Bloombites – May 18, 2025

Weekly reflections and ripple effects from the ecosystem.

Welcome to Bloombites - a weekly brain and heart dump from the front lines of your Chief Connection Officer of community, investing, and connecting.

This past week felt like 10 days (in the best way). Here’s a peek:

• Kicked off the week dreaming big: SDSU School of CPG? Yes please. Props to Matt Clifford and Adam Hertel for leading the charge.

• I finally met Amy Harmon, thanks to Kerri Leslie, and we’re sharing deal flow and she’s now a pitch judge at June’s Burbank PitchFest.

• Called Krissy Krugman to get on the same page for the bar plan for Thursday’s special RSF Tech Gathering. (foreshadowing: She knocked it out of the park)

• Called Steve King to catch up on how he’s doing. What a warrior and still a journey ahead.

• First PT appointment and luckily it’s just a mild sprained right shoulder.

• Tuesday co-work from East Village/Top Mark Capital/ Upcycle/ Retrorate/ Promissory offices.

• Catch up call with Megan Gvojing, cheering her new role with Deer Isle Group, and sharing the latest in GP/LP/family office happenings. Follow up meeting with the team.

• In person Tacos and Tech podcast recording with Andy Taylor, Retrorate CEO!

• Published the Tacos and Tech Podcast episode with Vidya Dinamani announcing Product Manager Sumit!

• Caught up with Kalle and Rajesh of CarbonBlade to discuss opportunities to pilot their technology at a local farm. Immediately texted Tony Martens at Plantible for possibilities.

• Popped into the first San Diego ShitPitch event! Good quick catch ups with Jeran Fraser, Jonah Peake, while enjoying at fun pitches by Trevor at Ecodrive, Vicky at DapperBoi, Christina and of Ion Learning. Quick intro between Trevor and Scot Chisholm to talk about impact tech.

• I was the fortunate guest of Steve Bjorg for a special dinner by Richard Blais and the San Diego Symphony on the stage of the Rady Shell, where they paired each course of the meal with a string quartet piece of music. Great to dine with Nancy Hong as well! Incredible experience! Thank you Martha, Bob, Ida, Sheri, and the whole SDS team!

  • This night Steve also challenged me to convene the local tech leaders that are already giving philanthropically, so consider this the first call to gather and share notes as a community.

    

    

• Debriefed an investment diligence meeting with a stealth diagnostics company.

• Recorded a podcast with Jesse Taylor, a technology leader at UNLV thanks to Charla and Cox Communications/Top Tech Awards Leas Vegas for connecting us.

• Tim Ryan and I held Week 3 of the Startup 101 alpha cohort, where we discussed VC Math, what it is, how venture capital works, so that early stage startups understand the world they are entering into.

• Planned a 5-part education series on podcasting with the brothers Andrew and Arman of Burbank Podcast Studios, where we’ll chop it up on opportunities to leverage podcasting for growing personal and/or corporate brands.

• Picked up Fred Grier and we attended the SDFC match, winning 2-0! While in the 1897 Suite, ran into Ricardo, chopped it up with Andy, Brad, Greg, Eddie, Hala, Alex of Mission Valley Innovation District, and of course, the hostess with the mostest, Christian Salaman. We miss you Martin Bridges!

  • The 1897 Suite is the nexus to the community on nights like this and it was evident with so many friends coming through the suite to say hi including Mike Krenn, Spencer Hutchins, Steve Bjorg, Evan Malter, and thanks Eric Otterson and Adam Harris for letting me crash your own suite of tech CEOs to say hi to Arjun, Lior and Sophia, Rupak, and more.

  • Hi Dylan from afar ;)
    

    

    With Fred Grier

• Al Bsharah and I put out a big portfolio company update on the Interlock Capital Fund I to LPs.

• While picking up bagels and coffee, I caught up with my co-leads of the Brant Cooper Leadership Fund Kavita, Adam, and Jacqueline, as we have been interviewing our applicants to see where we can best mentor and award grants to the most deserving up and coming community builders.
  

• Soft announced the return of the SD Tech Founders events first up on July 1 with Andy Ballester of GoFundMe and Eyepop AI.

• Hosted 25+ tech builders at the Leucadia Club in North County, while simultaneously Tim Ryan hosted a Build Day crew at Ansir Innovation and Jordan Dominiguez hosted a crew at Top Mark Capital in East Village. We officially have our 4th location confirmed for June 19 Build Day by Launch Factory. See more info here.

  • Congrats to Ryan Kuder for the next chapter!

    

    

• Recorded a podcast with Andrew Albert of Channel Equity Partners to talk about his journey raising his new fund, market conditions, and the right ‘IFP’ or Ideal Founder Profile.

• Checked in with the SDSU ZIP Launchpad In Flight team Craig, Cameron, and Erica to confirm we’re ready for Friday’s startup bootcamp.

• Co-hosted with Dave Saxton a private gathering of tech leaders from Rancho Santa Fe to welcome the opening of the new RSF Mercantile, meeting the Sons and Dotters team, and many more.

• Co-hosted the first SDSU ZIP LaunchPad Bootcamp of the summer with Craig, Cameron, and Erica, which was condensed down into 4 hours from ideation to sales. Teams actually built products and achieved physical sales within 3.5 hours. Thank you Myles Syverud for guest mentoring and Jordyn and the ZIP team!

  • The next one on June 6 is going to be lit!

    

• Met Carolyn Grant of the Museum of Making Music and committed to hosting a joint event with the City of Carlsbad Economic Development Department’s Life in Action, Naturally San Diego, and San Diego Sports Innovators to bring together business leaders from the sports, active lifestyle, and consumer goods industries on June 10.

• Committed to speaking at Matt Hayden’s June 12 Best Ideas Dinner about an update as a fund manager thanks to Ryan Bordelon of Bernstein. Thanks for having me!

• Filmed a video congratulating Jeff Fenster and Everbowl for opening their 100th store to be shared on a joint messaging campaign this Tuesday.

• Thanks to Matt Sanford of the City of Carlsbad and Startup San Diego for bringing me to Sunday’s Padre game! Way to wrap the week up!

  

  Send me all your feedback and community building shares! Let’s go get that week!