Companies
SCTB Highlights of 2016
By Sara Isenberg
Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Santa Cruz Tech Beat
December 15, 2016 — Santa Cruz, CA
Here’s our annual look back at the tech ecosystem in the Monterey Bay
region for 2016
[What the heck! Start with a look back even further at 2013 Highlights, 2014 Highlights, 2015 Highlights. By the way, if you thing something is missing for 2016, please let us know.]
Quick! Hot News in 2016 (deeper div! below):
- Pearl
- Amazon
- Inboard
- Looker
- AgTech (Forbes, Salinas)
- UC Santa Cruz, CSUMB
- Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup (Guy Kawasaki)
- Fiber in Santa Cruz
Our MOST popular page in 2016 (and in previous years):
- Our JOBS PAGE (by far, even more than our home page):
Top SIX viewed posts in 2016 (despite the fact that some of these were published in 2014 and 2015):
- Stealthy startup with $50M in funding debuts first product (top by far)
- Ten Hot Companies to Watch in the Monterey Bay Region’s Growing Ag Tech Hub
- Look who’s setting up shop in Santa Cruz! (Amazon)
- Q&A: Real-time Campus Shuttle Tracker is Up and Running
- Six Companies to Watch in the Emerging Santa Cruz Biotech Hub
- Inboard invites Santa Cruz community to “Shark Tank” viewing party
Editor’s choice of favorite articles in 2016:
- Shall we bring the “Freelance Isn’t Free Act” to Santa Cruz? – December 8, 2016
- Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains! Cruzio and the Loma Fire – October 27, 2016
- A Drupal trip: From Santa Cruz to Ireland and back – October 27, 2016
- Back when SCO & Pizza Hut made headlines with PizzaNet – September 15, 2016
- Run-Sleep-Code-Repeat! Interning at Fullpower – September 8, 2016
- Introducing: The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon – July 22, 2016
- Looker Democratizes Census Voting Data – July 20, 2016
- Watch: A look-back conversation with Doug Michels, co-founder of SCO – April 21, 2016
- SCO is Undeniably and Reliably Dead – March 10, 2016
- Greg’s List – February 11, 2016
- The sweet story of Inboard’s love affair with Santa Cruz – February 25, 2016
The deeper dive into important news in 2016:
AgTech
PBS NewsHour Features Salinas AgTech Strategy – December 3, 2016
Nominations are now open for THRIVE AgTech Top 50 – November 16, 2016
Western Growers Opens AgTech Innovation Arena Competition – August 31, 2016
Taylor Farms looks to new technologies to attract millennial workers – August 25, 2016
Q&A: Nathan Dorn, Food Origins, on solving growers’ problems – August 25, 2016
Salinas agtech HeavyConnect selected into 500 Startups accelerator program – August 2, 2016
SVG Partners Launch THRIVE III Open Innovation Program – July 20, 2016
No doubt about it, Salinas is at forefront of AgTech industry – July 14, 2016
Forbes Summit brings innovative agtech industry to Salinas – July 14, 2016
Q&A: Patrick Zelaya is building the bridge between agriculture and technology – July 7, 2016
Forbes hosts second AgTech summit in Salinas, July 13-14 – June 28, 2016
Salinas: The World’s Agriculture Technology Capital – May 27, 2016
Hartnell Hosts Third Annual Salinas Valley AgTech Summit – April 2, 2016
3rd Annual Salinas Valley AgTech Summit is Mar 30 – March 9, 2016
Taylor Farms Investment in Clean Energy – February 25, 2016
Amazon
Why is Amazon here in Santa Cruz? – June 2, 2016
So what’s up with Amazon in Santa Cruz? – March 3, 2016
Cabrillo College
Apps for Ag Students Create Tech Solutions to Grower Issues – March 14, 2016
Catbird
Cybersecurity company Catbird to be acquired – November 4, 2016
CSUMB
CSUMB Hackathon 2016: Games solve community problems – November 10, 2016
CSUMB selected to receive $5.6M STEM grant – September 28, 2016
Startup Challenge Ideas Power Tri-County Entrepreneurship – May 9, 2016
Digital NEST
Community Invited to Digital NEST Grand Opening on Feb 11 – February 5, 2016
Digital NEST seeks to open in East Salinas – January 21, 2016
Fiber
Cruzio announces start of Santa Cruz Fiber project – July 20, 2016
Smart Cities: Santa Cruz Debuts Fiber-like Wireless Gigabit Network – June 29, 2016
Santa Cruz Lights Up Siklu’s Fiber-Like Wireless Gigabit Network in Record Time – June 27, 2016
Getting to gigabit internet without fiber – April 28, 2016
Santa Cruz Fiber Project on Track to Break Ground in Early 2017 – April 27, 2016
Fullpower
Philippe Kahn makes Time’s 100 most influential photos of all time – November 17, 2016
Philippe Kahn reveals what’s next for Fullpower – March 25, 2016
Inboard
Inboard swam with the sharks – December 3, 2016
Watch: An epic milestone, Inboard delivers first M1 – August 2, 2016
The sweet story of Inboard’s love affair with Santa Cruz – February 25, 2016
Looker
Watch: Looker Life = Customer Love – October 20, 2016
Daniel Mintz: Data is useless – September 1, 2016
Audio: Looker explores 20 years of Census data – August 19, 2016
Audio: Tomasz Tunguz & Frank Bien discuss Winning with Data book – August 19, 2016
Looker Democratizes Census Voting Data – July 20, 2016
Still Wondering What Looker Does? – February 4, 2016
Monarch Media
Monarch Media Inc. announces appointment of new CEO – October 26, 2016
Pearl
Pearl begins shipping, announces partnerships with Amazon and Crutchfield – September 27, 2016
What they’re saying about Pearl – June 23, 2016
Stealthy startup with $50M in funding debuts first product – June 21, 2016
Plantronics
Plantronics CEO Ken Kannappan to retire – August 2, 2016
Plantronics wins three prestigious 2016 Red Dot awards – July 20, 2016
Plantronics Lands Prestigious iF Design Award for BackBeat SENSE – March 8, 2016
Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup hosts Guy Kawasaki
Scenes from the scene: Guy Kawasaki at SCNTM – November 5, 2016
Watch: In case you missed Guy Kawasaki at the meetup, here’s the video – November 3, 2016
Q&A: Wit and wisdom of Guy Kawasaki on display at “The Art of Social Media” November Tech MeetUp – October 14, 2016
UCSC
UCSC team chosen to compete in Amazon’s Alexa Prize Challenge – December 9, 2016
UCSC student games win awards at IndieCade – October 21, 2016
Q&A: Rob Currie, Genomics Institute CTO, on “the global virtuous cycle of open data” (and more) – October 13, 2016
Genomics leader David Haussler to advise Chan Zuckerberg science initiative – September 21, 2016
Q&A: Alexander Wolf, New Dean of Baskin Engineering – August 24, 2016
Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative receives $2.5M grant – July 21, 2016
Q&A: Mohamed Abousalem joins UCSC Office of Research – July 7, 2016
Trainwreck Games wins game design competition At E3 – June 23, 2016
UCSC Genomics Institute: Unlocking Scientific and Medical Issues – May 5, 2016
UCSC ranked among top schools for game design – March 25, 2016
UCSC Names New Dean of Baskin Engineering – January 12, 2016
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Tagged agtech, Amazon, Cabrillo College, Catbird, CSUMB, Digital Nest, Fullpower, Inboard Technology, Looker, Monarch Media, Pearl Automation Inc., Platronics, UC Santa Cruz
