Looking for Angel Investors? This Annual Conference Brings Together Most of Them
This Executive Director is Helping Mint More Investors and Founders in San Diego
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Mysty Rusk, who founded the San Diego Angel Conference, one of the biggest angel investor conferences in Southern California and among the biggest in the nation, has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for the first time.
Ms. Rusk is known for working “behind the scenes,” and has connected founders to significant amounts of angel investments. For example she and her team helps train first-time accredited investors and often cut checks into startup companies earlier than a majority of venture capital firms based in San Diego.
The idea behind the Angel Conference was to “activate accredited investors, fund promising early-stage companies, and further enhance the innovation ecosystem,” Ms. Rusk told me in a phone interview a day before this year’s annual conference.
Since launching in 2017, the organization has facilitated angel investment rounds in Aquacycl, Limber Prosthetics & Orthotics, and Cari Health, among many others. To date, it has supported more than 500-plus startup companies that have collectively raised more than $300 million from investors across the globe, according to Ms. Rusk.
At the beginning of 2024, Rusk said the pace of investing slowed up, specifically for relatively new companies. “I've been talking to my colleagues all across the country and we saw venture capital dry up almost overnight,” she said. “I've been checking with friends in New York, Denver, Austin, and Seattle — the money is definitely harder right now. We worked hard to collect $400,000 to invest into companies this year. We ended up welcoming a lot of great, brand new investors as well this year, a milestone which we are extremely proud of.”
Rusk and I spoke for about thirty minutes over video chat. We talked about how this year’s cohort of companies differ from years prior, the angel investor scene in San Diego, and more.
Helping Hundreds of Investors and Founders
Rusk is a super connector, whose network extends beyond San Diego. She consults with other cities with similar angel investor conferences such as Seattle, and has played an active role in coaching hundreds of first-time entrepreneurs that then go on to pitch in front of high-profile angels. Over the last decade, Rusk worked hard to build a pipeline of hundreds angel investors across the U.S.
Today, the San Diego Angel Conference has grown into one of the largest angel investment programs in the country, with a goal of bringing together both angel investors and early-stage companies while driving the innovation ecosystem forward.
Rusk noted that in the last six years, roughly $300 million in venture capital has been invested into those 500-plus companies that have applied to participate in the San Diego Angel Conference. She noted this figure was calculated by tracking every company that came through the program, and later went on and raised money (or in-directly) raised money from their investor base, as well as other angel investors, VCs.
Rusk, who grew up on a small ranch in Southern Arizona and eventually moved to San Diego, said she founded the conference seven years ago to tackle the misconception that America’s Finest City does not have enough “good deals” to invest in. In addition, founders were frustrated that many of the so-called angel investors were not writing enough checks into local companies. “The conference is working to improve both of these issues, not just through the conference event itself, but through a series of workshops leading up to the main event,” said Rusk.
‘Unusual’ Angel Investor Conference
In the sixth-plus years running the conference, Rusk has worked hard to diversify the types of companies that qualify for angel investment.
That has meant experimenting with the types of startups that are “venture-backable,” and ensuring first-time founders have the basics to pitch in front of investors. She also spends a significant chunk of her afternoons on the phone with investors.
“We almost always find a company that isn't fundable. This year, we had five recommendations to the fund and pulled a total of $400,000 in capital to invest into companies,” said Rusk. “We also did not have one team withdraw, due to a fatal flaw.”
Rusk emphasized that this annual angel investor gathering is “pretty unusual” when compared to similar pitch competitions such as the Seattle Angel Conference.
This year, more than 150 angel investors participated. Many of them join other angel networks or funds in the area, such as NuFund Venture Group and Cove Fund.
It is very unique given San Diego’s ecosystem demographic, said Rusk, adding that the 150-plus investor group has already invested in several biotechnology and deep life-science startups including Vivid Genomics, Visicell Medical, Hera Biotech, to name a few. “We have enough investors that understand the space that allows us to make reasonable decisions,” said Rusk.
Details on This Year’s Winner
This year, five early-stage startups pitched to angel investors including Achieve Clinics, Ecodrive, Kids Care Finder, TadHealth, and Yatiri Bio.
San Diego-based Ecodrive took the top prize with $300,000 in capital. Founded by Blake Ruschman, Markus Rommel and Trevor Laudate in 2022. The SaaS startup works with brands to “offset carbon emissions'' through tree planting.
“What an honor to present alongside the other finalists today. We are incredibly grateful to the San Diego Angel Conference fund for this investment, which will enable us to scale,” said Trevor Laudate, co-founder who is based in Los Angeles. The capital will be used to grow its sales team and run additional pilot programs.
Additional funding through a special purpose vehicle into Achieve Clinics ($100,000) and Kids Care Finder (undisclosed) was also awarded.
Companies that took home the top prize in previous years include wastewater management startup Aquacycl, Seattle-based Advocat Technologies, 3D-printer prosthetic manufacturer Limber Prosthetics, and med-tech company CARI Health.
Thoughts on San Diego’s Ecosystem
The San Diego Angel Conference has deployed five funds to date and has invested in industries such as clean-tech, agriculture software, medical devices, biotech, as well as industrial energy.
Nearly $5 million has been deployed in over 15 companies, to date. More than half of the companies that received funding from the organization have gone towards companies led by women or diverse founders, according to Rusk.
“San Diego has blown it out the water in terms of how effectively we are at moving capital, specifically compared to other ecosystems our size.” said Rusk. “We are not doing the best job of telling that story to the rest of the world.”
“I've worked a lot of places outside of San Diego — I have never worked anywhere that is as collaborative and helpful as here,” said Rusk. “This ecosystem is amazing.”