Category: News

Advancing San Diego Company Spotlight: San Diego Loyal

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched in Summer 2020 in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students are closing out their Spring business internship experiences, EDC is rolling out this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the third cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted. To date, ASD has placed 93 student-interns in local businesses, with $455,000 in total wages and support services paid. 

In this feature, we sat down with Ricardo Campos, VP of Operations and General Manager at San Diego Loyal. As part of the third cohort of host companies, San Diego Loyal is a professional soccer club that was founded locally in 2019 and is currently competing in the United Soccer League (USL) Championship.

Read on for more about ASD intern host San Diego Loyal, and hear direct from their student-intern here.

Why was your company founded, and what are your current points of focus?  

San Diego Loyal SC is built on four core pillars–independent, authentic, inclusive, and optimistic. San Diego Loyal plays for America’s Finest City and is led by some of the best in sport. The club was founded to bring professional soccer to San Diego and the point of focus is to make this city a better place to work, live, and play through the beautiful game.

What does growth look like over the next few years?

We are currently playing at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium, which can seat over 6,100 fans. Over the next few years, our focus is to identify a location within San Diego County to build a soccer-specific stadium.

How has your company pivoted as a result of COVID-19?

We played two games in front of fans in 2020 and took a pause at the onset of the pandemic; however, we returned to playing in July 2020 without fans in attendance. This had a major impact in our ticket revenue for the season but we were blessed to have our corporate partners stay with us during such challenging times.

Tell us about your experience building a small business/startup in San Diego. 

Starting a professional soccer club is very challenging but resources within the United Soccer League and an experienced club management team were key factors in our success. Process creation and execution are one of the hardest parts, as you new employees implement standard operating procedures for long-term success.

In your opinion, what is special about San Diego’s business community, and the talent that drives it?

San Diego is special in many ways. The local talent is on par with any major region in the world. We are confident that the San Diego region can deliver quality talent no matter the industry.

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

Company contact info and additional information:

You might also like to read:

A note from Mark…

By Mark Cafferty,

Over the last several months, our work at EDC has had to move and change in some significant ways to respond to the economic conditions around us. And while this is always a part of our work and planning, it is safe to say that 2020—and the early stages of 2021—challenged us greatly and taught us a lot about our work and our economy, as it did all of you.

Investors and community partners often ask me what a day or a week at EDC looks like—some are just curious what the actual work feels like on a day-to-day basis; others are interested in knowing what we are seeing and experiencing through the businesses we work with to better understand if their needs and priorities may signal bigger or broader economic trends, challenges, or opportunities for the region.

As we kick off the third quarter of the year and begin developing new and improved programs, strategies, and focus areas to keep stride with our fast moving and re-opening economy, here’s a quick glance at EDC’s Q2 2021:

As always, we do all that we do with an eye on building a stronger, more inclusive economy, producing more skilled workers, creating more quality jobs within our small businesses, and establishing more thriving households and a better quality of life for businesses and residents in all corners of the San Diego region. We truly could not do any of it without you, and we thank you for your continued investment, leadership, and support.

With respect and gratitude,

Mark Cafferty

Mark Cafferty
Mark Cafferty

President & CEO

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – July 16, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ (GNOTW) features a curation of positive headlines from across the San Diego mega-region, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get GNOTW in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of July 16, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re attending:

San Diego’s Data Bites: July 2021

Presented by Meyers Nave, this edition of San Diego’s Data Bites covers June 2021, with data on employment, housing, and more insights about the region’s economy. Key takeaways include an unexpected unemployment rate rise amid gains in Leisure and Hospitality.

Dig In

A company guide to return-to-work

As many companies begin to plan for a safe return to traditional offices, it can seem like there are more questions than answers. Attorneys Janice Brown and Sandy McDonough from EDC investor companies Meyers Nave and Paul Plevin address some of the most common questions about returning to in-person work.

Read More

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San Diego’s Good News of the Week – July 9, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of July 9, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re attending:

Advancing San Diego: Apply now to be a Preferred Provider of Healthcare Talent!

EDC is accepting applications for Preferred Providers of Healthcare Talent. Education and training providers graduating top-quality medical assistants in San Diego County are invited to apply. The Preferred Provider designation qualifies students for access to paid work experience opportunities, and qualifies program staff for direct access to industry leaders.

Apply Now

Additional resources:

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San Diego’s Good News of the Week – July 2, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of July 2, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re attending:

Study: Cybersecurity cluster faces talent shortage amid productivity gains

Together with CCOE and Booz Allen Hamilton, EDC released the second study in a series—Securing the Future: AI and San Diego’s Cyber Cluster—which quantifies the economic impact of the region’s Cybersecurity cluster and explores the proliferation of AI and ML technologies being used to thwart cybercrimes, among other critical needs by the private sector and government.

Read the Full Report

Additional resources:

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To learn more, please contact us.

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – June 25, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of June 25, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re attending:

We’re Hiring!

