Turning ocean science into real-world impact

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.

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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 and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it.

Hey.

And welcome back everyone to the Tacos and Tech podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom, and I'm so thrilled to have on my birthday twin and the blue tech leader herself here in San Diego, Vanessa Scott of the Scripps Institution of of Oceanography at UCSD and of BlueTech community. Vanessa, hey, thanks for being on the pod.

Thanks, Neil, Birthday twin. I'm thrilled to be here. Really excited for the conversation to connect with you.

Yeah, me too. We've got a lot to talk about, but one, it was so fun to find out that we were birthday twins, I think, same year and same date, which is also unique, but man, I feel like we have been, I'd say orbiting but swimming around each other in the waters that is the bluetech world of San Diego, which are vast but also tight knit and there's just so much going on. Why don't we start high level with a bit of what Start our Blue is and then maybe we'll go backwards and define for the audience what BlueTech is to just make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

All right, so Start Blue is an accelerator program to launch and scale ocean focused startups. So it is housed at UC San Diego and led in partnership by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Rady School of Management and their entrepreneurship center, which basically combines all the entrepreneurship intelligence expertise from Radi and their Start Our Accelerator series, which they launched back in 2012 and have supported many startups raising lots of capital through these different programs they've had Start Our impact Start our veteran lots of different kind of veins of it and we developed Start Blue kind of on top of that with the partnership with Scripps to combine all of the ocean and water intelligence of our scientists and researchers, but also of our technology and development resources at Scripps, at our hydraulics lab, at our makerspace that is very unique to creating things in the ocean and the ocean environments. Our Scripps research peer, and then also our extensive network of partners that are in kind of the blue tech ocean tech space. So that was launched back in 2020. We got the funding, the seed funding. So we ourselves are still, I would say kind of a startup in ourselves where we got the seed funding from the Economic Development Administration's Build to Industry program and then also had to match funding, so fundraising through philanthropy Builders Initiative. Some of the other companies that invested in us, our Directors Council at Scripps and we spent a year planning and then launching our first cohort in 2021. Since then we've supported three cohorts of companies, very early stage companies kind of creating that bridge from getting people out of the lab and into the market. And 22 companies of Ocean focused startups, half of which were founded by women that really raised about over $10 million during their time in the program. So very early stage, mostly SBIRs, kind of non dilutive government funding, angel investing. And yeah, then with that kind of original proof of concept, we were applying for this big grant from NOAA, the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration and their Ioos Ocean Enterprise Department and won this huge, almost $14 million grant to scale up our efforts and support more ocean focused startups from the early stage, but also all the way through to later stage startups, even small to medium businesses to help them scale up ocean and data intelligence solutions. So we're super excited. It's really fun program. The entrepreneurs have always been brilliant and very dedicated to their mission and yeah, it's been really fun to be a part of this and see it grow.

Absolutely. I was a mentor, I think the first year when it was all by Zoom during COVID and it was awesome to see it just happen. Right. It ripped off the band aid and start just the same for a program like a startup and for it to have grown. Can you. Let's just back up a little bit and talk a little about a little about Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Like give us a little bit. I don't. Not the whole history, but let's get a little bit of background to know. I want more for the gravity of it all.

Like.

Right. I mean this is like the epicenter of it for the world. And then a little bit of just take us through. What is bluetech today, do you think kind of your. Your definition of it?

Yeah, absolutely. Scripps Institution of Oceanography was founded well before anything UC San Diego here in the area. It was founded back in 1910 by Ellen Browning Scripps and really was the epicenter of oceanographic research and subsequently became part of the University of California ecosystem back in the 60s and then back when UC San Diego started developing around it became a department of UC San Diego. But we study obviously everything in the ocean, but also in the atmosphere, meteorology, hydrology, geology. So there are people at Scripps that are working in the deep ocean trying to map the deep sea floor. There are people in the ocean trying to develop medications and medicines from the ocean. There are also people that are flying planes into the atmospheric river storms that are actually happening right now off the coast, dropping all kinds of drops ons and using all different kinds of technology to collect data to then be able to better forecast for these rain events. We've got scientists that are predicting and monitoring the wildfire events with different cameras in different places. It's a place that while the ocean is our anchor, we also really research a lot of things around the different parts of the earth and atmosphere as well. And it's really a fun place to work. I would say with bluetech is, you know, there's a lot of different definitions and ways that people quantify it. But I think the easiest way to do it is really anything that supports the ocean and water. Right. So this could be bluetech could mean biotechnology which have applications for human health, whether it be medicines or restoration for coral reefs. It could be drones and underwater robots that are going around monitoring, collecting information, have cameras to look at different things in the ocean that can be used for security reasons. It could be used for collecting data to put into forecast models for storms and for different kinds of things for security. And then there's other things like energy. Right. There's people. We had a great deployment with one of our startups, Calwave, from our first cohort that had a big wave energy device that they were doing a pilot test off of our peer to see how much wave energy could be created to be able to power things from the grid. So lots of different things that bluetech means. But yeah, I think what I the biggest challenge I think is that people just don't understand it. Right. But it's very relatable. It could be anything that's providing the fish that you eat to the things that you're ordering on Amazon. Because all the ships that got it here were depending upon the technologies that are considered blue tech.

