Bloombites - July 19, 2025

Jul 20, 2025

Kicked off the week with Steve King, founder/investor, who’s powering forward - inspiring to see.
Talked fintech, real estate, and wealthtech with Will Knickrehm, an incoming TCU freshman and looking to get plugged in - intro’d him to Cody Barbo.
Caught up with the Connect Alt / SDSU ZIP team on their success at the National Federation of the Blind conference - and yes, their beignets were a hit!
Checked in with Sky Soltero on scaling up manufacturing for her ZIP Launchpad venture.
Took a great call with the one-and-only Neil Senturia, trading notes and network connections as he scales Turing AI.
Got a live demo of the new Loopholes platform from CEO Lior Root - helping brands stay compliant.
Visited Brett Crosby for an AdZen update - future of advertising meets the AI era.
Founder Build Day was full of collisions - and we even ran into Deloitte doing an offsite at Leucadia Club (hi Eli Rinn and Lisa Nguyen!).
Great to see Dillon Ferdinandi, who dropped by Founder Build Day and continues supporting founders through coaching.
SDSU ZIP Launchpad Bootcamp #4 was a huge success - shoutout to Vidya Dinamani for teaching deep customer empathy, Craig Lauer for his disqualify-your-customer warmup, and Julian Bryan & Tai Chang for observing and applying lessons to Startup Weekend (Oct 3–5).

Catch-up with Simon Casuto (Unmatched Ventures) on his new fund and hardware talent matchmaking work.
Quick check-in with Interlock partner Al Bsharah - this time from the Hoh Rain Forest!

Strategy session with Nicole Leandra on Rising Tide Partners brand and deck alignment.
Shared a (carnivore) lunch and fund advisor insights with Heidi Poon of Aksia.
Always a special time having coffee with Mary Walshok where we talked about family offices and the future of workforce innovation.
Talked niche deals, fund mechanics, and co-investments with Brady Jewett.
VC 2.0 insights from Decile AI, thanks to Adeo Ressi.
Happy birthday to Eli Carlson 🎉
Swapped notes on fund management with Amit Agrawal of SDAC - areas of focus we’re working on next: the real work begins after the check is written.
Met with Andrew Rossow for updates on AngelList’s fund admin tools - he’s SD-based!
Fred Grier, Dylan Weening, and I planned upcoming GP/LP gatherings - welcome to North County, Dylan!
Lunch with Itzel Moncada (Reinventure Capital) to share deal flow and love for SD - a full-circle moment from her days at EDC/World Trade Center.

SDAC 2025 wrap-up and 2026 kickoff with Hala Madanat and Cathy Pucher of SDSU, Rose Bowlus, and many more.

Podcast recording with Eric Weiss on growing SD’s startup ecosystem to better support founders.
Late-night vibe coding for Builder Bay, our upcoming hardtech/defense hub.
Catch-up with longtime startup champion Michele Maley - thanks for coming by!
Honored to sit down with George Tchobanoglous, Clark Prize Laureate, and author of the book on water treatment engineering - who gave us a masterclass on elevating organizations with global thought leadership.
Follow-up with Wolf Bielas (Downtown Works) on integrating community with physical space for greater impact.
Debriefed the recent Burbank PitchFest and mapped out future gatherings on media and education innovation.
Took in an SDFC match (a loss, sadly!) in the 1897 suite with Craig Lauer, Christian Salaman, Andy Ballester, Hala Madanat, Pete & Priscilla Townshend, and a surprise Martin Bridges cameo!

The Brant Cooper Leadership Fund met with Jake Voorhees, Cohort 1 awardee, to support the launch of his sports community into SD.
Recorded another episode of This Week in San Diego Tech with Fred Grier 🎙️
Strategy session with Hala Madanat and Cathy Pucher of SDSU on SD’s defense innovation future - 25% of local GDP has military ties, and there’s massive untapped potential.
Met with John MacMahon (thanks to Benji!) to compare startup ecosystems in San Diego & Bend, OR.
Welcomed Noah Schliesman, a recent USD grad, into the startup scene (thanks for the intro, Rebecca Driscoll!).
Heartfelt coffee chat with Paul Roben (UCSD OIC) on deeper UCSD collaboration and connecting to defense/space talent.
Closed the week with a peaceful Shabbat at Coastal Roots 🌅

Have a great weekend everyone,

Neal

Rising Tide Partners