Tacos and Tech Podcast

Dr. Debbie Chen found the water signal in her own PhD data around 2007, laughed it off, and did nothing with it for a decade. Then came years of amateur Muay Thai and cramping through every session, then a dehydration health scare of her own. She’s now founder and CEO of Hydrostasis, maker of the GECA Watch, which has sold out twice. She and Neal get into why thirst is a lagging indicator, why she believes hydration is the only truly actionable thing a wrist device can measure, the multi-pivot road from collegiate sports to older adults, and the data-equity problem she won’t stop talking about. Plus El Patron in Mira Mesa - a first-time mention on the show.

Key topics

* From amateur Muay Thai cramps to a hydration sensor

* The water signal she spotted in her PhD data and ignored for ten years

* Why thirst is a lagging indicator, and why it fades with age

* Hydration as the only actionable biometric on the wrist

* Hardware, firmware, algorithms, and an app - three startups in one

* The button older users literally could not press

* Collegiate sports to clinical to DTC: the pivot path

* A customer whose creatinine normalized in three months

* The pulse oximeter, darker skin, and the case for data equity

* Women excluded from clinical trials until 1993

* 2% body water loss and measurable cognitive decline

* El Patron in Mira Mesa and the case for the shrimp cocktail

Links & resources

* Hydrostasis / GECA Watch

* Ad Astra Ventures

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Debbie Chen

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Max Darsonval spent twelve years in the SEAL teams, most of it as a combat medic, and left on what he calls a 50.01% decision. He’s now founder and CEO of Velocity AI, building a sensor and a coaching app that take velocity-based training - the tool every D1 and pro weight room already has - out of the facility and onto anyone’s barbell. He and Neal get into why 22-week strength programs break the moment real life happens, how drone IMUs turned into a wearable, why the SEAL Future Foundation became customer one, and what the wearable industry has to fix before people stop wearing them. Plus Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach, the post-BUD/S institution.

Key topics

* From sponsored big-mountain skier to dishwasher to BUD/S at 17

* Why SEALs build their own medics and what that taught him about the body

* Leaving the teams at twelve years on a 50.01% decision

* Velocity-based training, and why most lifters have never heard of it

* Power equals force times velocity: measuring readiness at the source

* Why a 22-week program can’t know what you did yesterday

* Drone IMUs, a hideous first PCB, and why you need 200 Hz

* $500K, 20 developers, seven months to an MVP

* The SEAL Future Foundation as customer one

* Data fatigue and why coaching is the next frontier for wearables

* San Diego’s wearable cluster: Google, Fitbit, Dexcom, Oura

* Don Pancho’s in Imperial Beach and the case for Tacos El Gordo

Links & resources

* Velocity AI

* SEAL Future Foundation

* Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Max Darsonval

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Cody Germain spent seven years at Riot - leading competitive games on League of Legends, with the Valorant and Legends of Runeterra launches in between - then moved to San Diego in 2022 for Psyonix and Epic. Now he’s co-founder and CEO of Bear Infinite Games, building Spark, a personalization layer for competitive play, and Project Grizzly, a game designed so no player can buy an advantage. He and Neal get into why the industry’s walled gardens strip players of identity, why San Diego’s gaming talent stayed invisible for so long, and the Barrio Logan tacos that catered his wedding.

Key topics

* Why you’re a different person in every game you play

* 700 million competitive players, two to three titles a week

* Spark: personalization that learns as you play

* Project Grizzly and the “action sport” format

* Designing a game where nobody can buy an edge

* From QA analyst to leading League’s competitive

* Why San Diego’s gaming talent stayed invisible

* Shutting down Prio App when it stopped solving a problem

Links & resources

* Bear Infinite Games (playtest signup)

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Cody Germain

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Larry Coval spent nearly four decades leading organizations at AT&T, Global Crossing, and Cox Business, and came out the other side convinced that most of what gets taught about leadership is wrong. He joins Neal to talk about his new book, Misled, and the argument at its center: “team” is the wrong unit of analysis for business, leadership was never a soft skill, and the fundamentals got skipped while the keynote circuit sold platitudes.

He also makes the case for the smoked marlin taco at Oscar’s - drowned in orange sauce.

