Grow Your San Diego Tech Company & Career
2-Night In-Person Event
April 13 – April 14, 2022
Students $10 | General Admission $35
(If you are experiencing financial hardship and are interested in participating please fill out the form above to request a sponsored ticket)
FEATURED SPEAKERS
2-Night In-Person Conference of Fun, Interactive, and Educational Events
We’re bringing together our region’s next-generation founders and tech workforce with the local innovation ecosystem!
Who should attend?
- College students
- First-time founders
- Job seekers for San Diego startups
- Recruiters and reps from established startups and tech companies
This once-a-year conference will connect startup/tech industry members, students, first-time entrepreneurs, and aspiring job seekers.
You’ll have an opportunity to connect with San Diego startups hiring now, get feedback on your resume, get tips on upleveling in-demand skills, and network with the San Diego startup and business scene.
We’ve lined up an incredible 2-nights of opportunities to help you launch or grow your startup, connect with a mentor, break into the tech industry, or find your next big idea.
Schedule at a Glance
Night 1: Talent Incubation Night – Find An Opportunity: Training, workshops, and mentorship that will take your skills to the next level. Learn how to create a career path that is tailor-made to you.
Date: Wednesday, April 13th
Location: UC San Diego Park & Market, 1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101
Time: 3:00 – 9:00 pm
Night 2: Startup Night – Create An Opportunity: Learn what it takes to go from an idea to a business and beyond, witness the toughest pitch competition on earth and hear war stories from hardened veterans.
Date: Thursday, April 14th
Location: Design & Innovation Building, San Diego, CA 92093
Time: 3:00 – 9:00 pm
You’ll have access to…
Convergence Job Matching Portal
Get on the radar of San Diego companies looking to hire top talent. If you are a student in search of an internship, a recent grad, or if you are changing careers, you’ll want to sign up & submit your information below! We’ll help connect you with local startups and hiring tech companies. Interested companies will reach out to you directly if you are a match for their role(s)!
Intercollegiate Pitch Competition & Founders Tournament
Sixteen hand-selected startups from our local college partners will compete in the toughest inter-college pitch competition around! After three separate battle rounds, our all-star judging panel will crown the champ for ultimate bragging rights. Watch what makes a great pitch, see the next generation of talent, and cheer for your favorite. Check out the schedule below for more details on the tournament structure and eligibility. Submit the interest form to pitch! We will consider high school student submissions.
Workshops & Office Hours with Industry Experts
Uplevel your skills and connect with industry experts. We’ll host workshops and office hours to cover the fundamental skills needed to thrive in the startup scene. Come learn from the best!
Deep Dive to Level Up: Panel Discussions
What does it take to land your startup dream job? Learn more about how companies hire, what they look for, and how to increase your chances of landing a job in 2022 and beyond. We’re bringing in industry experts to chat about career paths in:
- Engineering/Product
- Marketing
- Sales & Customer Success
We’ll also talk about what to do when things don’t go according to plan. Behind every success are years of hard lessons learned. We’ll chat about real-life struggles that paved the way for a resilient future.
Plus! Hands-On Workshops and Networking:
- Improve your LinkedIn profile
- Group mock job interviews
- Networking
- Startup Expo
SCHEDULE
Night 1
Wednesday, April 13th
Find An Opportunity
Training, workshops, and mentorship that will take your skills to the next level. Learn how to create a career path that is tailor-made to you.
Location: UC San Diego Park & Market, 1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101
3:00 - 5:30 PM: Workshop 1 & Office Hours - A Career in 40 Days or Less: Building a Customized Roadmap to Land You the Dream Job!
Location: Executive Conf 213/14
Time: 3:00 – 5:30 PM
Speaker: Dominique McGill, CEO, The HR Bar
Getting a job offer is just one piece of the career search puzzle. From visualizing the perfect role and what the day-to-day looks like, to find your criteria match, and then telling the story of how previous wins and growth gifts have specifically prepared you as the “perfect candidate” for a specific role at a specific moment in time. To leverage the latest tech tools, productivity hacks, and inside insight from the people behind the scenes–recruiters–searching for talent like you. We’ll reverse engineer and break down the recruiting process to give you a step-by-step guide on how to build a customized roadmap to help land your dream job in 40 days or less.
Bring your laptops, existing resume(s), previous cover letters, LinkedIn profile, etc. It’s ok if these are in progress or you’re just getting started. This will be a hands-on session, designed so you can walk away with tangible progress to get you one step closer to landing your dream role. We’ll cover how to navigate and use job boards like LinkedIn, BuiltIn, community slack groups, etc. to your advantage, talk about search tools like Hunter.io and Mixmax, profile/resume/cover letter optimization to get you the recruiter screen and so much more!
