San Diego Tech News Weekly – February 4, 2022

Neal: Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News by Neal Bloom and Jonah Peake from Fresh Brewed Tech. Every Friday at 12:30pm Pacific on Clubhouse and now we record them for you to enjoy as well. Find these episodes on Freshbrewedtech.com and favorite podcast player for Tacos and Tech Podcast

I’m Neal Bloom, entrepreneur, investor, and community builder 

Jonah: Hey I’m Jonah, ops guy building marketplaces spent time at Lime, Handy, and Postmates and I enjoy helping startups throughout San Diego. Let’s dive into our four stories of the week.

For February 4, 2022:

1. Founders First Capital Partners brings a different approach to diversity investing | TechCrunch
   1. This story came out a little while ago
   2. But it’s an awesome one and highlights some big moves in San Diego for a number of groups
   3. Let’s start with the headline from TechCrunch
      1. Revenue-based financing encourages a strong partnership between firm and startup
   4. Kim (Folsom) – an engineer in the 80s/90s
      1. Founded 6 companies
      2. Raising $30+ m
      3. 3 exits
      4. Current CEO of Founders First Capital Partners
   5. They take a different approach to financing
      1. Revenue Based Financing
   6. Focusing on underrepresented founders
      1. Woman
      2. People of color
      3. LBGTQ
      4. Veterans
   7. They look for different metrics and may not target Unicorns (unicorn noise)
   8. Solid idea, some revenue
   9. More of a partnership where they are paid back over time when the companies make money
   10. Today:
       1. 8.2% of fortune 500 CEOs are woman
       2. 1% are woman of color across fortune 1000 companies
       3. 1.2% of $147b First ½ of 2021 went to black founders
       4. 0.34 to woman of color
   11. When founding in 2015 investors thought the model was very unorthodox
       1. Like bringing obstacles to an obstacle course
       2. But being unorthodox is sometimes very special
   12. Finally closing an A round in march 2021
   13. How they work
       1. Past Idea
       2. Making some money 
       3. Founders committed
       4. The company is loaned money promising to pay it back
       5. 1.35-2x over the term
       6. 2-10% of revenue
          
2. San Diego’s Silvergate Capital buys cryptocurrency assets of Facebook-founded Diem Association – The San Diego Union-Tribune
   1. !!!!
   2. Silvergate could have an easier time getting through regulations
   3. FB is so big they have eyes constantly on them
      1. They can’t acquire their way out of a jam 
      2. Can’t spin up a currency
      3. They might be in a bit of trouble
   4. But their challenge might be a windfall for Silvergate
   5. The deal
      1. $50m in cash
      2. 1.2m shares of stock
      3. For facebooks 
         1. crypto IP
         2. Back office tech
         3. Compliance software running stablecoin network
   6. They hope to spin up their own stable coin
   7. Perhaps a crypto alt to Visa or Mastercard? 
      1. Lower fees
      2. International remittance
   8. Initially Libra, then Diem
      1. Had partnered with brands like Shopify, Lyft, Uber
   9. With the announcement of the purchase Silvergate stock rose 15% to $110
      1. Now hovering around $104 
3. Preemadonna’s Nailbot Powers ‘Creative Expression’ | San Diego Business Journal 
   1. Another story of SD drawing talent from other markets
   2. SSD EIR too
   3. Just put together that Pree is the Pree in Preemadonna 
   4. Pree moved from Louisiana
   5. Intelligent manicure bot that prints epic nail designs
   6. Uses a phone for screen
   7. Our industry awards and accolades include:
      1. TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield, Finalist
      2. Amazon Alexa Fund & All Raise Women Founders Represent, Winner
      3. FounderMade, Future of Beauty Winner
      4. Silicon Valley Robotics Launch, 1st Runner Up
      5. Best Product Using Computer Vision, Embedded Vision Alliance Audience Winner
      6. Silicon Valley Forum, Women in Tech Festival, Investor & Audience Winner
      7. Women Venture’s Summit, 2021 San Diego Finalist
   8. Globe Newswire
      1. global nail care market will reach $11.6 billion by 2027
   9. Nails are artistic expression too 
4. Smart Carts That Take You To The Best Deals At The Airport
   1. SD Airport has a pilot with a smart cart company to drive travelers to the best deals in the airport
   2. We’ve talked about this a bit but we have a really future forward airport
   3. Innovation Lab program
      1. Designed to test new solutions to improve the traveler experience in a live environment
   4. Tons of innovation testing
      1. Maybe talk about AtYourGate?
      2. Mobile ordering
   5. Copenhagen-based IntelligentTrackSystems + retail partner Blueprint
   6. Smart move to make them free
      1. Currently funded by ads
   7. They have navigation / maps built in 
   8. they may spend more time exploring shops if they know they wont miss their flight
   9. Maybe we can also help understand how / where people walk in the airport 
      1. Busy spaces
      2. Congestion
   10. Curious if these carts can work outside of the airport
       1. Navigating Seaport Village or Liberty Station?
          
5. Shout Out Section
   1. Interlock Story
   2. TuSimple