Tacos and Tech Podcast

This week on Tacos & Tech , Neal sits down with Drew Wilson, longtime North County founder, designer, engineer, and community builder. From launching products solo to landing a GoDaddy acquisition, Drew’s track record speaks for itself. Now he’s back with a new company, Opacity , and relaunching his beloved creative conference, ValioCon , right in the heart of Oceanside. In this episode, Drew shar...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners , building and investing in community. My co-host 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 ro...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast , Neal Bloom sits down with Larsen Jensen , former Olympian, Navy SEAL, and now Managing Partner of Harpoon Ventures, an early-stage venture firm backing founders building in the national interest. Larsen shares the journey from serving Team USA to launching a venture fund focused on what he calls the Freedom Stack - critical technologies like AI, autono...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners and the Tacos and Tech Podcast . My co-host 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,...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast , Neal Bloom sits down with Madeline Fraser, the dynamic founder and CEO of Gemist, a B2B SaaS and AI company revolutionizing the jewelry industry. Madeline shares how a frustrating search for a custom engagement ring sparked the idea for Gemist, which now powers customization, stone sourcing, and hyper-realistic rendering for jewelry brands and retailer...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners and the Tacos and Tech Podcast . My co-host 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,...

In this special episode of the podcast, host Neal Bloom takes us inside the Burbank Startup Pitch Fest - an exciting evening of innovation, capital, and community hosted in partnership with the City of Burbank and Rising Tide Partners. We kick things off with a welcome from Burbank’s Economic Development team, highlighting why the city is fast becoming a tech and media hub. Neal then moderates a c...

In this special recorded event episode, Neal Bloom sits down with Trust & Will co-founder and CEO Cody Barbo in front of a live audience at SDSU’s Angel Academy. It’s an honest, behind-the-scenes conversation on what it really takes to back founders at the earliest of stages especially when they are bouncing back from tragedy. Cody and Neal reflect on startup missteps, co-founder breakups, raising...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast , host Neal Bloom sits down with Alex Adler , co-founder of Puesto , to talk about how a family with no restaurant background built one of the most beloved modern taco brands in the country. From its La Jolla beginnings to an expanding restaurant group that includes Marisi and Romana Norte, Puesto has grown through a mix of culinary authenticity, operati...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners and the Tacos and Tech Podcast . My co-host 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,...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, host Neal Bloom sits down with Arman and Andrew, of Podhaus, a full-service podcast production studio based in Burbank, CA. From launching just before COVID to building one of LA’s most sought-after recording spaces, the duo shares how they went from music engineering and tech backgrounds to building a creative business in the heart of the media capital...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners and the Tacos and Tech Podcast . My co-host 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,...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, host Neal Bloom chats with Jeremy Yamaguchi , Founder and CEO of Cabana. A longtime tech builder in the home services space, Jeremy is now focused on modernizing the pool care industry, one of the largest yet most overlooked service sectors in the U.S. Jeremy shares how his product and marketing background led him to build Cabana with a blend of operati...

Listen & subscribe on Apple , Spotify , YouTube , and other platforms. Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News! I’m Neal Bloom from Rising Tide Partners and the Tacos and Tech Podcast . My co-host 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,...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, host Neal Bloom chats with Andrew Albert , Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Channel Equity Partners . Andrew brings decades of investing experience - from public markets to private software equity - to the table. He shares how his journey from the East Coast to San Diego led to launching a new kind of early growth equity firm focused on bootstrapped o...

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 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, f...

What does it take to design a flawless fan experience for 75,000 people on game day, and millions more watching from home? In this episode, Neal Bloom sits down with Vikrant Bodalia, Vice President of Technology Operations at Allegiant Stadium, to unpack the strategy, innovation, and pressure behind the world's biggest live events. From Super Bowl infrastructure to facial-recognition ticketing, Vi...

In this episode of Tacos & Tech , Neal welcomes a longtime friend, Andy Taylor , Co-Founder and CEO of RetroRate . to talk about building a company around an idea few people even know exists: assumable loans . They dig deep into Andy’s journey from building software at Electronic Arts and Apple to leading product at Redfin, launching mortgage startup Approved, and now tackling a hidden opportunity...

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 Rising Tide Partners . 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, IPO...

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, host Neal Bloom sits down with CEO of Pictor, a diagnostics company transforming healthcare through proteomics-the science of understanding what the body’s proteins are doing right now. They explore how this next-generation technology is shifting the medical world from slow, reactive testing to real-time, accessible diagnostics for both humans and anima...

Episode Summary: In this episode of the, Neal Bloom chats with Jesse Taylor, Senior Manager of Identity and Middleware Services at UNLV. Jesse shares his journey from early exposure to technology with Atari and Apple II to becoming a technical leader in higher education. They discuss the evolution of technology, the role of AI in augmenting human capabilities, and Jesse’s approach to authentic lea...

Welcome to Bloombites - a weekly brain and heart dump from the front lines about startup community, investing, and building. Here’s who I’ve been meeting with over the last week: Met the Covanos cardiovascular team thanks to Jose Arrieta . Shared notes with Cheryl Turnbull of the Ohio State University Entrepreneurship Center on bridging inventors into startup founders thanks to Derrick Brent . Gre...

Dive into San Diego's evolving product management landscape with Vidya Dinamani as she announces the inaugural Product Management Summit . Learn how the local tech ecosystem has matured and why bringing world-class product leadership to San Diego matters. Key Topics: • San Diego Product Management Summit (June 5-6) • Evolution from Intuit leadership to Product Rebels • Building Product Tank's 2,50...

In this episode, Neal Bloom chats with Misti Cain , the new Managing Director of Techstars San Diego powered by SDSU. They discuss the upcoming Year 3 of the program, the application process, and what makes an ideal founder and company for the accelerator. Misty shares insights into the benefits of the SDSU partnership, the updated investment terms, and the importance of community and mentorship i...

🔊Listen & Subscribe: Available now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube , and other major platforms . 👋 Welcome! Welcome to This Week in San Diego Tech ! I’m Neal Bloom from Fresh Brewed Tech , the Tacos and Tech Podcast , and Interlock Capital . Joining me as always is Fred Grier , journalist and author of The Business of San Diego Substack , covering startups, funding, and M&A across the regi...