5:30 - 5:45 PM: Break
5:45 - 6:15 PM: Recruiter Group Mentorship & AMA - Engineering & Product
Location: Computer Lab 321
Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM
Speakers:
- Kurling Robinson, CEO at Fokcus,
- Mike G., Mavericks on Demand
- Chris Shoemaker, Senior Talent Advisor, Petco
- Sanchi Shah, Credit Strategist, Simpl
5:45 - 6:15 PM: Recruiter Group Mentorship & AMA - Sales & Customer Success
Location: Classroom 318/19
Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM
Speakers:
- Jon Corrin, Co-founder & CEO, XILO
- Kaitlin Moran, Vice President, LogicBoost Labs
- Juan Casillas, Associate Technical Recruiter, Mavericks Recruiting on Demand
- Logan Hannah, Sr. Account Executive, XILO
- Katie Jackson, Human Resources Coordinator, XILO
- Liam Williams, VP of Global Customer Operations, Kandji
5:45 - 6:15 PM: Recruiter Group Mentorship & AMA - Marketing
Location: Small Conf Room 211/212
Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM
Speakers:
- Daniel Scott, Director of Product Marketing, Kandji
- Julius Alejandro, Founder & Project Director, Village Up San Diego
- Mark Harpootian, Director of Customer Experience, Northbeam
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Group Mock Interviews - Engineering & Product
Location: Classroom 320
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Group Mock Interviews - Sales & Customer Success
Location: Union 331
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
Speakers:
- Logan Hannah, Sr. Account Executive, XILO
- Katie Jackson, Human Resources Coordinator, XILO
- Liam Williams, VP of Global Customer Operations, Kandji
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Group Mock Interviews - Marketing
Location: 2nd Floor Hallway
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
Speakers:
- Kandji team members
- Julius Alejandro, Founder & Project Director, Village Up San Diego
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Networking - Engineering & Product
Location: Computer Lab 321
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Networking - Sales & Customer Success
Location: Classroom 318/19
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
6:15 - 6:45 PM: Networking - Marketing
Location: Small Conf Room 211/212
Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM
6:45 - 7:00 PM: Break
Location: Executive Conference 213/14
Time: 6:45 – 7:00 PM
7:00 - 8:00 PM: Keynote Panel - Land Your Dream Tech Job in a Rapidly Expanding Gig Economy
Location: Executive Conf 213/14
Time: 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Speakers:
- Kyle Barbato, Founder at Mavericks Recruiting on Demand. Previously Head of Talent Acquisition at Venmo & Braintree. – Working with clients like Color, FedEx, GoFundMe, SeatGeek, and more!
- Rob Anderson, Head of Talent, Color
- Gabby Povoli, Senior Technical Recruiter, GoFundMe
8:00 - 9:00 PM: Talent Incubation Night + Partner & Tech Company Expo
Night 2
Thursday, April 14th
Create An Opportunity
Learn what it takes to go from an idea to a business and beyond, witness the toughest pitch competition on earth and hear war stories from hardened veterans.
Location: UCSD Design & Innovation Building, San Diego, CA 92093
2:30 - 3:00 PM: Workshop 1 & Office Hours - Understand Your Customers!
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 2:30 – 3:00 PM
Speaker: Alex Waters, Director of Economic Development & Innovation, Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation
Office hours room: 4th Floor Utopia
3:00 - 3:30 PM: Workshop 2 & Office Hours - Perfecting Your Pitch
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 3:00 – 3:30 PM
Speaker: Ryan Kuder, Managing Director, Techstars Anywhere at Techstars
Office hours room: 4th Floor Meeting Room 407
3:30 - 4:00 PM: Workshop 3 & Office Hours - Building your MVP as a Non-technical Founder
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 3:30 – 4:00 PM
Speaker: Mike Roberts, President & CEO, Creating Coding Careers
Office hours room: 4th Floor Open Landing A
Description: An intro to cloud including the state of cloud, an overview, lingo, & demo
4:00 - 4:30 PM: Workshop 4 - Accessing Capital & What you Need to Know
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 4:00 – 4:30 PM
Speaker: Justin Renfro, Senior Director of Growth, WeFunder
Office hours room: 4th Floor Open Landing B
4:30 - 5:00 PM: Workshop 5 & Office Hours - Navigating the Local Ecosystem & Pluggin-in!
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 4:30 – 5:00 PM
Speaker:
- Neal Bloom, Managing Partner, Interlock Capital
- Julius Alejandro, Founder & Project Director, Village Up San Diego
Office hours room: 4th Floor Meeting Room 407
5:00 - 5:15 PM: Break
5:15 - 6:30 PM: Intercollegiate Pitch Competition & Tournament
Location: The Basement
Time: 6:15 – 6:30 PM
Speakers:
- Co-Emcees:
- Stanley Maloy, Associate Vice President for Research & innovation, SDSU
- Caitlin Wege, Managing Partner, MooDoos Investments
- Judges
- Lauren A. Rowley, Chief Investment Officer, Stella
- Oralia Alvarez, Director of Business Development, Mission Driven Finance
- Kim Davis King, Partner, Launch Factory
- Chris Staszak, Chief Technology Office, LogicBoost Labs
- Ken Davenport, Co-founder & CEO, Mission Edge
Sixteen hand-selected startups from our educational partners will compete in the toughest inter-college pitch competition! The all-star industry & investor judging panel will provide critical feedback and ultimately crown the champ for ultimate bragging rights. Students will be exposed to what makes a great pitch, see the Region’s next generation of entrepreneurial talent, and support their peers. This is your opportunity to get in front of active local investors and represent your college to the larger ecosystem. We encourage you to submit the interest form to pitch live!
