Daily Business Report: Thursday, March 16, 2023
Athletiverse comes to the rescue of college athletes
Name, image and likeness software company Ahletiverse has emerged as an innovative new soluton for college athletes looking to take advantage of their new revenue/sponsorship capabilities.
Since July 1, 2021, college athletes have been able to legally make money off their name, imagine and likeness after the Supreme Court’s decision which ruled that college athletes should be given the right to profit from their collegiate endeavors.
Athletiverse was founded by20-year-old Dominick Bullard, a junior at the University of San Diego. Bullard said the company plans to target the over 182 million college sports fan population and the over 32.5 million small businesses in need of locally targeted marketing.
With over 15,000 followers and over a million views on social media within the past five months, Athletiverse is quickly becoming a major player in the world of college sports. Wioth over $2 billion generated by college sports’ top athletes in the first two years of NIL (name, imagine, likeness) Athletiverse is positioned to become a major player. Bullard is a seasoned college baseball player.
Darren Dummit recently joined the company as an adviser. He played a key role in negotiating a deal for USC’s recent Heisman winner, Caleb Williams, with Hawkins Way Capital, a $2 million real estate private equity fund in Beverly Hills.
Top photo credit: Athletiverse
Navy generates first low carbon fuel credits
for electrification projects at Naval Base San Diego
Since the Navy an Intergovernmental Support Agreement with the Port of San Diego in September 2022, $4.5 million has been generated from the sale of Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits. These funds will be used to begin significant upgrades to the electrical infrastructure at Naval Base San Diego, which will further reduce emissions at our largest West Coast surface ship installation. As this program matures, it has the capability to generate in-kind consideration valued at up to $20 million annually.
“This is a great step forward in which Navy Region Southwest uses an innovative process to improve our infrastructure and add to Naval Base San Diego’s resilience,” said Rear Adm. Brad Rosen, Commander, Navy Region Southwest.
The Navy’s participation in this program is the first ever participation by the Department of Defense in this type of carbon reduction effort. The Navy generates LCFS credits while ships are plugged into shore power, rather than generating power internally using traditional, carbon-intensive fuels, and limiting emissions of greenhouse gasses in the surrounding community.
San Diego Angel Conference V
announces 13 startup semifinalists
San Diego Angel Conference, a University of San Diego Knauss School of Business program that activates accredited angel investors and engages promising early-stage companies that drive the innovation ecosystem, announced the 13 semifinalists to move forward toward the final pitch at the SDAC V Angel Conference on April 22. Tickets available here.
A total of 106 companies applied for SDAC V, hoping to land at least $200,000 in angel investment or attract investors interested in funding additional companies.
The semifinalists:
LIMBER Prosthetics & Orthotics
Free textbooks could soon be a reality
at California’s community colleges
CalMatters
California college students spend on average $938 per year on textbooks and materials, according to the California Student Aid Commission’s 2021-2022 Student Expenses and Resources Survey, roughly half of that is on textbooks alone. One idea to lessen the burden is under consideration by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office — fund community colleges to produce their own textbooks.
The system must decide how to spend $115 million in state funds set aside to reduce the burden of textbook costs. Every community college will receive $20,000 to design zero-textbook-cost programs and an additional $180,000 to implement them. Some colleges will also get larger, competitive grants.
Colleges could spend the money on anything from publishing their own textbooks to using free, publicly available textbooks — known as “open educational resources” — created by professors at other schools. They could also simply give some students money to buy traditional textbooks.
San Diego Dance Theater to present ‘Becoming Always’
sdnews.com
San Diego Dance Theater to present “Becoming Always”, featuring the dancing and dance-making of the San Diego Dance Theater company. This evening is dedicated to the dancers and the unique talent inherent in each artist. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 18, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at Light Box Theater (formerly White Box Live Arts) at Arts District Liberty Station, 2590 Truxtun Road, Building 176, Suite 205. Tickets are available at sddt.ticketleap.com/march-company-show-2023/.
“Becoming Always” will present choreography by Terry Wilson, along with company dancers Matthew Armstrong, Cecily Holcombe, and Mario Jaimes. Company dancers Lauren Christie, Isabel Desmet, Luci Salinas, and intern Ileana Lim will grace the stages this March, showcasing a repertory by Mario Jaimes and Terry Wilson, with premieres by Matthew Armstrong, Cecily Holcombe, and Wilson. Each dance is distinctly different and will showcase the strengths of this extraordinary group of artists.
San Diego student Ellen Xu wins $150,000 and
third place in Regeneron Science Talent Search
Ellen Xu, 17, of San Diego, won $150,000 and third place in the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search for developing an algorithm that uses a smartphone photo of the patient to aid in the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children between 1 and 5 years of age. The competition was sponsored by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Society for Science. Forty finalists were honored during an awards ceremony.
