San Diego Tech News Weekly – January 28, 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 builde.

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 five stories of the week:

1/28/2022:

1. Making It In San Diego: Starting a business during the pandemic
   1. 1. Salesforce Survey
   2. There were 4m businesses started during the pandemic in the US
   3. According to a salesforce survey
      1. 39% due to layoff or furlough
      2. 15.5% turned side hustle into 
      3. 13% pandemic related opportunity
   4. Most (76%) are considered small
   5.  80% consumer
   6. Often times requiring less overhead to start
   7. Ex: Lost Cyclery
      1. Founder Tim worked at Lost Abbey in San Marcos
      2. As the brewery closed needed income and began repairing bikes
      3. Then started using space at the brewery
   8. His business is next to a wooden skateboard rack company
      1. Demand grew and now he’s opening a store front in 2022
   9. Most new businesses are digital
      1. Only 39% have physical storefront
   10. Gloria edge founded BeauBeau
       1. Social media company for cosmetics
       2. Fmr salon owner
       3. Brands asked how to market with closed locations
   11. Some additional survey data
       1. 21.7% were started for less than 1k
       2. 30.4% between 1-10k
       3. 14% between 10-50
       4. 33.9% greater than 50k
   12. 3 most popular qualities in the survey
       1. Creativity
       2. Critical thinking
       3. Good Communication
2. San Diego startup Koji gets $20 million for tech that helps social media influencers make money – The San Diego Union-Tribune
   1. Koji is THE link in bio company. And more
   2. Team has a long San Diego experience
   3. Raised $36M to date
   4. App ecosystem, like tip jar, AMA
3. SD Beer Scene
   1. Roll Up — Tilray-Owned SweetWater Expands Cannabis Adjacencies by Acquiring Green Flash, Alpine — Good Beer Hunting
      1. Sweetwater Brewery owned by Tilray – 
         1. Tilray: a global leader in cannabis research, cultivation, processing and distribution.
      2. Aqu. Brand assets from Green Flash Brewing & Alpine
      3. This story is a series of acquisitions, here’s the short of it
      4. Aphria buys SweetWater for 300m
         1. Aphria then merges with Tilray to create world’s largest cannabis company
      5. Tilray moving into alc with Breckenridge distillery
      6. The mission:
         1. Scale non THC beverage brands and position themselves for a USA expansion when MMJ is federally legaized
      7. Alpine/Greenflash gives expansion options for the parent company
      8. Greenflash got into trouble years ago for over expanding and pushing east
         1. Falling from 100k barrels on 2016 to ⅓ of that last year
         2. Closing shop on a $20m facility in 2018, 2 years after opening
      9. Let’s not forget that though the name Green Flash is named after the setting sun, it also has a very cannabis friendly name
         1. AAANNND a brew called “SaturHaze”
      10. Green Flash has struggled
4. Molson Coors sells Saint Archer to Kings & Convicts – The San Diego Union-Tribune
   1. Another fall from grace!!
   2. After 7 years Miller Coors pulling the plug
   3. Selling assets to local brand Kings & Convicts
      1. Owned by fmr owner of ballast point
      2. Talking over 50k sq/ft in Miramar
   4. This could have been considered a covid casualty
      1. Or a change in taste / shift to seltzers 
   5. Kings & Convicts actually purchased Ballast Point from Constellations brands in 2019
      1. Undisclosed amount but rumored to be a deep discount
   6.   This gives them volume flexibility
      1. Ballast point is massive and they want to do smaller productions run flexibility 
   7. Miller Coors will retain the Saint Archer brand name
   8. These tap room facilities give the company flexibility to move into RTDs (ready to drink) and FMBs (fermented malt beverages)
5. [shoutout – not full story] San Diego Angel Conference IV Announces Quarterfinalists | Business Wire
   1. 24 companies in the Q finals
   2. 90 applied 
   3. Last year runner up chargenet just closed $6.2m
   4. An awesome opportunity for newer angel investors to learn the ropes
6. [shoutout – not full story] TuSimple is getting a 1-million-square-foot facility at Hillwood’s 27,000-acre AllianceTexas development in North Fort Worth [link]
7. [Shoutout – not full story] Downtown Works Opens Premium Coworking Space in Heart of San Diego’s Pacific Beach Community
8. Another SB Commercial – Cloudbeds https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf13lAgUgqw&feature=youtu.be