Daily Business Report-Oct. 23, 2018
Mysty Rusk, director of the University of San Diego Small Business Development Center (Credit: USD)
USD Center boosts small
businesses
on the brink of success
After helping local companies access more than $2.3 million in funding, launch seven new businesses and work with more than 192 clients in less than a year, the University of San Diego Small Business Development Center has officially changed its name to “the Brink.”
“Our new center is built to empower startups and innovators that are on the brink of success and our new name reflects that,” said Mysty Rusk, the center’s director.
The Brink opened its doors in January 2018 as a specialty center focused on innovation, one of only a handful of its kind in the country. The center is part of the San Diego and Imperial Small Business Development Center Network that exists in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Housed in the USD School of Business, the Brink is a partnership between five schools within the University of San Diego – School of Business, Shiley Marcos School of Engineering, Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, Continuing and Professional Education and School of Leadership and Education Sciences. The Brink’s purpose is to assist existing businesses or startups with an innovative product or service with high growth potential, providing world-class training and one-to-one consulting.
Vizer, for instance, a social impact fitness app that rewards people for healthier habits, received assistance in pitch development, customer acquisition, product development, and financial modeling from the center. After winning both the Audience Choice and Judge’s Choice awards at Hera Fast Pitch, they were invited to exhibit at the Hera Venture Summit held at USD on Sept. 15.
“USD is fueled by entrepreneurial spirit, and the Brink is an excellent addition to that ecosystem. As our business has evolved, so has its challenges, and the center has served as an ongoing resource for our team,” said Samantha Pantazopoulos, a 2017 USD School of Business graduate and co-founder and CEO of Vizer.
Additionally, six of the San Diego Venture Group’s 2018 Cool Companies are current clients at the Brink.
Overall, the Brink has provided 1,300 hours in consulting services to more than 192 clients in a variety of industries. Nearly 40 percent of the fledgling firms are professional and scientific enterprises while 22 percent are information based and another 17 percent are involved in manufacturing. About 23 percent of the firms are in agriculture and other industries.
“We couldn’t be more pleased and excited with the success of the Brink and its positive impact on the local economy,” said USD School of Business Dean Jaime Gómez. “The center has surpassed its year-end goals within just eight months,” he added.
Looking ahead, the Brink also is organizing the first San Diego Angel Conference, a series of events over six months that will culminate in a one-day conference and the award of a large investment to an entrepreneurial finalist. The conference is tentatively set to take place on March 15, 2019.
“We are focused on becoming a key partner of the startup ecosystem in San Diego and making it more dynamic and vibrant,” said Rusk, who came to USD after serving as the associate state director for program innovation and technology commercialization with the Central California SBDC.
Rusk also was honored at the Hera Venture Summit with the “She Advocates Award” recognizing excellence in the innovation ecosystem and her work advocating entrepreneurs in innovation and tech startups.
For more information on The Brink go to www.sandiego.edu/thebrink.
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San Diego City Council repeals
ordinance targeting short-term rentals
City News Service
Amid fears of “years of litigation,” the San Diego City Council voted 8-1 Monday to repeal an ordinance that placed regulations on short-term renters using platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway.
The City Council originally passed the ordinance 6-3 in July. Short-term rental operators would have been limited to renting primary residences a maximum of 180 days per year and would have had to pay transient occupancy taxes to fund the construction of affordable housing projects.
The ordinance also mandated that vacationers stay in short-term rentals for a minimum of three days in coastal areas of the county and downtown San Diego. The regulations would have gone into effect in July 2019.
City Council members have said they plan to craft a new ordinance for short-term rental owners and companies, but no timetable for that has been agreed upon.
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CONNECT to honor pioneers
in technology, biotech and health care
CONNECT will honor three pioneers in their individual fields of technology, biotech and health care at its annual Most Innovative New Product Awards event in November.
CONNECT has selected Mark Dankberg, chairman of the board and CEO of Viasat, for its highest honor – induction into the CONNECT Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Dankberg is being honored for his contribution to the global communications industry through his co-founding and leading of Viasat, based in Carlsbad.
