Top 10 Most-Read Articles of 2024
Funding Scoops, CEO Profiles, M&A deals, & More; Here's 2024's Most Read Articles
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It’s been a productive year of publishing on Business of San Diego.
Over the last twelve months, we’ve published 55 articles and written tens of thousands of words exploring the behind the scenes of San Diego’s most influential executives, companies and venture capital investors.
This newsletter has grown to 2,500+ subscribers, maintained a 50% open rate. It has generated roughly ~1.4 million impressions on LinkedIn, among created countless opportunities (office tours, coffee chats, to now hosting curated events with sponsors).
Today my work is read and shared by institutional venture capital investors, bankers, lawyers and top deal-makers throughout Southern California — thank you!
Below are Business of San Diego’s most popular news stories of 2024.
Epic Gardening
Kevin Espiritu, a 36-year-old entrepreneur and popular YouTuber based in San Diego, bootstrapped Epic Gardening for years before raising a $17.5 million investment round from The Chernin Group (TCG).
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
2. VC Activity in Q1 Surpasses $1B
San Diego saw more than $6 billion of M&A activity in the first three months of 2024. Highlights include Bristol Myers Squibb acquiring RayzeBio for $4.1 billion, Sanofi acquiring Inhibrx for $2.2 billion, and Johnson & Johnson acquiring Ambrx Biopharma for $2 billion.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
3. Thatch AI
I interviewed Adam Stevenson, one of the first 150 employees at Stripe, who is now building Thatch AI — a fast-growing fintech company improving the healthcare industry, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
4. Behind Genius Ventures
I spoke with Paige Finn Doherty, a 25-year-old venture capital investor and general partner of Behind Genius Ventures. Previously based in La Jolla, the firm relocated to San Francisco earlier this year. The article details how Paige built a personal brand alongside Silicon Valley’s notable check-writers and founders.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
5. Avalon BioVentures
I interviewed Sandy Madigan, one of Avalon’s managing partners, about how this 40-year-old biotech incubator built a nine-person biotech company in five years, leading to a $1.3 billion acquisition by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
6. VC Funding in Q4 2024
Halfway through Q4, technology and life science companies experienced an uptick in funding after a slow summer. Notable biotech fundings included 858 Therapeutics, Model Medicines, Algenesis Labs, and Mithradote Bio.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
7. VC Funding in Q2 2024 Hits $1B
San Diego saw roughly 42 deals in Q2 including four startups raising $100+ million, known as mega-deals. San Diego life science companies including Boundless Bio, Contineum Therapeutics, and Rapport Therapeutics all went public during the first half of 2024.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
8. Vuori Clothing
San Diego-based athleisure brand Vuori raised $825 million in a funding round led by General Atlantic and Stripes. This deal allowed early investors and employees to sell shares in a tender offer that valued the company at approximately $5.5 billion. The massive funding round delayed its highly anticipated IPO, which Bloomberg reported would happen in 2024.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
9. Bot Auto
I interviewed Xiaodi Hou, the former CEO and co-founder of TuSimple, one of San Diego’s hottest tech startups. The article details his side of the story on why TuSimple didn’t succeed and offers exclusive insights into his next self-driving startup.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.
10. Sidebar
I interviewed Lexy Franklin, CEO of Sidebar and a former product leader at Meta. His startup raised one of the largest seed rounds for a tech startup in recent years and made headlines for relocating to La Jolla from Silicon Valley.
Check out the LinkedIn post here.