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🎙️ This Week in San Diego Tech (4/21/25 Edition)
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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 region.
🗞️Top Headlines This Week:
🎶 Music Tech Meets the Symphony - link
* Interlock Capital hosted 30+ tech leaders for a behind-the-scenes tour of the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center ($150M remodel!)
* The tech community showed up at the San Diego Symphony’s Discovery Night, featuring jazz, Mardi Gras flair, and remarks by ResMed CEO Mick Farrell
* The call to action: it’s time for the next generation of founders to support arts, science, and innovation in SD
🚀 Startup 101 & Founders Funnel Kickoff - link
* Neal and Tim Ryan launched Startup 101, a community event for early-stage builders to explore the “car, plane, or rocket ship” path of growth
* 10 attendees, curated cohort, high demand for more, filling a new cohort each quarter - and Founders Build Day now expanding to 3 monthly locations in May!
💰 Funding Rounds
* Symphonic Capital raises $13.5M for its debut fund, led by Sydney Thomas (ex-Precursor), focused on fintech and digital health
* Bliss AI, an aesthetic-focused AR software platform, secures Series A funding (co-founder based in North County)
* Biolinq raises $90M for non-invasive glucose sensing - originally spun out of UCSD labs and now scaling hard
🧬 NIH Funding Shakeup & Market Headwinds - link
* UCSD sees $150M+ in NIH funding paused or cut, impacting researchers and early-stage startups
* Federal agency funding delays (FDA, DOD, SBIR) creating