Eligibility Criteria:
- Active Student
- Local College Program/Support Affiliation
- High School Applicants are Welcome
- Pre-seed funding
Competition & Tournament Structure:
- Round #1 “Pre-Seed Round” – 8 bouts! Founders will be randomly paired for 8 bouts and have 30 seconds each to give the elevator pitch on their startups. No materials are allowed in this round. Just 30 seconds of the founder speaking. The top 8 go through to Seed Round.
- Round #2 “Seed Round” – 4 bouts! Founders will be randomly paired for 4 bouts and have 2 minutes each to pitch their startups. In this round, the founders should use a short slide deck for their 2-minute presentation. Startups going over the 2 minutes will get the gong from the judges. The top 4 as decided by the judges will go through to the Series A Round.
- Final Round “Series A Round” – This is a 3 part battle–Each founder will complete all three segments outlined below. A fun and lighthearted interaction with the judges, but the stakes are high.
- Part 1: It’s a secret!
- Part 2: Rapid fire questions from judges for 5 mins.
- Part 3: The mic drop. Give us at most 5 words to remember you by.
6:30 - 6:45 pm: Break
6:45 - 7:45 PM: Keynote Panel - Local SD Founders Stories
Location: 2nd Floor Event Space
Time: 6:45 – 7:45 PM
Speakers:
- Moderator
- Tara Falcone, Founder & CEO, Reason
- Panelists
- Reyanne Mustafa, Co-founder & CEO, Soulmuch Foods, SDSU Alumni
- Adam Markowitz, Co-founder & CEO, Drata, UCSD Alumni
- Kyle Kitzmiller, Co-Founder, CFO, & Lead Product Engineer, Shredlights, SDSU Alumni
- Samantha Pantazopoulos, Co-founder & CEO, Vizer, USD Alumni
- Kathryn Dickson, DNP, Founder, CEO, OliveUs Apparel, USD Alumni
7:45 - 8:00 PM: Break
8:00 - 9:00 PM: Student Startups & Ecosystem Expo Reception
Note:
Events and times are subject to change, please check back often.
Convergence FAQ
How do I get to UCSD Park & Market and what’s the parking accomodation?
UCSD Park & Market (1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101) is at the heart of Downtown San Diego, with that said there are several paid parking options nearby the venue. Check out this link to see nearby paid parking locations. We highly encourage attendees to come to the venue via public transportation (MTS), or rideshare (Lyft or Uber). The MTS trolley blue line connects attendees all the way from UCSD and all the way from the south and drops them off in front of the UCSD Park & Market building.
Here are quick links for MTS trolley directions:
How do I find parking and get to the UCSD Design & Innovation Building?
The UCSD Design & Innovation Building located on the UCSD campus can be conveniently accessed by the MTS Blue line. If you plan to drive to the location here are a couple of parking recommendations:
- The closest Paid parking lot is at UCSD P510, arrive early at this location to assure parking. You can also park at the Gilman Parking Structure which is also a short walk to the UCSD Design & Innovation building. You can pay for your parking on the Park Mobile App. Click here to view the map to get from these parking structures to the event venue.
- For FREE parking, we encourage people to park in the 5-story free parking garage at La Jolla Village Square, 8657 Villa La Jolla Dr. You can catch the MTS blue line trolley at Noble Drive Station and 2 stops up land in front of the Design & Innovation building off UCSD Central Campus station.
Here are quick links to get to the venue using public transportation:
Will there be food at both nights?
Yes, both nights will be catered with food and snacks. The food is covered by your ticket.
How will I navigate to the different rooms?
We will have volunteers and signs to conveniently lead you to the different workshop rooms and office hours.
Do I need to attend every panel/keynote?
No, you may plug into any session you want at the designated time frame, please refer to the schedule.
Do I have to attend all 2-nights?
No, you’re not required to come for all 2-nights and you can see the schedule and find which nights or sessions would be best for you.
If I miss a session, will a video recording be available to me?
Since Convergence is in-person this year we encourage attendees to come to their desired session. We will not have recordings available, but you are welcome to add the speaker on LinkedIn and contact them for more information.
What does my ticket price go towards?
Your ticket price will go towards Startup San Diego’s operations and programs with a mission to create a more inclusive and innovative startup ecosystem.
If I can’t make the event, can I gift my ticket to someone else?
Yes, please let us know at least 24 hours in advance by emailing [email protected] Include your name, email, and the name and email of the individual(s) you would like to gift the tickets to.
Who do I contact if I have more questions?
Please contact us at [email protected] and a member of our team will follow up with you within the next 24-hours.
