Neal Bloom - CEO of Rising Tide Partners, Founder of Fresh Brewed Tech

Schedules aligned and I finally was able to have Neal Bloom on Accelerate Show to compare notes about startup community building in San Diego and what he's learned by participating in some other SoCal communities.

Neal is CEO of Rising Tide Partners, a PR and communications firm in San Diego.  He’s also founder of Fresh Brewed Tech, which publishes both a newsletter and podcast about all things tech in San Diego.  He also launched Fresh Squeezed to cover all things tech in Orange County, and I appreciate him for trying to bring some coverage and order to everything.

He is a successful entrepreneur as well, having co-founded an edtech talent and learning management company, Portfolium, which was acquired by Instructure a few years ago.  Prior to that he worked in the space industry for a leading manufacturer and coordinated their work with their main client who you may have heard of, NASA.

Neal is an active investor in startups, through Tech Coast Angels and some of his own efforts, and he’s taught courses on entrepreneurship at UC San Diego as well.  He’s a key fixture in the San Diego startup scene.  We had a lot to talk about across his main 3 jobs - entrepreneur, investor and community builder.