Key topics

* Why teams don’t exist in business — and the three things real ones have

* Leadership Industrial Complex: why substance lost to style

* Gallup’s data: managers are now as disengaged as their people

* Hiring for sameness as the founder’s most expensive mistake

* Red teaming: how the military pressure-tests decisions

* Setting expectations with crystalline clarity — confusion is friction

* How hoarding work robs your people of development

* 60% of managers get zero training when promoted

* The ARCANE model and why career planning has no playbook

* The smoked marlin taco at Oscar’s Mexican Seafood

Links & resources

* ARCANE Leadership Concepts

* Misled: Why (Almost) Everything You Learned About Leadership Is Wrong and How to Fix It

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Larry Coval

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Neal nerds out on tacos with Mauricio Velázquez de León - Mexico City-born writer-turned-publisher, founder of Duo Press, and author of An Illustrated Guide to Tacos and Burritos, a serious cookbook drawn like a comic book, out August 11. They trace tacos from 7000 BC southern Mexico to fine taquerias in Tokyo and Norway, unpack why the burrito is actually a California invention, and get into Duo Press’s backwards publishing model - concept first, author second.

Mauricio makes the case that tacos are “food for the people, from the people, to the people,” defends small tacos against the supersizing trend, and hands over a short list of spots worth crossing a border for.

Key topics

* A serious cookbook built like a comic book

* Why tacos are “food for the people”

* The burrito as a California (Mission Street) invention

* Duo Press’s reverse model: concept first, author second

* Tacos de canasta - the bicycle-basket tacos

* Corn in the south, flour in the north: the tortilla map

* Taco al pastor’s Mexico City origins

* Why bigger tacos are worse tacos

* Quesabirria, Korean tacos, and the fusion wave

Links & resources

* An Illustrated Guide to Tacos and Burritos (Duopress, out Aug 11)

* Duo Press

* Jeffrey Pilcher - Mexican-food historian (University of Toronto), writes the book’s history sections

* Josefina Velázquez de León - Mauricio’s great-aunt, renowned Mexican cookbook author

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Mauricio Velázquez de León

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Neal sits down with Adam Jacobs, President of Xzōm, a San Diego company developing a near-patient platform for isolating and analyzing exosomes from a small blood sample in under 30 minutes.

Exosomes are tiny particles released by living cells that carry proteins and genetic material. Researchers believe these particles could provide useful signals about disease earlier or more dynamically than some existing biomarkers. Xzōm is working to turn that science into a compact testing platform, using a disposable cartridge and a mobile-device interface.

The company’s initial focus is early pancreatic-cancer detection. Adam also discusses how the underlying platform could potentially be adapted for other areas - including sepsis, preeclampsia, transplant monitoring, and neurological conditions - by changing the biomarkers targeted by each assay. Those applications would require their own development, clinical validation, and regulatory pathways.

Adam shares his unusual route to biotech: Torrey Pines High School, Cornell baseball, professional ball in Australia, a clothing brand, a yoga studio, and a consulting firm. He also explains how technology originating at UC San Diego eventually came back into his life, Xzōm’s partnership-led development model, and the role data analysis may play in interpreting complex biological signals.

Plus, Adam and Neal bond over a shared appreciation for Roberto’s on Carmel Valley Road.

Key topics

* Isolating and analyzing exosomes on one chip in 30 minutes

* Why exosomes catch disease earlier than DNA - “stage zero”

* A point-of-care lab that runs on a cell phone

* The difference between a versatile platform and a validated diagnostic test

* From pancreatic cancer to sepsis, preeclampsia, and brain injury

* How Xzōm works with clinical and commercial partners

* Adam’s path from pro baseball to biotech

* Why AI on the back end makes the whole thing work

* Giving back: showing up, not just writing checks

Links & resources

* Xzōm

* A Morning Inside Xzōm’s Lab

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Adam Jacobs

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Neal sits down with Eric Weiss, a fellow longtime builder in San Diego’s startup ecosystem. Eric is a self-described “parallel entrepreneur,” founder coach, President of the Design Forward Alliance - which produces San Diego Design Week—and Vice Chair of Startup San Diego.

Neal and Eric first crossed paths during the early days of San Diego’s startup community, around EvoNexus and the 101 Broadway vertical campus that helped give rise to Startup Week and Startup San Diego. They revisit that era and trace Eric’s unconventional path from teenage black-hat hacker to earning an MBA in entrepreneurship at SDSU, followed by roles at Raytheon, Sony and Qualcomm. He eventually made the leap into the startup world with EvoNexus company Rock My Run.

At the heart of the conversation is the connective tissue that makes an entrepreneurial community work. Neal and Eric discuss what San Diego lost after COVID, why “third spaces” and professional community management matter more than a coworking lease, and Eric’s tendency to step into leadership vacuums - including helping San Diego become the first U.S. city, and first binational region, named World Design Capital.

