January 22, 2019
THE LOCAL BUZZ

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Welcome to The Local Buzz, your inside scoop on San Diego’s tech scene. Keep up to date on our Fresh Brewed Tech website.
BLOOMBITES
There’s a great New York Times article by Erin Griffith and Twitter conversation happening right now centered around the question, do all startups need venture capital? It’s a great question, and the obvious answer is no. San Diego specifically, while we have seen larger amounts of capital come into the region recently, has a history of building some big tech companies without the immediate need for venture capital. An example would be GoFundMe, which bootstrapped for the first seven years after founding before raising its first round. Or read in today's Fresh Brewed Tech  IMPACT series article about a local entrepreneur who chose the non-profit route for his needed funding.

While startups do typically differ from small businesses by growing at faster rates and therefore typically needing outside funding, there are other models that benefit the right kind of company. What do you think? What are some other examples of San Diego companies maintaining hyper growth without large venture capital rounds?

Cheers!
ORIGINAL BREW

Our team of local writers gives a fresh look inside the San Diego tech ecosystem past and present
TritonTech: Nanome: Local UCSD startup Nanome is building intuitive software aimed at democratizing science, engineering, and research by leveraging the latest virtual reality and blockchain technology. Read more here about how the company’s tools can personalize medicine and fight diseases that are affecting billions of people.

AzTech: Trust & Will: An entrepreneurial trio, consisting of two San Diego State Aztecs, has created a startup that is modernizing the $170 billion estate planning industry with an easy, fast, and secure way for people to set up their estate plan online. Read more here .

Impact: Kitchens for Good: Join Carter Crockett as he explores how one local organization is breaking the cycles of food waste, hunger, and poverty through innovative solutions in workforce training, healthy food production, and social enterprise. Read more here .
TACOS & TECH PODCAST
Join Neal Bloom as he chats with Sergey Sundukovskiy, Co-founder, CTO, and CPO of Raken, a field management solution for the construction industry. Tune in to hear all about Sergey's journey from Ukraine to UCSD and his career path to entrepreneurship. T hanks to our partners at Cox Business for supporting our tech and startup ecosystem.

Listen:
SAN DIEGO TECH ECOSYSTEM NEWS
San Diego EDC has launched a "Just Say No To Winter" campaign targeting STEM talent ages 27-37 in areas that experience harsh winters, such as NY, Chicago & Boston

SCALE San Diego partners with US Ignite, City of San Diego, and Cox Communications to tackle smart city initiatives

Coworking space in San Diego has surpassed the million-square-foot mark, and experts are saying the demand for these spaces isn't going anywhere

The local startup scene raked in $2.5B from VCs in 2018, nearly twice as much money as the prior year

San Diego's Analytics Ventures is attracting people to its advisory board from the likes of Qualcomm and GE Ventures

Girls Take Flight gives San Diego high school girls life-changing drone skills

Classy saw nonprofits raise a record-smashing $24M on its platform on New Year's Eve

New South Park coworking space, Ivy Street, is open for business

Keep up with the latest SD tech news here
SAN DIEGO BIOTECH BEAT
Liver drug developer Cirius Therapeutics has outlined plans for its $86M IPO

Dexcom joined in on strategic partner Beta Bionics' Series B round, which raised a total of $63M

Cooler Heads, Hydrostasis, and Vivid Genomics have completed the Ad Astra Ventures 12-week intensive program, each receiving $20K

Carlsbad-based SleepScore Labs is teaming up with Dr. Oz to raise awareness of the importance of a good night's sleep

RECENT DEALS
CommonGrounds Coworking, $100M with Mohamed Alabbar, Pacifica Enterprises, Davidson Capital Group

TaxJar, $60M with Insight Venture Partners

Wiliot, $30M with Amazon, Samsung, Qualcomm Ventures, Avery Dennison

Roswell Biotechnologies, $32M

PetDesk, $12M with PeakSpan Capital

AlwaysAI, $4M with BlueRun Ventures

Sun Genomics, $3M with IndiBio & SOSV
IPOs

Poseida Therapeutics, $115M preliminary filing

Cirius Therapeutics, $86M preliminary filing

JOBS SPOTLIGHT
Director, Learning and Development, Kyriba (UTC)

Technical Director, Ripkord.tv (San Diego)

Full Stack Software Engineer, Doctible (Mission Valley)

AI Software Marketing Manager, Intel (Sabre Springs)

Product Designer, Hero (San Diego)

VP of Engineering, Lawn Love (Rancho Bernardo)

Jr. Business Analyst, Taylor Guitars (El Cajon)

Software Engineer - Music, Tang Capital Management (Sorrento Valley)

Business Development Representative, Sourcify (North Park)
UPCOMING EVENTS
Ensuring Product Success Through Customer Validation, Jan. 24

South Bay Hera Labs Demo Nite, Jan. 24

i2 Innovation Initiative Funding Forum 2019, Jan. 30

Company Culture 101 - Understanding What It Is and Why It Matters, Jan. 30

North County Hera Labs Demo Nite, Jan. 31

Applications Due for CONNECT ALL @ the Jacobs Center Accelerator, Feb. 1

Startup San Diego Convergence, Feb. 27- March 1

The 5th Annual Emerald Conference, Feb. 27-March 1
TACO TO YOU LATER
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." 
Martin Luther King Jr.
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