By Neal Bloom
And just like that, 25% of 2019 is over. It’s been a solid Q1 for San Diego, which traditionally has a quiet first quarter of funding. The end of 2018 definitely overshadowed the beginning of 2019 since there were so many fundings late in the year, but with the continued large...
By Fred Grier
Meet Nicholas Halverson, a UC San Diego alum and CEO of Occuspace. Moving from a small town in Florida to attend college, the big city was quite a shock for him - including SoCal’s problematic parking and long lines. After realizing this crowded annoyance was a shared problem...
By Andrea Siedsma
In 2000, entrepreneur Chris Carver had just shut down the sports agency that he started out of college and was on his last $100, had maxed out his credit cards, and was sleeping on his ex-girlfriend’s couch when he came across an advertisement on the back of a Competitor...
By Veronica Mitchell
Guest Writer
When Ali Fakhri co-founded Direct Cannabis Network - which began organizing events for investors and entrepreneurs in 2016 - he started hearing about the many issues of ticketing cannabis events. He soon realized that many organizers and sponsors were losing...
By Sandy Athniel
Year Founded: May 2016
Technology: SaaS for item rentals
Players: Andrew Adrian, Alexander Weber, & Karenina “Nika” Zaballa
Headcount: Three full-time employees
In early 2016, U.S. Marine veteran Andrew Adrian wanted to go kayaking. So, he searched the...
By Fred Grier
Meet Debbie Chen, an imaging data scientist-turned-entrepreneur who is developing a personalized hydration monitor for athletes to reach and maintain peak performance.
Through her thesis work, Chen spotted a unique opportunity to extend beyond academia and move closer to making...
By Carter Crockett, Ph.D.
Guest Writer
In any entrepreneurial ecosystem, local colleges and universities have an important role to play. On campus, these institutions provide pitch competitions to inspire future founders. They also offer a source of young talent and event space for the larger...
By Andrea Siedsma
In a 1999 Forbes article, young San Diego entrepreneur and athlete Mitch Thrower compared founding an Internet startup to competing in the Ironman. “First, you are swimming, surrounded by thousands of other dreamers elbowing to get funded. Then, on your bike, you pedal as...
By Sandy Athniel
Year Founded: 2016
Players: Jack Doheny & Jake Solomon
Funds Raised: $200,000 and counting
During his sophomore year as a mechanical engineering student at San Diego State University (SDSU), Jake Solomon was deep into his studies at the campus library, a place he...
By Andrea Siedsma
As tech executive and entrepreneur Jon Belmonte recalls, back in the late 1990s, if you could move a real world community of like-minded people onto the web, you had yourself an internet company. And if you could get those people to execute transactions online, you might...