Yeah, I think what is more what I hear is that it's so vast and broad people just associate it with oh anything ocean but and even within that some people think like oh it's, oh it's non defense related ocean or it's only defense related ocean. But as you describe it, you're right, there is so much it really Touches almost everything because water is a part of almost everything to. Right. So it's pretty cool to have to kind of stake your claim and say we are, we. We touch everything of some sort, you know, out there to a certain regard, even space, as you mentioned, in that regard. But I want to know a little bit about your bluetech journey because I feel like you have, you've got an interesting one of what brought you here. Like, where does a young Vanessa end up? How does she end up here at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Thanks, Neil. So I grew up in south la, right on the ocean, so I was very fortunate. And the ocean was always my piece and my passion and kind of my wonder. My dad was a surfer and a doctor, right. So it was always going down to the beach to see him and then go tide pooling and things. And we actually grew up in a place where there was a marine land down the street. So I always kind of was able to see dolphins and marine mammals and that was really fascinating. But.

Is that where you were?

Yeah, Palos Verdes.

Palos Verdes. Oh, right, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, totally. Lots of really cool tide pools and different kinds of ecosystems that are very unique. And then going to Catalina as a kid, but like many people, you know, went to college, wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Got my major at UCLA in communications, spent my first career in biotech, really kind of taking after my family. So spent some time at Eli Lilly and Stryker Instruments and some couple diagnostic companies doing business development, marketing, communication, sales. It was around 2010 with the whole Deep Water Horizon oil spill that I really just kind of got shaken up and wanted to figure out a way that I could use my skill sets and expertise to help improve the health of the ocean. So much so that I actually decided to take some time off and spent a year in the Seychelles Islands, which are these incredible islands in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar with these incredible coral reef ecosystems. I was not certified to scoot a dive. I didn't know much about coral reefs. And you know, in a short period of time I became certified. They taught us how to identify underwater 50 different species of coral coral, which we would do hanging upside down, writing on little plastic slates like, you know, very close up. And I spent three hours a day underwater, became a dive instructor, got to know the coral reefs around Seychelles and it was just magical. And I just completely fell in love with everything about the ocean and just became more inspired to really find a way to create a real career. Not that that's Not a real career, but like a career that I could do back at home to make a positive impact. It was then that I found this one year interdisciplinary degree at Scripps Institutional Oceanography. It's a master's of Advanced studies in marine biodiversity and conservation, which was really cool because it's the science, it's the policy, it's the economics, it's entrepreneurship, it's communications. It was during that time that I did a business and marketing plan as a capstone project for an ocean startup. And I got hooked. And I met my predecessor, Gwen Nero, who had led and started the office that I work in now. And she hired me on as a graduate student fellow. And I just worked my way up and now I've been here for six years and I get to help other ocean entrepreneurs launch and scale their businesses. So it's been really fun.

What a journey to found a passion and then and then turned it into a profession as well too. And then to help others, you know, take their passions for change in the world and launch them for it as well. Is there a history within Scripps Institution of Oceanography of entrepreneurship? Like, well, before, you know, start our blue, like, what is there? I'm guessing, obviously there's innovation, always. These are innovative people. Is there, you know, things that people can trace the roots to a little bit from a startup scene?