Rady Children’s Hospital launches no-cost z-score calculator
SAN DIEGO — Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, the largest children’s hospital on the West Coast and one of the nation’s top pediatric healthcare systems, announced the availability of ParameterZ by Rady Children’s Hospital, a no-cost standard deviation (z-score) calculator to help physicians throughout the U.S. and beyond understand the size of a patient’s cardiac anatomy in relation to what is perceived to be developmentally typical. The tool is now available to all at no cost. ParameterZ by Rady Children’s Hospital will be updated periodically with new features and calculations over the coming months. Android and iOS mobile apps are currently in development.
Cordial awarded a Best Places to Work
SAN DIEGO — The Business Intelligence Group has named Cordial, the cross-channel marketing and data management platform for brands to communicate in personal, intelligent ways, a Best Places to Work. The organization identifies companies actively working to improve their own performance through efforts to challenge employees in environments that make work fun and engaging. By prioritizing employee engagement and promoting innovation and collaboration, Cordial secured a nomination score of 86.8 out of 90.
Universal Sequencing Technology launches
high-throughput WGS library preparation kit
CARLSBAD — Universal Sequencing Technology Corporation, a global leader in genomic sequencing innovations, announced the release of a high throughput microbial WGS library preparation kit enabling 2nd-generation short-read sequencers to produce long-range results in a much affordable price for microbial genomes. With this special high throughput kit, users can pool more microbial samples in one sequencing run in combination with the company’s 96-well plate multiplexing primers, which includes 10-base indexes and significantly reduces NGS library preparation and sequencing costs.
Kneron KL720 supports Qualcomm for virtually
seamless AI for robotics, drones and industry 4.0
SAN DIEGO — Leading edge AI solutions provider Kneron announces that its KL720 AI SoC now supports the Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and Qualcomm Robotics RB2 Platforms from Qualcomm Technologies Inc. for robotics, drones, and industry 4.0. Based in San Diego, Kneron is backed by the likes of Sequoia, Horizons Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Foxconn. For robotics use cases, the KL720 supports these Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and RB2 Platforms in deploying object detection for smart vacuum cleaners, customer service robots, as well as drones.
BSI Financial joins Mortgage Capital
Trading’s co-issue marketplace
SAN DIEGO — Mortgage Capital Trading Inc., a leading mortgage hedge advisory and secondary marketing software firm, announced that BSI Financial Services (BSI) has become the latest investor to join BAMCO, MCT’s new marketplace for co-issue loan sales. BAMCO brings co-issue transactions directly into MCT’s whole loan trading platform and improves price transparency by connecting unapproved sellers to live executions from potential buyers.
Cannabis retailer Emjay installs basketball
hoops in stores ahead of March Madness
SAN DIEGO — To bring the excitement of the March Madness College Basketball tournament to their retail locations this year, Emjay, a cannabis delivery service and retailer, have installed custom mini basketball hoops in each of their locations in San Diego and Los Angeles. All of Emjay’s customers will have the opportunity to shoot three shots to win a variety of discounts and prizes when spending $100 or more. Click here for information on the San Diego store.
EVOTEK hires industry veteran Dean Trossen
SAN DIEGO — EVOTEK, the premier enabler of secure digital business, announced that seasoned executive Dean Trossen has joined the company as area vice president of their Enterprise POD sales structure.
Trossen will be supporting Southern and Northern California, as well as Arizona.
Trossen is a veteran business executive with 30+ years of sales experience.
He began his career at IBM in new account sales, knocking on doors, and later moved into a leadership role, where he has remained since. He also spent several years in start-up companies, where he wore many different hats.
Courtney Liddy named to Forbes
and Barron’s top women’s lists
SAN DIEGO — UBS Wealth Management USA announced that Financial Adviser Courtney McDonald Liddy has been named to the Forbes America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors list and the Forbes Best-in-State Women Advisors list for 2023, as well as the 2023 Barron’s Top 1200 Financial Advisors nationally. These honors are the latest in a long list of recognition for Liddy and mark the fifth and sixth times since 2019 that she has appeared on the Top Women Wealth Advisers lists for Forbes and the fourth time she has appeared on a Barron’s list. Liddy is a managing director at UBS and fully accredited Private Wealth Advisor based in the firm’s Downtown San Diego office.
Home appliance leader Electrolux
streamlines creative workflow with Wrike
SAN DIEGO — Electrolux, an appliance company based in Sweden, has chosen San Diego’s Wrike to increase transparency across complex projects, create a single source of truth for assets, and automate workflows that drive project progress within their packaging design department. The implementation has enabled significant improvements to their creative design process, freeing them up from emails by 50 percent, decreasing time spent per project by 30 percent, and allowing them to creae up to 10 times more assets per project.
Disguise jumps deeper into
gaming with launch of PIGGY
POWAY — Disguise Inc., the leading costume division of toy and consumer products manufacturer JAKKS Pacific Inc., announced a partnership with PhatMojo, multi-year rights in North America to design, develop and manufacture costumes and costume accessories for the episodic horror survival game, PIGGY, commencing in fall 2023. Created by MiniToon, PIGGY has become one of the most popular and unique experiences in indie gaming. In the game, you team up with your friends to escape PIGGY, or play as PIGGY to hunt your friends and prevent their escape.
