1st Annual Innovation Day in San Diego
April 28th, 2022 • Petco Park • 4 – 8 PM
We are taking over Petco Park! Mayor Todd Gloria has declared April 28th as Innovation Day in San Diego! Come gather with VCs, Angel investors, CEOs, CTOs, DEI leaders, National Security leaders, and 100+ Tech and Life Science companies, all driving the innovation across San Diego. It’s time to celebrate and continue our collective momentum forward to thoughtfully scaling up a more robust and more inclusive economy across our megaregion. The decisions we make today shape our both personal and collective future – Five.Ten.Thirty years out.

We help innovators and entrepreneurs in Southern California by providing access to investors, mentors, and education.
Announcing The Class of 2022 Cool Companies
San Diego’s fastest growing & most exciting companies!
Each year, we collect hundreds of applications from the community,
select the top companies and introduce them to over 100 VCs.
Since 2015, Cool Co’s have raised over $730M
…And counting! (Just In Institutional Series A)
A flexible process, designed to accelerate tech and lifesci startups
“We just finished the new Springboard program and I was impressed at the speed and quality. They brought together spot-on advisors for a panel review of our business, covering everything from sales execution best practices to financing strategies. The feedback and critical thinking was spot-on and was exactly what we needed. Thank you Connect! ”
See if Springboard is right for you.
Connect is part of the San Diego & Imperial Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network which allows us to offer no-cost consulting and low-cost training to new and existing startup businesses.

San Diego Funding News


San Diego’s 2021 Capital Round Up
$9B in Venture Capital Funding for San Diego County - 2021San Diego County startups raised over $9 BILLION in 2021, according to deal data analyzed by Connect. It sometimes feels repetitive, with each of these reports announcing a new record high, but it’s important...
The San Diego Regional Innovation Report is produced by Connect annually to reflect technology and life sciences startup growth and the impact on the economy in the region.
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We’re a small community non-profit, and we understand the importance of collaboration.