Absolutely. I mean, a lot of the technologies that we depend upon for ocean observation and data collection have been spun out of Scripps Oceanography. I don't know if you remember the famous oceanographer Walter Monk, but he was at Scripps Oceanography and he worked with, you know, the Allied forces and the US Forces in for D day, like giving all the oceanographic information to help time everything to make that a success. There are the Argo floats, which is a whole program, an international coordinated program of thousands and thousands of these floats that were created at Scripps Oceanography that go from the ocean surface all the way down to the 6,000 meters down, just daily collecting information. And those were created and developed at Scripps and spun out now have private companies creating them as well to be able to support and make enough for the whole global ecosystem. Lots of different wave gliders and different types of buoy platforms. Lots of sensors have been created at Scripps to be able to collect different kinds of data. And even now, one of the really cool things I'm really passionate about that actually came through one of our cohorts of Stark Blue or some of the coral reef ecologists Including Stuart Sanden, who now developed these cameras and systems to be able to, like, where I was, like, diving and looking at coral and writing down what they were on slates. These guys are just using ROVs and divers with cameras to swim over reefs, take pictures, make 3D images, and then use machine learning that then identifies what kind of coral it is, what the health of it is, so they can do a lot more efficiently, effectively, and then do a lot more volume of it so they can see the changes in these reefs over time, you know, in these 3D images, which is really cool.

That is super cool. I think from a lot of that, what you just said and what I know when you gave me an amazing tour was a kind of this, like, ocean as a lab, ocean as a sensor platform piece. Right. So there's so much we don't know. The best way to know it is to collect infinite data. Like you mentioned the Argo floats and others. And I know UCSD has this massive supercomputer center to crunch the data. I'm guessing there's a lot of relationships there, right, in terms of technology and powering the sensor, the global sensor fleet that. That Scripps puts out the true.

Absolutely, yes. And because Scripps is so well connected into all those other resources at UCSD and has the history that does, there's a lot of these ocean observation programs housed here at Scripps, which is one of the great reasons I think we were able to get the funding for Start Blue through the Integrated Ocean Observing System, because we've got the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, you know, the ARGO fleet that is deployed from here, a lot of different NOAA programs that are collecting all this data. And then also, as I was mentioning, like, the atmospheric river, like, you know, data collection. So from all the way up in the atmosphere down to the seafloor, and all that data being used in those supercomputers to create these forecast models to be able to say, okay, we're going to see an atmospheric river, category 5, hit Central coast of California, so make sure that you're preparing accordingly.

So, yes, and so with the research, kind of the research being managed from scripts, that means there's a lot of talent funneling through here who usually start in a lab or to bring their research here and then hopefully spin out some technology right into a startup of its own. Is that a typical path of what you see of people coming through?

Yes. And I think that was definitely one of the reasons why Start Blue started was because to your point. You know, there's been so much innovation that has come through scripts throughout these years that there was a demand from kind of the students and the scientists to have a more programmatic mechanism to understand what the commercialization potential is for anything that they develop. And then also how to think like an entrepreneur. Right. So that's the fun part of the program is really trying to. They're very trained on science, right. But then now trying to reframe it on like how to think like an entrepreneur and see if there is. If their hypothesis is correct that there is a business for this and a market for it. And is there a customer that's willing to pay? Because sometimes they think there may be and there's not. Or vice versa.

Got it. So what's the tip? Let's say someone is starting something now and not involved with scripts. What's a good way for them to start thinking about? Would start our Blue be a good place for them?

Yeah, that's a great question. So I would say one thing that I always encourage people to start with is the NSF I Corps program, just kind of like that four course workshop to think about how to talk to a potential customer and going out beyond the lab that you live in or kind of like the academic institution that you're in, or if you're not in the academic institution, it's basically just helping you prove your concept on whether or not this is a good idea or not. Right. Because part of being an entrepreneur is, you know, failing fast too. Right. Or. Or knowing when you shouldn't pursue something and finding something else or pivoting. So I think also in San Diego there's just such a great community of support. There's so many opportunities for networking. I mean, Neil, you've built this amazing community, right? And I know the BlueTech community is growing as well. And I think, you know, the whole San Diego community has embraced everybody together. So coming from Los Angeles, I have found this particular community to be so collaborative and supportive. Of course there's competition, but it's. It definitely feels more like you could ask anyone in this ecosystem for a connection and people are always happy to help. Which I think is really a unique value proposition for the region and something that I really enjoy and encourage others to do. Even if it's just going to networking events and thinking about what you might want to do or finding someone else that's working on an idea that you might want to join.

Yeah, totally agree. And there should be competition to perform for the founders, right? Like, we are all here to support founders to be successful. And the best way to do that is actually show up for them right. Day in, day out. So it should be meritocracy. Right? Like the founders don't have time to be dragged around and not helped. Like they gotta run through, run through walls. And so I think it's a good sense of competition and they should be building profitable businesses. So we should be in the business of building businesses and that's just how business runs. So I think it's a healthy ecosystem and mentality for that regard. Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest ways to meet an entire ecosystem, if you feel like you're not involved in it, has come to what has been Bluetech Week, but has blown up into Bluetech Month, which is incredible. And it's upon us. It's all of November, I'm pretty sure, pretty much taken over into Bluetech Month. Can you take us through what that is and then give us a little bit of like a guide, like how to navigate it and how to get involved a little bit?

