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Monday, Mar 18, 2024
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North County Founders Share Drinks, Thoughts

The crowd at this month’s North County Founder Drink Up was impressed by the Keurig-like prototype James Heczko brought in, especially when he tugged on a custom container and out popped one of the steel cylinders that warms soups and beverages through induction heating.

But the more ale people drank, the tougher the questions got. At one point, Techstars

startup specialist Ryan Kuder quizzed Heczko on how many convenience store commitments he would have to line up before a large packaged food company would agree to a new product line. (Hint: It’s probably a lot.)

Things remained friendly, and Heczko said later he benefited from the discussion. But it got close enough to being awkward that one participant, Carlsbad entrepreneur Erik Groset, put in an aside: “Good part of the meetup: people beating up your business.”

Downtown gets more attention, but events like this show North County is rising as a startup hub in its own right.

Whether it’s because of the surf, the more family-friendly lifestyle or an aversion to hour-plus commutes, entrepreneurs from Vista to Carlsbad are building a supportive network they hope will serve as an alternative to the more established startup scene centered in downtown San Diego.

The March 8 meetup at the CommonGrounds coworking space in Carlsbad is one example; another is Outsite, a coliving and coworking space in Encinitas. Still another is the monthly Shape tech meetup launched recently by Drew Wilson, founder and CEO of e-commerce payment platform Plasso.

“San Diego is great, but it’s far,” Wilson said in an email, adding that he has long hoped a healthy startup community would find a home in North County. He finally took the step of organizing a group to help make it happen.

An Unwise Split?

Not everyone is quite ready to rally around the idea. There’s a sense San Diego has not fully come into its own, and that splitting into two local factions could weaken the area’s entrepreneurial wherewithal.

“lf one believes that Silicon Valley’s secret sauce is the close proximity of all that talent, and the sum is greater than the parts, then it seems better that downtown (San Diego) has a critical mass,” Tim Rout, founder of companies including La Jolla-based wireless internet provider Dyno Ventures, said by email. He added he tends to avoid North County events, if only because “mentally, the distance is a hurdle.”

It could be argued neither area holds sway. CONNECT, a nonprofit that supports the region’s startup activities, reported in 2015 that Carlsbad was home to 63 startups, as compared with 54 downtown and 52 in Sorrento Valley.

Adjacent Clusters?

Ashok Kamal is a high-profile supporter of the North County startup community who serves as executive director of investor group Tech Coast Angels. He acknowledged the benefit of having a cluster of incubators and other startup resources downtown. But he said that’s no reason not to build an “adjacent cluster” with nearer access to Orange County and Los Angeles.

He did disclose a personal bias, however: “You have better surf in North County. I’d say so. For some people that’s a reason to be there.”

Some people avoid taking sides by cultivating contacts across the region, as San Diego Startup Week founder Neal Bloom does. But as the Southern California lead for Hired Inc., and someone who attends tech meetups across the region almost nightly, he admits it can be a chore driving back and forth between downtown and North County.

Distinct Communities

He sees something of a dichotomy distinguishing the two areas. Whereas downtown’s startup scene thrives on young risk-takers, he said, the community in North County is populated by more mature entrepreneurs who tend to have more experience — and children, for whom neighborhoods in and around Oceanside can be better suited.

“They want a sense of community,” Bloom said of North County startup founders.

That sense exists, but it has been underserved, said Groset, whose latest venture, Fantasy Sports Co., offers up-to-the-minute analytics to owners of virtual sports teams.

He pointed to one big sign of progress: the slick coworking space where the North County Founder Drink Up took place. It has individual work stations and group offices, as well as shared spaces including a long kitchen, complete with beer taps, where the discussion about Heczko’s soup machine took place.

The six or seven people in attendance that night said the group wasn’t as big as it might have been, owing to an accident that closed a nearby access road. Normally, participation numbers between 10 and 15, they said.

Tough Questions

Still, the conversation was bright and free-flowing even as it managed to stay focused on the challenges and opportunities of local entrepreneurship.

Much of the focus that evening was on Heczko, a 51-year-old investment advisor and former engineer who for the past 2 ½ years has been tinkering with the Keurig-like machine in his Oceanside garage.

Heczko said he was glad he came by, as the input he received struck him as valuable for the continuing development of his startup, HotBot Beverages. He was particularly complimentary of Techstars’ Kuder, who just before taking off to be home with his kids offered a connection with an acquaintance of his who used to work at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, now part of Keurig.

“He was one of the tougher questioners I’ve had, which is good,” Heczko said.

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