Over 1,600+ attendees joined us throughout October 21st-25th for the 12th Annual San Diego Startup Week. This was a monumental event, “Making Waves of Innovation,” from Carlsbad all the way down to Tijuana. Each day, there was a startup focus, starting with creator economies, diversity to binational collaboration, tech innovations, and the entrepreneurial journey. Thank you to our signature day sponsors that made this event possible: San Diego State University, ArkusNexus, Aleph One, The City of Carlsbad, Downtown Works and Logicboost Labs.
Making Waves in the Creator Economy – Carlsbad Village
We made waves in the Creative Coas during our kick-off day at the The Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center in Carlsbad Village. The program featured startup expos booths, mentorship sessions, speakers, showcases, food entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders in North County. The keynote featured Sarah Davis, Founder & CEO of Fashionphile.
Thank you to our speakers and presenters for the kickoff day at Carlsbad!
- The Founders at San Diego Startup Week 2024 Live Podcast: Taryell Simmons, Founder, RISE Urban Nation Podcast and Rylie Jennings, Thought Curator, Baddies Mean Business
- Startup Fuel powered by REC Innovation Lab Food Entrepreneurs: Alive Ferments, Wet Tacos, Xula Mexican Coffee, Empanadas Argentinas, L&M Breakfast
- Speed Mentoring powered by Fōkcus
- Real Talk: The Creator Economy: Julius Alejandro, Founder, VillageUp San Diego, Kelsey Coney, President of the Kroc Graduate Student Association, University of San Diego, Charisse Pasche, Co-Founder and COO and Dapper Boi, Inc., Danny Zavala
- Game Changers in Sports Performance: Joshua Church, Co-founder, Edge Theory Labs, Nicholas Esayian, CEO, LIGHT Helmets, Krystal Gillis, Founder, Tighties and Bob Rief Executive Director, San Diego Sport Innovators
- Fireside Chat: Scaling Up From Grounds to Greatness: Chuck Patton, Founder, Bird Rock Coffee Roasters and Mike Glanz, CEO, Talitha Coffee Roasters
- Keynote Startup Story ft. Sarah Davis, Founder & CEO of Fashionphile
Riding the Waves of Binational Collaboration – ArkusNexus Mind Hub in Tijuana, MX
For the 3rd consecutive year, we brought San Diego Startup Week to Tijuana and showcased the power of binational collaboration! Attendees got to learn more about the San Diego-Tijuana region, meet founders building right here in the border region, saw an epic lightweight fast pitch competition, and networked over some tacos and local libations.
Highlights of Day 2 of San Diego Startup Week:
- ArkusNexus and Startup San Diego Storytelling with Angel Sanchez, Co-Founder, ArkusNexus, and Lisa Barnhouse, Executive Director, Startup San Diego
- TED Talk #1: Nearshore Synergy: Leveraging Mexico-US Collaboration for Software Excellence with Chris Karr, Former Global VP of Engineering, Identiv
- TED Talk #2: with Derek Jackson, Sr. Account Executive at SEACOMP
- TED Talk #3: with Oscar Gonzalez, CEO at BluAgent Technologies
- TED Talk #4: with Rachel Lozano, Director of Innovation at San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center
- Quick Pitch Competitors: Weii App, Jada Ai, Claims AI, Ascender Systems, PGxally, Launderd, and Earth Fan Surf. Congrats Claims AI for bringing home the win!
Special thanks to the quick pitch prize sponsors: U.S. Bank, Oobeya, Cervecería Insurgente, Aquillius, and Edmunds Legal Business Solutions.
Rising Tides: The Ripple Effect of Grit at The Parma Payne Goodall SDSU Alumni Center
Every founder starting from zero always has a level of grit and tenacity to succeed. Day three featured workshops, a Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competition, and speakers focusing on early-stage and first-time entrepreneurs. Our keynotes for the day featured startup stories from Kevin Gelfand CEO & Co-founder of Shake Smart, and Maya Madsen, CEO & Founder at Maya’s Cookies.
San Diego Startup Week Day 3 Highlights
- Mentor Magic Presented by Techstars San Diego Powered by SDSU
- The Job of a Founder? Scaling Good Decision Making with Daniel Huss, Founder, gravityAI
- NIL & Entrepreneurship Panel: J.R. Tolver, Pre-Game Analyst for SDSU FootballPre-Game Analyst for SDSU Football iHeartMedia, Chase Fisher, CEO & Founder, Blenders Eyewear, Brenden Hill, NIL Coordinator, San Diego State University
- Startup Story ft. Kevin Gelfand, CEO & Co-Founder at Shake Smart
- Startup Story ft. Maya Madsen, CEO & Founder at Maya’s Cookies
- Lightweight Intercollegiate Pitch Competition featuring Spicily, MyGrow, BohoLeo, GolTech, Scaled Solutions Technologies (SST), Kuvri, JuniorJobHunt, Get Buzzed Inc, Checkit Analytics, and Cytodyme
- Reception & After Party Presented by Techstars San Diego Powered by SDSU
Connecting Currents: Downtown Startup Crawl – Downtown Works
This year saw the return of the Downtown Startup Crawl! Nearly 5 years since the last one, we were able to lock in 6 destinations for San Diego Startup Week attendees to visit, learn, and network. Thank you to our 6 location docks for participating and hosting us!