Absolutely. That's a great question and it's really exciting. So actually, Blue Tech Month, yes. Is starting in November. I'm actually headed up to San Francisco next week. A lot of this is also kind of centered around this really cool old tall ship, a Norwegian tall ship that's 111 years old called the Staatsdrag Lemkul that's sailing around the world for the UN Decade of Ocean Science, which is this decade 2020-2030, as a platform to bring together different kinds of ocean entrepreneurs, investors, you know, scientists and different communication community. So it's in San Francisco right now actually. It's headed to San Francisco next week. There's a big couple big investor conferences and then it's coming down to San Diego, which I'm really excited. I'm actually going to be part of that expedition from San Francisco to San Diego. And then the part of Bluetech Month that starts in San Diego will be on November 13th on the actual Stasrad Lemkool, which is really cool. So you can register. I think it's the links are all on TMA bluecheck month.org and be on that ship. There'll be lots of different kinds of people there that are from around the region. There's some, you know, politicals, but then there's the people from research and academia from TMA BlueTech organization, which I sit on the board as well from the Port of San Diego. Lots of people just coming together to kind of Talk about how we can dig even deeper and kind of accelerate the things that are happening in the region and also learn from our friends in Norway on how they're working together. And then the kind of next week, November 17th to the 20th will be two parts. There's some at Liberty Station from November 17th and 18th, which is a great, kind of like joining of a lot of different maritime security community. The startups will be there, we'll have students there as well. So that's always a great event that's put on. Then on the 19th, there'll be some in water demonstrations at one of the Port of San Diego's locations, which will be really fun. You can learn more on the website there. And then on November 20th, we're hosting the event at Scripps Oceanography, kind of featuring the current cohort of companies that are finishing up our the first program of the Start Blue Ocean Enterprise Accelerator program. So that'll be November 20th. There'll be some panels in the morning, the startups will be presenting in the afternoon. And then we always have a great evening sunset reception overlooking the water on kind of the famous Scripps Cliffs right there. The last two years we've seen the Green Flash. I make no promises, but for some reason it always seems to come out for our event. So definitely encourage people to come check it out, connect with our community. It's always a really great time and you get to see the entrepreneurs and some of their technologies as well.

It's incredible. Wow, I'm so excited. I'm such a tall ships nerd, by the way. And so I know I've been paying you for a while, being like, what is this happening? What is happening? I'm just a early 1800s tall ship, just nut which no one knows. And now people will know that about me. So I can't wait for that. There's a lot of, you know, private blue tech companies in San Diego that all have different associations in town from the, you know, autonomous world, right? Which is obviously the Navy being one of the biggest customers of that or they should be soon of that right here in our backyard. And so getting the science, the autonomous tech, which are pretty much, you know, privately funded startups, and then the customer end user all here is such a big deal. It's such a San Diego thing that we could and should be raising the flag to the entire world on. And so I'm glad we've got at least the platform to do that, which is bluetech Month and all these events. And now we just need Everyone to bump into each other on a daily basis, not just once a year at that conference. And this is that opportunity because there's literally something every day or multiple times a day. So I'm really pumped for that. To show the density of our blue tech community here and for you to be every day pitching it and bringing people together around that as well too. So. So thanks for that.

Thanks Neil. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. And we do have, you know, regular networking events throughout the year as well. So you can stay connected or just, you know, start getting connected to the BlueTech community. Every month we host a happy hour at one of the breweries in Kearney Mesa. You can find all that stuff. It's always on the TMA BlueTech event calendar site. So if anybody's interested. And then we host different events at Scripps.

We will link to all of that in the show. Notes One of the. Well actually take us through maybe a few of the most recent Start Our Blue companies. Like what are some companies that people should have on their radar and know they started at Start Our Blue kind of thing? Can you?

