Signs of Resurgence in SD as EvoNexus Opens Tech Incubator

It could have been just another lame ribbon-cutting ceremony. There was a proclamation signed by the Mayor and the San Diego City Council that declared Feb. 16th as “EvoNexus Downtown Day.” There were speeches, and Mayor Jerry Sanders and the VIPs crowded together with a pair of oversized scissors to snip a ribbon. But something else was present as well.

Last night’s official opening of the downtown EvoNexus, an incubator for Internet software and mobile app startups, drew more than 200 people, and many seemed to be infused with a fresh sense of optimism that maybe, just maybe, a resurgence of local tech startups is underway here. A dozen “foundry” startups and one later-stage “forge” startup already have moved into the 15,000-square foot incubator—and there is room for six or seven more.

“The vision is to create something close to San Francisco’s ‘South of Market’ area,” says Kevin Hell, the former DivX CEO who has been overseeing EvoNexus as the incubator’s volunteer chairman. That’s a bit of a stretch. San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood is a hotbed for high tech startups, as well as the corporate home for such companies as Twitter, Dropbox, Yelp, CNET Networks, and Wired.

EvoNexus Opening Crowd

CommNexus, the non-profit industry group once known as the San Diego Telecom Council, established EvoNexus in the University City area in 2009 as a free startup incubator. The Irvine Co. has been providing the commercial office space at no cost (for both the downtown EvoNexus and in University City), and CommNexus is covering the utilities and other operating costs.

Of 14 startups that moved into the first EvoNexus incubator in University City, six have moved out. The six graduates have collectively raised a total of $55 million from venture capital firms, corporate venture funds, and individual investors. “I’m proud to say EvoNexus has exceeded our expectations, but we’re not done yet,” says CommNexus CEO Rory Moore. It’s been successful enough, though, to spur a groundswell of local industry support. John Major, the CommNexus board chairman (and chairman of Irvine, CA-based Broadcom) tells me more companies and donors have been lining up to

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.