San Diego Tech News Weekly – March 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, fmr ops guy at Lime, Handy, and Postmates, loving San Diego life, new dad and and going head first into crypto and NFT apparel.

For March 4, 2022:

1. Local startup connects users with favorite athletes, sports personalities
   1. Have you heard of San Diego startup Meetlete?
   2. Cameo for Sports personalities, athletes, influencers
   3. Founded by CEO Rob Connolly
      • Founded 3 other businesses
        • Connecting agents and customers
        • Dog box subscription
        • Messaging platform
   4. One on one calls between fans and athletes
   5. Essentially a walled facetime 
   6. 140 athletes in 2021
      • Remember Chuck Liddell
   7. They were doing pretty well, then found out NASCAR selected them as a partner
   8. In a shirking digital world maybe this is a way to meet a hero a little easier
2. Salk Professor Martyn Goulding wins Brain Prize – Salk Institute for Biological Studies
   1. Congrats Martyn!! 
   2. What is the brain price? 
      • Top prize in neuroscience 
      • the world’s largest neuroscience research prize
      • Awarded by Lundbeck Foundation
   3. For the science behind how we move
   4. More specifically the neuronal circuits that control movement
   5. This is fun, the prize is 10m DKK (Danish Krone)
      • Or $1.5m
      • 0.15 USD to DKK
   6. How we move is complex
      • Think about a few things for a moment
        • the first steps of a baby
        • balance and agility required in riding a bicycle
   7. These breakthroughs look at how the brain and spinal cord interact to form these movements 
   8. A few things happen when we want to move
      • Intention are transmitted from braincells
      • Travel down spine 
      • To muscles in fingers, arms, legs
   9. He discovered the types of neurons responsible for
      • Alternate steps
      • Speed 
   10. Also mapped spinal cord circuitry 
   11. This is all cool but the applications can help with treatments for
       • Parkinson’s disease, 
       • ALS
       • spinal cord injuries
3. Beer battles: Stone Brewing’s trademark fight with Keystone finally heads to trial
   1. Sup Mike
   2. 4 year legal battle
   3. Now selecting a jury
   4. A little history 
      • 2017 – Keystone was rebranded as Stone
        • Or Key Stone
      • 2018 – Stone sues Miller Coors for hijacking “Stone” trademark
   5. Argument is around consumer confusion
   6. This is very contentious
   7. But I think we can all agree that watery beer pong beer is very different from craft IPAs
4. SD County to divest of fossil fuels
   1. $13B investment portfolio
   2. Unanimous vote to not invest County money in “any corporation that engages in the exploration, production, drilling, or refining of coal, petroleum, or natural gas.”
   3. San Diego County is developing sustainability plans across all its departments. It also is updating its climate action plan and launching a decarbonization plan to cut the region’s carbon emissions to net zero through investments in clean energy and transportation. That could include switching to solar, wind, electric cars, and further electrifying buildings and identifying opportunities to capture and store carbon in natural systems.
   4. The investment pool previously had one $5 million stake in Exxon Mobil, but the county treasurer sold that this month at a net loss of $1,850. Exxon Mobil’s credit rating was downgraded recently, the letter states, so the sale was justified on that basis as well as environmental considerations.
   5. It’s an interesting time for investing in energy when we’re talking about energy independence as a country
5. General Atomics and Orion Space win contract for military weather satellites
   1. Awarded by U.S. Space Force
   2. Orion will launch a 2022 demo nanocube sat
   3. GA will launch a 400 kg sat in 2024 or 2025
   4. Replacing old sats that are running out of fuel
   5. Will be on a low polar orbit 
   6. Used by US and NATO – pretty important esp now when there’s been cloud cover over Ukraine
   7. GA expects this demo to turn into a 12 satellite order. They’ve received $200M in funding so far for the program
   8. Space Force is also exploring buying the data and not owning the satellites themselves
   9. GA does space – nuclear propulsion systems, optical systems, payload systems – also communications work with their drones
      • Adds to the other space companies esp in satellites like Viasat 

Shoutouts:

• Everyone is buying into San Diego Biotech
  • Canadian buyer pickles up 13 lifesciences buildings in Sorrento mesa
  • $464 million