big tech in San Diego, I don't think it's talked about enough. You know, San Diego is obviously home to biotech companies and consumer companies like Vuoric Clothing. But big tech continues to grow in San Diego. You know, I'm not sure how much I could share, but, you know, Apple has been expanding tremendously in San Diego. If you look at their website, they're hiring for a number of careers. They have a standalone page for San Diego that says we want to hire 5,000 employees by the end of 2026. And they join other group big tech companies like meta, Snapchat, TikToks here and Google is also here. So there's just, you know, something that I don't think is talked about enough is there's big tech alongside Qualcomm who, you know, live and work and play and enjoy San Diego and continue to grow their teams here. So I think that's going to be a growing Trend going into 2026 as well.

I agree. And I ran into a few Apple engineers last night at Startup Week who were out looking at new ideas. They're like, hey, I'm thinking of working on this. What do you think? How should I get started? And I was like, well, step one, you did it. You showed up at Startup Week and you're asking and you will get connected. So love seeing them integrate into the community. And. And another longtime Apple team that's been in San Diego is the Shazam Team, has had an engineering team quietly away here in San Diego as well too. So love to connect the dots there. And we know if we just keep investing in San Diego, it'll all bear to fruition here some events that you can get plugged in. So obviously if you're listening to this, come on to Startup Week even after the last day. But coming up soon is Sandy is Stocktoberfest, which is a fintech festival connecting people in every corner of investing from stocks, crypto, wealth, tech, banking tech, all the things happening in Coronado, led by the legendary fintech investor Howard Lindsen and his team at Social Leverage, a venture capital firm that pretty much is San Diego based at this point. Howard's the only one, I think. Well, Tom is in Phoenix, Howard is here part time, and then Gary Bennett and Matt Ober hold it down in San Diego that we continue to do fintech lunches with. So Stocktoberfest, me and Fred will be out there the 20th through the 22nd in Coronado. It's beautiful, it's fun and man, you run it. The people you run into are awesome. I mean, they're just people you see on cnbc. And they're just there, you know, because Howard has called upon them to come and Stocktwits itself has really, which started, I think started in San Diego maybe 10 plus years ago, has really rode the WA social investing even alongside Robinhood, you know. So it'll be cool to see new features, new ways that people are doing social investing. We just released a pod today with Matt Ober, general partner at Social Leverage, so you can hear a deeper dive on that. We'll link that in the show notes. That same week we're doing our San Diego Defense Tech Gathering and co build day. This is where you know, 50, 60 or so San Diego defense ecosystem leaders come out from active Navy to Saronic, which is, you know, big defense tech that's moved here to startups like, you know, Dan Magi, Firestorm, Mike Sims, Eddie Imperium and everything else. So it's kind of a convergence of all of that. Come out October 23rd. Also linked in the show notes and as always we we get our events powered by the Social Coyote, which is a weekly newsletter on what's happening in San Diego tech. The newsletter. Anything else Fred, on your radar events wise?

No Neil, but I see you on Friday for the SD Founders Hikes San Diego Startup Edition. And thanks always for tuning in to this week in San Diego Tech news. Always a pleasure to do this and you know we're really excited and bullish on San Diego. This is just the beginning of the flywheel effect for San Diego startup ecosystem. And yeah, we welcome you to get involved and follow us on socials and our substack as well.

Yeah, definitely make sure you go and follow Fred at the business of san diego.subsect.com My subsequent in there as well. I'm currently fresh brewed tech.substack.com but I'm actually going to be reunifying that to Rising Tide partners.substack.com so look for that news something cool that happened this week. I met someone in person who said I've been following you and your newsletter for like 10 plus years and this is my first time meeting you in person. Ian Holt, shout out to you for coming out and getting connected. I think he actually moved away and moved back and still has been subscribing. So it means a lot to meet all of you and for all of you to do the work of sharing the news and connecting each other because that's what we need. We need interconnectedness and the density will just happen. So thanks for all of you for tuning and amplifying and connecting. See you next week. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Fred.

Always a pleasure, Neil.

Likewise. Cheers.

Guacamole. Keep accountants counting beans. Contador Quentin Frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas, round jalapeno in these modern times a craft beer and coffee my coating 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 ghost 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, 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 tackles with your host, Neil Bloom.

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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 party started? You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it, hey.

It.