Since Viasat’s inception in 1986, Dankberg has been considered a visionary, building a company consistently recognized for its innovation, and its commitment to culture. Dankberg is an acknowledged industry expert in communications technology, satellite, aerospace and defense, and is leading a new generation of high-capacity satellite systems that are poised to deliver worldwide broadband coverage by 2021.
CONNECT will also honor Peter Ellsworth and Dr. Eric Topol with Duane Roth Distinguished Contribution Awards.
Topol will receive the Duane Roth DCA for Life Sciences, for his contributions to the industry and to San Diego as the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and executive vice president of Scripps Research. As a researcher, Topol has published over 1,200 peer-reviewed articles, with more than 200,000 citations, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and is one of the top 10 most cited researchers in medicine (Thomson Reuters ISI, “Doctor of the Decade”).
Celebrating his contributions to San Diego and the surrounding industries through the building of Sharp Health Care, Ellsworth will receive the Duane Roth DCA for Technology. A law practitioner until 1986, Ellsworth was then recruited by Sharp Memorial Hospital to build a comprehensive health care system of hospitals and medical groups. As president, Ellsworth built Sharp Health Care from a single hospital into a medical system that is also one of the largest private employers in San Diego. Ellsworth currently serves as the president of the Legler Benbough Foundation.
A dinner honoring Dankberg, Ellsworth, and Topol will be held on Nov. 29, 2018 in conjunction with CONNECT’s 31st Most Innovative New Product Awards at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine.
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SDSU receives $19.9 million grant
to support research on health disparities
San Diego State University has received a $19.9 million award—one of the largest in university history—to create a new center for transdisciplinary research on health disparities throughout San Diego and Imperial counties.
The SDSU HealthLINK Center will build collaborative partnerships between the university and community health entities and dramatically enhance research infrastructure at the university, bolstering critical health research and services and improving the well-being of the region’s most underserved populations.
The center brings together more than two dozen faculty engaged in the high-impact, community-centered and cross-disciplinary collaborations that are key to the university’s growing research enterprise.
The award is the largest National Institutes of Health grant ever awarded to SDSU and one of the largest in university history, second only to a $30 million federal grant SDSU received in 2014 to establish a campus in the country of Georgia.
“This a wonderful recognition of the faculty’s excellence in health disparities research, and a significant opportunity to build on that excellence so that SDSU can remain a leader in this field for years to come,” said Stephen Welter, SDSU’s vice president for research.
Public health professor Guadalupe X. Ayala and psychology associate professor Kristen J. Wells are leading the project, which promises to be an economic driver for the region.
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Qualcomm executive:
5G is about a lot more than smartphones
RCRWireless News
HONG KONG—“We believe that we are poised to really transform the world, reinvent whole new industries and enrich lives with the impending launch of 5G.” That was the message from Penny Baldwin, Qualcomm senior vice president and chief marketin officer, as the company’s 4G/5G Summit got underway this week in Hong Kong.
During a pre-event workshop for media and analysts, executives from the San Diego-based chipmaker discussed the trajectory of 5G smartphones built using the X50 modem, which are due to hit the market throughout 2019, but also looked beyond how the next-generation of cellular can create new consumer experiences.
Durga Malladi, senior vice president and GM of 4G/5G, said focus from operators and vendors as it relates to using high-capacity millimeter wave spectrum has been on standing up dense, outdoor networks where users can get a taste of 5G delivered by tightly grouped small cells.
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Community College District receives
$1.6 million to support foster youth
Current and former foster youth who are now students at San Diego City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges will receive an abundance of additional resources to help them reach their educational goals, thanks to more than $1.6 million in additional funding from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
The funds will allow the colleges to bolster staff and add support services through the San Diego Community College District’s (SDCCD) Cooperating Agencies Foster Youth Educational Support (CAFYES) program, which is also known as NextUp. CAFYES/NextUp provides funding for counselors, tutors, career guidance, child care, and grants to help students with books, housing, and other non-tuition costs at 45 California community college campuses. The program’s goal is to help current and former foster youth overcome the unique challenges that can keep them from securing a certificate or degree.