- Downtown Works
- San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
- ClickUp
- “The StartUp” at the San Diego Central Library
- Le Charcuterie Bar
- Edge
Thank you to our day sponsor Downtown Works for being the check-in and HQ of this year’s Downtown Startup Crawl!
The New Waves of Tech – UCSD Design and Innovation Building
We ended the week with a full day of tech-focused workshops, panels, and discussions which culminated in a keynote fireside chat with Irwin Jacobs, Founding Chairman and CEO Emeritus of Qualcomm.
San Diego Startup Week Day 5 highlights
- AI in Action: 3 AI CEO’s Reveal How they Scale Hype-free AI Solutions for Real Business Efficiency: Sheryl Anjanette, CEO & Founder, Parsley360, Neal Bloom, Managing Partner, Interlock Capital, Raj Sanghvi, Founder and CEO, Bitcot and Neil Senturia, CEO, AskTuring.ai
- Let’s Get Technical Track Workshop 1: Introduction to Data Types, Jason Koo, Developer Advocate, Neo4j
- The Digital Fashion Industry: Melissa Phan, Visual Designer, Samantha Olsen, Designer, Sasha Zabegalin, Founder, Scrnwear
- Let’s Get Technical Track Workshop 2: No Code/Low Code App Builders, Stanislav Synko, CEO & Co-founder, Aleph One
- Global-Local Links: San Diego in a World in Flux: Liz Lyons, Associate Professor, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, Greg Horowitt, Director of Innovation Design, University of California San Diego, Dennis Abremski, Executive Director, Institute for the Global Entrepreneur, Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego, Ping Wang, Founder, Ansir Innovation Center
- Let’s Get Technical Track Workshop 3: Workflow Automations: Pavel Konoplenko, Co-Founder, Aleph One Marketing
- Mentor Magic Presented by Imperial SBDC
- Unf**ck Your Startup – Mastering TechOps for Sustainable Growth and Agility: Chris Staszak, President and CTO, LogicBoost Labs
- Gen AI Use Cases Across Industry: Andrea Yoder Clark, Global SAP Google Accenture Partnership Lead, Accenture, Caitlin Hainsey, Practice Director- Assistant Vice President, Robert Half Technology, Ali Arsanjani, Director, Google AI, Eduardo de la Garza Sanchez, CEO & Founder, Data Rebels, and Ian Thomas, Vice President, M&A Integration, Resmed
- Let’s Get Technical Track Workshop 4: Internet Infrastructure Fundamentals: Nikita Sukhov Aleph One
- From Page to Profit: Authorpreneurs Share Their Stories: Melody Kramer, Founder & CEO, Legal Greenhouse, Faisal Mushtaq, Founder & CEO, TechCon SoCal, Sheryl Anjanette, CEO & Founder, Parsley360, Neil Senturia, CEO, AskTuring.ai, Cheryl Goodman, CEO, Findgood.tech and Austin Strain Consultant
- Designing Innovation: Mike Steep, Founding Executive Director, Stanford Program for Disruptive Technology & Innovation
- Let’s Get Technical Track Workshop 5: Prompt Engineering: Nick Mazuryk, Aleph One
- Ai in Life Sciences: Kristina Kitko, Associate Director of Venture Science, Eli Lilly and Company, Khai Minh Pham, Founder & CEO, ThinkingNodeLife.ai, Gene Yeo, Chief Scientist, Sanford Laboratories for Innovative Medicines, Christopher Hart, Co-Founder & CEO, Creyon Bio
- Dancing the Dual-Use Deep-Tech Tango: Larsen Jensen, Founder & General Partner, Harpoon Ventures, Chad Sweet, CEO/Co-founder, ModalAI, Mike Flanigan,CEO, Seasats and Ellen ChangVice President, BMNT
- Keynote Fireside Chat: True Innovation with Cheryl Goodman CEO, Findgood.tech and Irwin Jacobs, Founding Chairman and CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm
- Heavyweight Founders Fight Club: Pactto, ExoDiscovery, Tighties, Alleo Labs, Avocado Health, Inc., Selk’bag, Kids Care Finder, and Smartville Inc.
- Closing Reception & After Party sponsored by Neo4j, Findgood.tech, Aleph One
Thank you for Joining us for San Diego Startup Week
Thank you for joining us for such an incredible week! We look forward to seeing you for the rest of the year and 2025. Support us all year-round by becoming a member of Startup San Diego and get exclusive discounts on all our events like 1st Mondays and Startup Week. We hope to see you at our next gathering on December 2nd and 1st Mondays – Networking & Expert Panel. See you all soon!