Eric also makes the case that San Diego’s smaller, more tightly connected network—and its constraints - can be an advantage. The conversation closes with a preview of San Diego Design Week, running September 15–20, and a sleeper taco recommendation near the marina.

Key topics

* The “founding cradle”: EvoNexus, The Vine, and 101 Broadway

* Reformed hacker to Raytheon, Sony (PS3), and Qualcomm data science

* Why he’s a “parallel entrepreneur” who falls into leadership vacuums

* San Diego becoming the first American World Design Capital

* Opening Design Week beyond digital - fashion, architecture, interiors

* Connective tissue: third spaces and professional community management

* San Diego vs. the Bay: tighter networks, constraints that filter imposters

* Where San Diego wins: deep tech, hardware, and life science

* The investor-vs-community-builder tension of being “the picker”

Links & resources

* San Diego Design Week (Sept 15-20, 2026)

* Design Forward Alliance

* Startup San Diego

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Eric Weiss

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Episode Summary

Neal sits down with Janine McMurdie, Chief Commercial Officer of Pictor, a proteomics platform company that expanded from New Zealand to Carlsbad. Janine explains why your DNA is only the blueprint - and why proteins, which change in real time as your body responds to a drug or an infection, tell the fuller story.

They get into Pictor’s partner-driven, capital-efficient model, how the platform runs a complex panel of biomarkers as a single answer (for everything from cattle herds to HIV comorbidities to humans), and the new Pictor Imager launching at ADLM. Plus why San Diego’s density of talent, tools, and investors made Carlsbad the right home and Janine’s favorite tacos from Encinitas to Thousand Oaks.

Key Topics

* Why DNA is the blueprint but proteins are the building

* Running 20 tests as one multiplexed answer

* Pictor’s partner-driven, capital-efficient model

* One platform, many species: cattle to humans

* The new Pictor Imager, launching at ADLM

* Why Carlsbad won: talent, tools, and investors

Links & Resources

* Pictor

* ADLM (Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine)

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Janine McMurdie

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Episode Summary

Recorded live at the San Diego Angel Conference finale at SDSU, Eric Ries — author of The Lean Startup — sits down with product leader and founder coach Vidya Dinamani to unpack his new book, Incorruptible. His argument: there’s a gravitational force that pulls even mission-driven companies toward decay — “the making of money without the creating of value” — and the more successful you get, the bigger a target you become. Eric walks through how it happens (stack-ranking by ROI, the “what would investors want” ghost in every meeting, Groupon’s two-emails-a-day spiral), why the fix has to come earlier than anyone wants (“it’s too early until it’s too late”), and the concrete governance moves that keep the great ones honest. Along the way: the San Diego origin story of Costco, Cloudflare giving away its best paid feature, Anthropic’s long-term benefit trust, a hard-nosed take on AI, and a health insurer whose customer-service reps act like guardian angels.

Key Topics

* Corruption as “making money without creating value”

* The gravity that pulls companies from mission to mediocrity

* Costco’s San Diego origin — and why FedMart died

* Why stack-ranking by ROI buries the work that builds trust

* “It’s too early until it’s too late” — protecting the mission in time

* The PBC filing and binding your board to the mission

* AI as a “Dunning-Kruger factory,” and how to actually use it

* “Love” as an operating framework: the Devoted Health story

Links & Resources

* Incorruptible

* The Lean Startup

* Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE)

* San Diego Angel Conference

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Eric Ries

* Vidya Dinamani

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

Episode Summary

Neal sits down with Dr. Adam Link, founder of Fireweed Capital and a recovering engineer who spent a decade in tech — including six years at Coinbase through its IPO — before becoming a financial planner for founders and tech professionals. Adam makes the case that diversification is overrated, that concentration is how wealth actually gets built, and that the real skill is knowing where conviction ends and wipeout risk begins. They get into why you can’t “test your finances in prod,” how AI quietly forgot a 37% tax bill, and why the era of the low-skilled generalist is ending. Plus the best tacos in Duluth, Minnesota — trailhead included.

Key Topics

* Why diversification is overrated for founders

* Concentration as the real path to wealth

* Keeping your portfolio uncorrelated with your business

* The line between conviction and wipeout risk

* You can’t test your finances in prod

* Where AI breaks down in wealth management

* Angel investing vs. founder charity

* Why specialists beat generalists in the AI era

Links & Resources

* Fireweed Capital

* Rising Tide Partners

Connect on LinkedIn

* Neal Bloom

* Dr. Adam Link

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe