Tacos and Tech Podcast

Neal Bloom
  • 5.0 (36)
  • TECH NEWS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
Tacos and Tech Podcast

The Tacos and Tech Podcast highlights the builders of companies, technologies, and the ecosystem of San Diego with a local flair for our lifestyle as well.

  1. 11H AGO

    This Week in San Diego Tech - March 27, 2025

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News!  I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech, the Tacos and Tech Podcast, and Interlock Capital. My co-hosts in this episode is Fred Grier, journalist and author of The Business of San Diego substack. He covers the ins-and-outs of the startup world including breaking news, IPOs, fundraising rounds, and M&A through his newsletter.  3/27 We recorded this week’s pod live on LinkedIn Live here. What did you think? Neal speaking at Escondido City Council in support of the new AgX Hub NCAA update Pura Vida sold for $1m 23&Me bankruptcy Events.com buying spree Natalie Rocha leaving the UT for NYT Fellowship Entos Pharmaceuticals Expands in Canada Natilus 250,000 sq. ft. facility   Curated Events List – For full list – check The Social Coyote Marching Mingle - March 26 StartupSD Co Working Day - March 28 Bootstrappers Event April 1

    31 min

  2. MAR 20

    This Week in San Diego Tech - March 20, 2025

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech, the Tacos and Tech Podcast, and Interlock Capital. My co-hosts in this episode is Fred Grier, journalist and author of The Business of San Diego substack. He covers the ins-and-outs of the startup world including breaking news, IPOs, fundraising rounds, and M&A through his newsletter. Follow Fred on LinkedIn and X Follow Neal on LinkedIn and X On with the show!   3/20 UCSD/SDSU Basketball in the brackets! Exits: Gretel acquired by NVIDIA Wiz acquired by Google Poppi acquired by Pepsi ServiceNow - made an acquisition Fundings: Trust & Will Series C Occuspace Raises $6M   Tiderock AI   Curated Events List – For full list – check The Social Coyote Dev & Data Night x CTO Talks - March 20 SD Startup Mixer - March 24 SD Hardware Meetup - March 25 Marching Mingle - March 26

    26 min

  3. MAR 7

    This Week in San Diego - March 7, 2025

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech, the Tacos and Tech Podcast, and Interlock Capital. My co-hosts in this episode is Fred Grier, journalist and author of The Business of San Diego substack. He covers the ins-and-outs of the startup world including breaking news, IPOs, fundraising rounds, and M&A through his newsletter.   In this episode we talk about: Top Funding and Ecosystem News from Fred’s Business of San Diego newsletter San Diego publicly traded life science companies had a 86% increase performance in 2024 compared to 10-20% in SF & Boston - Fred’s post about this Recent fundraises First IPO in SD of 2025! Acquisitions New venture fund from the Prebys Foundation and leadership changes at Connect   Curated Events List – For full list – check The Social Coyote Debrief - defense tech dinner & pre-sneak of San Diego Defense Day Founder Build Days on March 19 & 20 Dev & Data Night x CTO Talks on March 20

    27 min
  4. Building Together: Growing San Diego's Startup Scene

    FEB 26

    Building Together: Growing San Diego's Startup Scene

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. In Part Two of this roundtable discussion, we go deeper into why tech ecosystem builders Jonah Peake of The Social Coyote and The Career Coyote and Hussein Yahfoufi of Startup Beach, are building their platforms. We discuss their founder journeys, the problems they each saw worth solving, and how the local startup ecosystem looks different—and better—thanks to their solutions. Highlights: Celebrating The Career Coyote’s exciting milestone: the platform's first successful job placement and its first unsubscribe (a true marker of success!). How the "Coyote Super Pack" is making networking events more impactful and intentional. Why community-focused platforms, like Startup Beach and The Social Coyote, are crucial for founders, job seekers, and investors to thrive. Upcoming Events Mentioned: February’s North County Mixer - Feb 26 Pack of One: Solopreneurs, Remote from HQ, and Han-Solos - March 6 March SD Founders Hike - March 7   Help shape our community: fill out this short survey and tell us what events you think San Diego still needs!   Other links referenced on the pod: Invest Like the Best podcast with Marc Andreessen SDx Arta Finance

    51 min
  5. Building Together: Growing San Diego’s Startup Scene

    FEB 18

    Building Together: Growing San Diego’s Startup Scene

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. In this special roundtable episode, we dive into the power of in-person events in building and strengthening the San Diego startup ecosystem. I’m joined by two of my ecosystem-building besties: Jonah Peake of The Social Coyote and The Career Coyote and Hussein Yahfoufi of Startup Beach. Together, we discuss why community-driven events are essential, how they fuel startup growth, and what it takes to build a thriving local network. Jonah Peake has been a driving force in centralizing and curating San Diego’s startup events through his Social Coyote newsletter. His passion for making connections easy has led him to compile the “Who You Need to Know in San Diego” list and build a resource hub for founders, job seekers, and ecosystem players. Hussein Yahfoufi saw a gap in the local event landscape and built Startup Beach, a platform that makes it easier for organizers and attendees to discover, share, and engage with events. The platform just hit 100 live events and recently launched the Asks & Offers feature to help the community better support one another. Links & Resources Mentioned: 📌 Jonah’s Who You Need to Know in San Diego List: LinkedIn Post 📌 Startup Beach – Your hub for local startup events: Website 📌 Startup Beach Asks & Offers – A new way to connect: Check it out! Action Item! What events don’t exist in San Diego but should? Let’s make them happen! Submit your event ideas here: Event Ideas Form 🎧 Tune in to hear how we're building together as Jonah and Hussein are shaping San Diego’s startup scene—one event at a time!

    50 min

  6. FEB 5

    Scaling Impact: Scot Chisholm on Evolving from Founder to Leader

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, Neal Bloom sits down with Scot Chisholm, the founder of Highland and co-founder of Classy, to discuss what it truly takes to scale leadership alongside a growing company. After leading Classy from a small startup to its acquisition by GoFundMe, Scot saw firsthand that scaling a company is only possible if you scale its leaders. That insight led to the creation of Highland—a community-driven leadership experience designed for high-growth founders to navigate the challenges of leadership, build better teams, and sustain long-term success. Scot shares the key inflection points in his own journey, the biggest lessons learned, and how founders can avoid the leadership pitfalls that stall growth.   🔥 In This Episode, We Cover: • The hardest challenges Scot faced as a founder and how they shaped his leadership. • Why scaling a company is impossible without scaling leadership. • How Highland is redefining leadership development for high-growth founders. • The “Founder Mode vs. Leader Mode” framework and how to transition effectively. • The mindset shift from running a company to empowering teams to run it with you. • And of course, his favorite taco spots! 🌮   🚀 Resources & Mentions: 🔗 Scot Chisholm’s Website 🔗 Classy 🔗 Highland 🔗 How to Scale Your Company in Founder Mode 🔗 Previous Tacos & Tech Episode with Scot Chisholm   🌮 Tune in to hear how Scot turned leadership challenges into a playbook for growth—and why Highland is the community every founder needs.

    1h 15m

  7. JAN 30

    This Week in San Diego Tech - January 30, 2025

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News!  I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech, the Tacos and Tech Podcast, and Interlock Capital. My co-hosts in this episode is Fred Grier, journalist and author of The Business of San Diego substack. He covers the ins-and-outs of the startup world including breaking news, IPOs, fundraising rounds, and M&A through his newsletter.  AND Jonah Peake Jonah Peake, runs The Social Coyote & the Career Coyote newsletters , promoting events and jobs in the San Diego tech ecosystem. Before we dive in, we wanted to thank and ask our listeners to help us grow the show, leave a review and share with one other person who should be more plugged in with the SD Tech Scene. Thank you for the support and for helping us build the San Diego Startup Community!   1/30/2025 Fred’s trip debrief Dent AI debrief  Any SD Super Bowl ad sighting predictions? Fundings: Biosapien $7m seed Take on 2025 already - new administration, opportunities for SD Iridia sends crypto wallet to the moon  Viasat contract  Northrop contract  Passing the torch at Biocom   Howlin’ Jobs! By Career Coyote Top clicked jobs and companies   Curated Events List – For full list – check The Social Coyote North County Startup Mixer breaks 200! Founders Institute San Diego applications due this Sunday - Feb 2 Feb Founders Hike - Feb 7

    44 min

  8. JAN 24

    This Week in San Diego Tech - January 24, 2025

    Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News!  I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech, the Tacos and Tech Podcast, and Interlock Capital. My co-host in this episode is guest host Jonah Peake, who previously co-hosted with me and runs The Social Coyote newsletter, promoting events in the San Diego tech ecosystem. Before we dive in, we wanted to ask our listeners and SD Tech fans to help us grow the show, leave a review and share with one other person who should be more plugged in with the SD Tech Scene. Thank you for the support and for helping us build the San Diego Startup Community.   1/24/2025 TechCon SoCal debrief Future of Healthcare debrief Fundings AskTuring Seed $1M Deep Vector Seed $1.5M Xilo Series A $7.2M Sonocharge Energy $23.5M Netradyne Series D $90M Biggest deal of 2024 - Vuori Biggest VC fund raise of 2024 - Neos and StepStone   Howlin’ Jobs! By Career Coyote Top clicked jobs and companies Curated Events List – For full list – check The Social Coyote Carlsbad Life Action Tech/Sports and Active Lifestyle Gathering - Feb 4 North County SD Startup Mixer San Diego Cyber Group Meetup

    43 min
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The Tacos and Tech Podcast highlights the builders of companies, technologies, and the ecosystem of San Diego with a local flair for our lifestyle as well.

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