The Wall Street Journal Is Our New VP of Recruitment

Over the past five years, I have been a part of numerous conversations about how to rebrand the city of San Diego. Mainly driven by the innovation community and its desire to attract younger talent to San Diego to fill jobs in technology companies, the conversation usually centers on the desire for less tourism and more “hip and cool” people. I have always been of the belief that when the substance is shared and solid, the right brand will come. In fact, part of the motivation behind this blog is to tell the stories of innovation in San Diego that have not been heard here or beyond the county borders.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal in one article did what no rebranding campaign (or blog) could ever do. It put San Diego on the map as a hip and cool place to visit and live. It didn’t once mention the innovation economy or the interesting companies starting up here. What it did was paint a picture of a city which young and/or creative talent would find engaging. I believe no other news story will do as much to recruit smart talent to San Diego as this one will. Ironically, it is at its heart a tourism story. But as you will read, it is so much more than that.

Follow the Money: Ex-Google Ventures CEO Launching SD Health Venture Fund

Bill Maris, former CEO of Google Ventures is raising $230 million for Section 32, a health care-based venture fund that will be run of out of San Diego.

Email Copilot Acquired by ReturnPath

Local company Email Copilot (formerly Embarke) was acquired by New York-based Return Path. Return Path views the acquisition as a way to enhance its email optimization suite.

CONNECT Announces Most Innovative New Product Award Winners

CONNECT held its annual dinner to announce the 2016 Most Innovative New Product Award winners last week. The award goes to products released in the last 18 months and this year’s ten winners were chosen from a pool of 111 entries. The winners are: Water Pigeon; Camston Wrather LLC’s Recycled Commodities; Cubic Corporation’s GATR Inflatable Satellite Antenna; Aira; Echo Laboratories Inc.’s Revolve; Onciomed, Inc.’s Gastric Vest System; ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s NUPLAZID; CleverPet, Inc.’s CleverPet Hub; Guru’s San Diego Museum of Art App; and Bixpy LLC’s Bixpy Jet.

LeadCrunch AI Makes Top 5 List

BrandedWorld.co named Lead Crunch one of its top five AI services to help your brand. It cited LeadCrunch’s use of customer profile information to generate leads. “It uses your customers’ industry, revenue size, number of employees, to build a profile and generate a set of targets.”

Be There or Be…

• SD Tech Happy Hour
  December 7, 5-8:00 p.m., Spitz, 3515 Fifth Avenue
• WeWork Holiday Charity Event: Tacos, Toys and Tinsel
  December 13, 4:30-8:30 p.m., 600 B Street
  Bring a toy, food for the food drive or sign up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
• Inside 3D Printing San Diego Conference and Expo
  December 14 and 15, San Diego Convention Center
  The world’s largest professional gathering focused on 3D printing.

Tags: Blogs, Startup Buzz