Downtown Buzz: San Diego’s Portfolium Named Company to Watch

This week’s business and tech news from around downtown

Follow the Money

The quarterly report from Price Waterhouse and the National Venture Capital Association, showing funding trends nationally and locally, is out. Both the Union-Tribune and Xconomy have their take on the report. The U-T focused on the strength of funding amidst the IPO drought, and Xconomy concluded that the top 10 deals of the quarter accounted for 25% of the funding activity. If you want to understand what is really going on with funding in San Diego, the report and both articles are worth a read.

Leads, Leads, Everywhere Leads

San Diego is home to some of the country’s largest lead generation businesses. They go largely unnoticed to the general public as they play a behind-the-scenes role for their clients, but their clients are some of the biggest brands out there. One in particular, LeadCrunch, seems to be on an upward trajectory as of late. The lead gen company got another positive news hit on Sunday in Tech.co, positioning the company at the forefront of its field.

ASU GSV Takes San Diego

The ASU GSV Summit, that attracts some of the biggest names in education and tech, held its inaugural San Diego event on April 18-20. Still not very well-known locally, they did bring in big names like Bill Gates and Condoleezza Rice. And they are coming back. San Diego will host the event again in April 2017. You can find some of the videos from this year’s events here.

More Education Tech

After attending the ASU GSV Summit, Eduventures.com has highlighted six companies in the education tech space to watch. One of them is local startup Portfolium. Still in the process of transitioning into more of a career center partner, the company is already being compared to the market’s existing vendors. After closing a $2.1 million funding round in late 2015, the company seems to be transitioning to its new offering, while holding close the original concept of housing a student’s e-portfolio.

Phone Films

This weekend, the International Mobile Film Festival was held here in San Diego—a little further north up at the Pyramid. The festival heralds films made solely from filming on a mobile phone. It was truly international, with sponsors and collaborators like Seoul International Extreme Short Image and Film Festival, Conrad Mess from Spain, Mobile Innovation Network Aotearoa (MINA) of Wellington, New Zealand, and the Miniature Film Festival of Canada.

Just for Kicks

Have a startup idea? This handy— and somewhat humorous—chart, originally from Buzzfeed, may help you see how wide open the market is.

Pivots and Opportunities

CONNECT is accepting nominations for its annual Most Innovative Product Award. Nominations are open from May 1- September 1 in thirteen categories, including Bluetech; Cleantech, Sustainability, & Energy; Cyber Security; Defense, Aerospace, & Transportation; Information Communication Technologies; Life Science Diagnostics & Research Tools; Life Science Products – Clinical Stage; Medical Devices; Mobile Apps; Pharmaceutical Drugs & Biologic Therapies; Robotics & Unmanned Vehicles; Software & Digital Media; and Sport & Active Life Style Technologies.

Be There or Be…

Startup Grind Hosts Melani Gordon of TapHunter
May 12, 6-8 p.m.
The VineSD, 101 West Broadway
Founders Talk – Portfolium & Seed San Diego
Adam Markowitz of Portfolium speaks with one of San Diego’s angel investors, Eric Gasser of Seed San Diego.
May 18, 4 p.m.
Outsite San Diego, 1576 Lorraine Dr., Encinitas