  • Economic Development Coordinator
    EDC is hiring an Economic Development Coordinator to support its economic development priorities, with a focus on workforce development and Advancing San Diego. This person will provide program and project, marketing and communications, and general administrative support.
  • Economic Development Manager—Life Sciences
    EDC is hiring an Economic Development Manager (Life Sciences) to lead a strategic economic development framework to enable business attraction, retention, and expansion in San Diego’s competitive life sciences industry. This person will provide company support and industry engagement, as well as have a minimum of five years experience in business, real estate, planning, life sciences facilities, or related field.

Apply Now, or help us spread the word!

Additional resources:

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To learn more, please contact us.

Meet the companies: Advancing San Diego, Manufacturing interns

By Kate Gallagher ,

Through our Advancing San Diego initiative, EDC provides San Diego-based businesses with paid interns in high-demand fields. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges were especially salient.

With the help of our staffing partner Manpower, between 2020 and 2021, EDC has provided 53 San Diego companies and non-profits with interns in the fields of software, engineering, and business.

Now, we’re excited to announce 14 more companies who have been selected to host Manufacturing interns in engineering technician and machinist roles this Summer. Interns are sourced from programs designated as Preferred Providers of Manufacturing Talent, with internships running from July to November 2021.

Please join us in welcoming our next cohort of Advancing San Diego intern hosts:

  1. American Lithium Energy is a company developing and manufacturing high performance, next generation lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries.
  2. Artience Lighting is an architectural lighting design and manufacturing company that brings beauty to spaces through tunable white technology as well as UVC disinfection technology.
  3. Bitchin’ Sauce is a family-owned and operated company that manufactures an almond-based dip.
  4. Diakont  Advanced Technologies is a leader in providing specialized services and solutions for the energy industry, primarily in the oil and natural gas, and nuclear industries.
  5. Discflo Corporation Inc. is a global pump manufacturer that sells industrial pumps into the “hard to pump market.”
  6. Drewfab is a family-owned machine shop that services several industries including the power generation, marine, automotive, and racing. The company does engineering, machining, fabrication, and 3D printing.
  7. Fuse Integration is a veteran-owned business that has earned recognition as an emerging leader in airborne, maritime, and ground networking. The company was founded with the noble cause of bringing the benefits of commercial human-centered design processes to first responder and military systems engineering.
  8. Left Coast Engineering offers full-service, electronic product design resources and specializes in custom electronic product design and rapid prototyping in the R&D space.
  9. Microtek is a bioengineering company that specializes in design, development, and fabrication of miniaturized devices, which are often medical in nature.
  10. Smartville Inc. is a rapid-growing renewable energy company that specializes in electric vehicle battery repurposing and lifecycle management.
  11. SurfDurt manufactures a natural, reef-safe sunscreen.
  12. Survival Systems International is a company in the safety lifeboat industry and holds 30 years of experience as a supplier of ballistic foam, fuel cell foam, and aerospace assemblies to the aviation community.
  13. The Broken Token designs and manufactures storage and organization solutions, component upgrades and accessories for the tabletop board gaming industry.
  14. Watershed Idea Foundry, Inc. is an additive manufacturing company specializing in the 3D printing of titanium medical devices

Hosting interns is an investment in the next generation of talent in San Diego. Through the Advancing San Diego internship program, local students gain valuable work experience while supporting our local small businesses. Students are paid $22 an hour and receive access to $500 in flexible funds to support their success in the workplace.

Introducing the Advancing San Diego Host Company Map: 

All small companies that have hosted interns through Advancing San Diego can be found on this interactive map!

Adaptive Launch Solutions

Aeromutable Corporation

ALD Technical Solutions LLC

American Lithium Energy

AndAlways

Artience Lighting

BeanStock Ventures

Benchmark Labs

Bitchin’ Sauce, LLC

BLKBOX Music

Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos

Chicano Federation of San Diego County

Clear Blue Sea

Deckard Technologies

Diakont Advanced Technologies

Discflo Corporation Inc.

DREWFAB

Ectron Corporation

Educational Vision Technologies

Eton Bioscience, Inc

EUCO – Electric Unicycle Collective

Family Proud, Inc.

Fenix Space, Inc.

Fuse Integration

GigaIO Networks

Impact Resources, Inc

Intellecy Inc.

KIGT Inc.

Lazy Surfer

Learn Academy

Left Coast Engineering

MedCrypt

MemComputing, Inc.

Memjet US Services, Inc.

Meri Consulting Services

Microtek

Misadventure & Co.

Nanome

ObjectSecurity LLC

Omni2Max, Inc.

Paragrine Systems

Perspectium Corp.

Programination

Qualer

Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine

Reveal Biosciences

reVessel

San Diego Loyal Soccer Club

SeodaPop

Smartville Inc.

SurfDurt

Survival Systems International

Tag-N-Trac

The Broken Token

The Commons XR

Tourmaline Wireless, LLC

Trabus Technologies

Traits AI, Inc.

Voltera

Watershed Idea Foundry, Inc.

Welfie

WithHealth, Inc.