Absolutely. So you know we've got companies that kind of have a pretty wide range of things that they've been doing. We've got Hybrid Reef which actually came through our first cohort. It's a spin out company from Scripps from led by Dana Wenk Presser who's really great and he is created this biotech kind of two part solution to help restore and make coral reefs more healthy. One is with is part of it is like a compound that helps minimize like the growth of algae on coral. So when corals are having a hard time after bleaching events there's a lot of like this slimy algae that grows on it that suffocates it. So he's got this product that kind of prevents that from growing and then also a product that has a chemical cue to help recruit healthy coral. So like when coral reproduce they just spawn and all these different larvae go up into the water column and to make sure that they come down and that healthy actual larvae come and recruit. On coral reefs they need these chemical cues. But when coral reefs are sick or they're bleached or they're diseased, they the healthy chemical cues are not as strong so the healthy coral don't come down and recruit as easily. So that's one of the companies. I'm obviously kind of a coral reef nerd. So I really think that that's cool and A very unique kind of company. There are several companies that we have also that are creating different wave powered platforms for ocean intelligence. So think about it as like a ocean satellite. Right. The satellites in space need some things in the ocean to ground truth, their data and information. And ocean data is really important too. But one of the biggest limitations that the ocean has is power. And it's really hard to power things in the ocean otherwise if you keep putting batteries on or solar panels. But that's always not easy as well. So people are harnessing the power of waves, whether it be through buoys or different kinds of profiling platforms to then collect data. So we've got Del Mar Oceanographic, which is another spin out of Scripps, that's currently in the Stark Blue program. And then Ocean Motion Technologies, who actually developed this in the Antarctic regions because they were constantly going and changing batteries and solar panels to power the different data collection that they finally just created this wave power device to be able to power all the ocean intelligence collection. We also have Kaipono, which is a team that spun out of or that's out of sdsu that's creating the Brita for the waterways. And Navy has really been awesome and she's the founder and they are now putting these sort of trash capture devices at the point of where the stormwater and the rain runs off into the ocean to be able to prevent those things and the toxins from getting in the ocean. So that's been a really fun one to see grow as well.

Absolutely. Man, I remember Navy as a student at SDSU and seeing that she's working on this and growing it. I love it. Using more community resources to scale that. Wow, what a wide breadth and swath of different areas to innovate within water. Love it. It's so cool. So I can't wait to meet the companies coming up soon here in the next few weeks. And I know you'll be there riding the ship into the harbor, which has been pretty fun.

I gotta get my ready.

Yes. Well, if there isn't. If it. If, if there aren't two things that go together that are very San Diego. It's the ocean, right? And everything that goes along with that, studying it, surfing it, you know, being in it, as well as a great food source for our taco scene. Obviously the San Diego fish taco as a standard and needs to live on. And actually there's funny enough, a lot of startups innovating in that space. I was actually just this morning with the Blue Nalu team who are Doing cell cultured seafood to, you know, build a perfect fish for us one day and not have to tap too deeply into overfishing our oceans. Right. So even in our taco scene, we're innovating for in the bluetech way. But we have to know, what is your favorite taco? Do you have just one or is it all the tacos?

I have all the tacos, but I did think of one especially that is I always a go to. So I love the fish market in Encinitas. And when they have Opa, everyone must try this. OPA is this gorgeous, huge fish. It's blue with red spots. Or maybe it's red with blue spots, something like. But it's. It's a catch from some of the swordfish fisheries and they've actually started discovering how delicious it is. And you can eat pretty much every part of the fish. So opa, I think it's O P A H. When it's at Encinitas Fish Market in a taco and I like it blackened.

Is this. Wait, I gotta. We gotta pinpoint this because we put it into a database. Is this the fish shop in downtown Encinitas?

Yes, the blue one.

Okay. Because there's also the fish market in.

Oh, yes, sorry, the fish shop.

Okay. All good. No, no. We take our locations very seriously. The fish shop, I used to work on the back side of their place. There's a little startup that had an office that we literally could hear the fish shop's kitchen radio playing all day. So I know that place well. And you're right, it is the hub for all things freshest, Freshest fish in that regard. Ever been to the tuna market down?

Yes. That is epic. Yes. That.

Have you bought your own fish to make your own seafood off of that?

Oh, yeah. Yep. And Tommy the tuna monger.

Yeah, love it.

Yes. And I actually have some friends that are very skilled and provide delicious bluefin often. So I get. I'm spoiled. I do get some good sashimi.

Yeah. Love it. Well, we will have you over at Bluenalu once they do their next batch of bluefin tuna toro, which is on its way up. And I'm looking forward to seeing you on some tall ships and celebrating the month together and bringing more people over to Scripps to see all the resources and the opportunities there. So thanks for leading the charge, Vanessa. And it's still our birthday month, so have a happy rest of the, you know, birthday celebration because celebrate for the whole month.

Thank you, Neal. And thank you so much for inviting me on here. It's really so wonderful to be able to participate in this. I love your podcast, and I'm just really excited and happy to be here with you and to do this more often. So thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Vanessa.

Talk to you on November 20th.

Tacos in Tech is on smash for the green guacamole keeper Captains 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 coast 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 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 hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom.

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