Origin Stories

What are you working on, Neal?

People ask me what I'm up to these days, and it boils down to amplifying communities. From Rising Tide Partners to Startup San Diego, to my new venture Interlock Capital. Here's a little about my journey.

I get this question multiple times a day.

While some of my so-called “titles” have shifted, I’m doing the same thing as always - amplifying communities. How? By telling the stories of, connecting, and investing in my communities through a few different platforms.

Here’s a little bit of my history:

As a mechanical engineering graduate at UC San Diego, my first job was building rocket engines for the Space Shuttle and the upcoming Artemis program. I left that job in 2013 to co-found edtech startup Portfolium, which was originally designed to help graduates share their applicable skills with potential employers and ease the transition from college to full-time work.

I moved back to San Diego from LA as we were accepted into the Evonexus incubator that same year.

I pretty much immediately got involved in Startup San Diego’s grassroots efforts to boost our local startup community and have been a volunteer ever since.

While I exited Portfolium prematurely, we eventually sold the company in 2019, bringing a nice financial win to everyone involved.

Read the rest of the story in the original posting >>