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Cajon Valley School District awarded
$1 million to replace 5 school buses
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $1 million to the Cajon Valley Union School District to replace five school buses with zero emission battery-electric buses. The funds will be combined with $267,911 in cost-shared funds from the district, and $1,100,000 from the California Air Resources Board.
The funds are part of $9.6 million in grants awarded to California public and private entities. The funds will be used to retrofit and replace old, polluting diesel vehicles and equipment, including school buses, heavy-duty trucks, tractors and port equipment.
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General Atomics demonstrates
targeting system for MQ-9B drone
ExecutiveBiz
General Atomics’ electromagnetic systems business recently helped the Missile Defense Agency demonstrate a targeting platform designed for use with the MQ-9B unmanned aircraft system. The company said it tested the MDA’s Airborne Tracking and Targeting System in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise or RIMPAC that took place around the Hawaiian Islands from late June to early August.
“We tested MDA’s ATTS under operational conditions to help further characterize its tracking performance against real-world targets of interest,” said Michael Perry, vice president for lasers and advanced sensors at General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems.
The ATTS uses electro-optical/infrared sensors to guide the equipped aircraft’s tracking and targeting. The RIMPAC is a multinational maritime warfare exercise that occurs every two years. This year’s iteration of the exercise gathered 25 countries, 51 vessels and about 200 aircraft.
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Attorneys recognized for
victory in asylum case
Higgs Fletcher & Mack attorneys Rachel Moffitt and Jamie Ritterbeck received the Casa Cornelia Law Center Pro Bono Publico Award for winning po
litical asylum for Carlos, a teenager from Guatemala who arrived in the United States three years ago. Casa Cornelia, a public-interest law firm in San Diego that provides pro bono legal services to victims of human and civil rights violations, asked Moffitt and Ritterbeck to represent Carlos in his efforts to obtain asylum. After more than a year of work on Carlos’s case, and as a direct result of their representation, Carlos was ultimately granted political asylum.
Moffitt and Ritterbeck are part of a network of volunteer attorneys at Casa Cornelia who donate their skills, time, and energy to provide quality pro bono legal services to victims of human rights violations.
Both attorneys were honored with the Pro Bono Publico Award on Oct. 20 at Casa Cornelia’s 25th anniversary & La Mancha Awards ceremony.
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Carlsbad’s Paseo Summit sells for $23 million
Paseo Summit, a 74,827-square-foot, two-building Class A office park in Carlsbad, has been sold for $23 million to NextMed Owner LLC. The seller was Davlyn Investments. Paseo Summit is at 6183 and 6185 Paseo Del Norte.
Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer. CBRE represented the seller.
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Holiday Bowl organization to honor longtime volunteer
Pete Latrenta at Navy-Notre Dame game Oct. 27
San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl officials say they will posthumously recognize Peter “Pete” Litrenta at the Oct. 27 Navy-Notre Dame game at SDCCU Stadium. The community-first San Diegan will be remembered during an on-field presentation during the game.
The nonprofit local bowl game effort is the host of the event and the group responsible for bringing the game to San Diego.
Litrenta was a Holiday Bowl “RedCoat” volunteer for more than 20 years, joining the committee in 1989. He later became a member of the association’s board of directors in 2001. He served in that capacity until he passed away in 2009 and was active on many committees, including the team selection and military affairs committees. He was also a 1964 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and had an illustrious 25-year career in the Navy.
This matchup would have brought him great joy. “Peter loved college football, especially Notre Dame, his alma mater,” said retired Holiday Bowl executive director Bruce Binkowski. “His great vision and insight, while still on active duty in San Diego, led to the unique partnership and relationship the Holiday Bowl enjoys with the Navy and Marine Corps today.”
This game will mark the first time the Notre Dame football team has ever played in San Diego.
His wife of 43 years, Linda, will take part in the presentation. Joining Linda on the field will be their three daughters, Danielle, LyAnne and Katie, sons-in-law and grandchildren.