ZUM Radio, Inc

  • Adaptive Launch Solutions
  • Aeromutable Corporation
  • ALD Technical Solutions LLC
  • American Lithium Energy
  • AndAlways
  • Artience Lighting
  • BeanStock Ventures
  • Benchmark Labs
  • Bitchin’ Sauce, LLC
  • BLKBOX Music
  • Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos
  • Chicano Federation of San Diego County
  • Clear Blue Sea
  • Deckard Technologies
  • Diakont Advanced Technologies
  • Discflo Corporation Inc.
  • DREWFAB
  • Ectron Corporation
  • Educational Vision Technologies
  • Eton Bioscience, Inc
  • EUCO – Electric Unicycle Collective
  • Family Proud, Inc.
  • Fenix Space, Inc.
  • Fuse Integration
  • GigaIO Networks
  • Impact Resources, Inc
  • Intellecy Inc.
  • KIGT Inc.
  • Lazy Surfer
  • Learn Academy
  • Left Coast Engineering
  • MedCrypt
  • MemComputing, Inc.
  • Memjet US Services, Inc.
  • Meri Consulting Services
  • Microtek
  • Misadventure & Co.
  • Nanome
  • ObjectSecurity LLC
  • Omni2Max, Inc.
  • Paragrine Systems
  • Perspectium Corp.
  • Programination
  • Qualer
  • Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine
  • Reveal Biosciences
  • reVessel
  • San Diego Loyal Soccer Club
  • SeodaPop
  • Smartville Inc.
  • SurfDurt
  • Survival Systems International
  • Tag-N-Trac
  • The Broken Token
  • The Commons XR
  • Tourmaline Wireless, LLC
  • Trabus Technologies
  • Traits AI, Inc.
  • Voltera
  • Watershed Idea Foundry, Inc.
  • Welfie
  • WithHealth, Inc.
  • ZUM Radio, Inc

For our next round of internships, we will be recruiting small healthcare companies interested in hosting students from medical assistant programs. Applications to host interns in these fields will open in Fall 2021.

If your company is interested in hosting students in the next round, sign up here receive program announcements.

 

A note from Mark…

By Mark Cafferty,

As I write this, it is hard for me to believe that we are over halfway through June and summer is just around the corner.

Despite the State of California “reopening” last week, I think I have accepted the fact that things will not truly be back to normal for a very long time; yet at the same time, we see signs all around us that the way of life we all knew before the pandemic is starting to resume. In the months ahead, Team EDC will begin returning to the office much more regularly. We are starting to attend more and more in-person meetings, although the outdoor variety remains the standard. We have even put a date on the calendar for our 2022 Annual Dinner—hopeful that the year ahead continues to bring us all closer to where we once were.

While numerous things have changed about our work at EDC, the goals that we set for 2030 remain unwavering. The need to develop more quality jobs within our small businesses, more skilled workers, and more thriving households across San Diego has only become more prominent. Now more than ever, these goals must be our guideposts in re-establishing San Diego’s economic resiliency, growth, and well-being.

Committed to getting this recovery right, we have recently teamed up with local tech startup GoSite to offer up to 100 small businesses with the digital tools needed to weather future economic shocks—at no cost to them.

We know the pandemic spurred the closure of nearly 40 percent of San Diego’s small businesses—which can largely be attributed to businesses’ inability to quickly pivot online, depriving them of access to customers and key markets. We also know those hardest hit by the pandemic have been communities of color who are being left further behind. The San Diego Business Hub is one step toward ensuring San Diego businesses most impacted* by COVID-19 have the tools necessary to recover, grow, and thrive.

We feel certain that if we can support 100 more small businesses in developing the online presence they need for resiliency and growth, it will support our broader effort of increasing the number of quality jobs and thriving households within the region. And everything we do in the months ahead must ensure we are continuously taking steps in this direction. Learn more about the program at SDbizhub.com, made possible by grants from The San Diego Foundation and Union Bank.

With respect and gratitude,
Mark Cafferty

Mark Cafferty
Mark Cafferty

President & CEO

*Priority applicants include women, minorities, veterans, and other economically under-resourced groups.

San Diego’s Good News of the Week – June 18, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of June 18, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re attending:

San Diego’s Data Bites: June 2021

Presented by Meyers Nave, this edition of San Diego’s Data Bites covers May 2021, with data on employment, housing, and more insights about the region’s economy. Key takeaways include a falling unemployment rate and mellowing housing prices.

Dig In

Survey: San Diego’s Changing Business Landscape

To identify evolving trends in local business needs and operations, ensuring their ability to grow and thrive in the region, EDC is surveying more than 200 companies in the region’s key industries on a rolling basis throughout 2021 to monitor and report shifts in their priorities and strategies. Insights will be shared bi-monthly in our Changing Business Landscape Series here.

Take the Survey

Additional resources:

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Contact SDREDC
To learn more, please contact us.

Good News of the Week – June 11, 2021

By Candela Delucchi,

Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week.

Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday. → Sign up

For the week of June 11, 2021, here’s what we’re reading:

…and here are the events we’re (virtually) attending:

EDC’s Monthly Report: June 2021

With and through nearly 200 investors, EDC works to maximize San Diego’s prosperity. From connecting companies to tax credits to taking small businesses online, here’s what EDC did in May 2021.

Read More

 

Additional resources:

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