Made in California: Presentations from California Grown Startups

Panel Overview: Ecosystem Trends and Challenges

• Panel Composition: The session features leaders from Make in LA, The Glue Factory, and BioLabs San Diego, focusing on advising startups in manufacturing, biotech, and frontier technologies.
• Workforce Gap: A significant disconnect exists between the abundance of academic talent in California and the lack of skilled workers trained for specific high-paying manufacturing and biotech roles.
• Recruitment Strategy: To fill the skilled labor gap, sector leaders anticipate necessity in recruiting talent from outside California and potentially outside the United States.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset Shift: There is a move away from the "garage entrepreneur" myth toward sustainable business models that integrate community service and quality of life, with The Glue Factory requiring mandatory volunteerism from participants.
• Access vs. Networking: Modern startups prioritize "access" (connections to contacts and specific resources) over traditional networking events, demanding flexible scheduling (outside 9-5) and immediate tangible value from membership organizations.
• Incubator Growth: Sacramento has seen a 19-fold increase in maker spaces and incubators, rising from 5 to 95 facilities over the last four to five years.
• Technology Convergence: Startups increasingly feature "hardware-enabled" software, merging IoT, robotics, and frontier tech (e.g., emotion-tracking wearables, ultrasound touch) rather than pure software or pure hardware.
• Capital Fragmentation: Convergent technologies (e.g., IoT + Life Sciences) struggle to secure funding due to a lack of specialized investors who understand both domains, creating a gap between internet-focused and life science-focused capital.
• Cost Myth Busting: The panel asserts that hardware manufacturing is no longer prohibitively capital-intensive, citing 35,000-square-foot facilities with $2 million in prototyping equipment as enablers for startups to compete with large corporations.
• Solopreneurship Void: A scan of the state revealed zero incubators or accelerators specifically focused on "solopreneurship," despite predictions that over half the US workforce will be remote by 2020.
• Regional Trends:
  • Sacramento: Significant activity in ag-tech driven by UC Davis research programs.
  • Southern California: A surge in biotech, genomics, and aerospace, with a specific focus on curing disease and personalized medicine.

Startup Presentations: Case Studies and Metrics

Thesis Couture (Fashion Hardware)

• Market Strategy: Aiming to become the "Nike of fashion footwear" by applying aerospace engineering principles (first principles thinking) to the $40 billion high heel industry.
• Technology: Developed the "Thesis Lift," replacing compressed cardboard shanks with advanced engineering to distribute body weight (reducing load on the balls of the feet from 80% to 55%) for a wedge-like feel in four-inch stilettos.
• Business Model: A dual-track strategy starting with direct-to-consumer (B2C) limited runs for validation, followed by white-labeling and licensing the technology to existing fashion brands (B2B) at premium price points.
• Team Composition: Recruited three engineering PhDs, an orthopedic surgeon, and advanced manufacturing experts to bridge the gap between design and complex engineering.

Open Agriculture Supply (Ag-Tech/Hardware)

• Core Product: Kits for "food computers" (open-source, controlled-environment agriculture devices) based on MIT's Open Agriculture Initiative platform.
• Pricing Structure: Offers a full MIT-based kit for $4,800 and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) kit for $300 designed to reduce costs and drive adoption.
• Growth Metrics: Sales increased by 3,000% year-over-year in 2017, with 23 customers across eight countries, up from zero sales in 2016.
• Future Goals: Targeting a 300% sales increase in 2018 and expanding to 50 customers; plans to develop finished, UL-listed consumer products available via retail.
• Applications: Used for educational purposes, scientific testing (including NASA microgravity experiments), and enabling local food production in drought-stricken or food-insecure regions.

Sangenomics (Biotech/Personalized Medicine)

• Mission: To cure "dysbiosis" (microbial imbalance causing autoimmune and metabolic diseases) by 2020 using precision probiotics.
• Market Problem: Identified that 85% of consumer probiotic products fail to survive the gastrointestinal system; the industry lacks regulation and efficacy verification.
• Solution: Combines gut microbiome sequencing with microbial profiling to create personalized formulas matched to individual DNA signatures.
• Service Model: Subscription-based testing and treatment at $450 for one test and three months of formula (approx. $150/month).
• Scaling Plan: Aiming to reduce manufacturing time per formula from four hours to 10–15 minutes and consolidate 50 potential formulations into 20 standardized groups.

Rufus Labs (Enterprise Wearables)

• Product: Ruggedized wearable technology for warehouse and logistics operators, replacing heavy handheld scanners with under-8-ounce devices.
• Cost Advantage: Hardware costs significantly less than competitors (Symbol/Zebra), targeting a shift from capital expense to operational expense via software integration.
• Software Focus: Treats every worker as a network node for real-time data, haptic safety alerts (e.g., forklift proximity), and throughput tracking.
• Development Cycle: Utilizes local California prototyping to iterate designs in 3–4 hours, contrasting with weeks of delay and travel costs associated with overseas manufacturing.

Vector Space Systems (Aerospace)

• Market Opportunity: Aiming to capitalize on a new space race where more small satellites will launch in the next five years than in the previous 50 combined.
• Vehicle Specs: Developing small, dedicated launch vehicles (Vector R and H) to lift 60–150 kg to orbit, contrasting with large, multi-million dollar traditional rockets.
• Cost Model: Charging $1.5 million to $3 million per launch with a target frequency of 125–200 launches annually, relying on volume rather than high per-flight revenue.
• Current Status: Raised over $30 million in Series A funding (led by Sequoia Capital); secured contracts from NASA and DARPA; maintaining a $1.5 billion sales pipeline.
• Launch Infrastructure: Utilizing mobile launch platforms in California deserts (Mojave) and Vandenberg to avoid the high infrastructure costs of traditional spaceports.
• Test Results: Successfully completed low-altitude test flights in the current year with no payload, validating technology ahead of the first commercial orbital flight scheduled for mid-next year.