SDSI Newsletter - January 28, 2016

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January 28, 2016

WHY SAN DIEGO?

It’s seemingly intuitive to us who live here, but hard to put to words. Our friend Earl Edwards, the Athlete Director at U.C. San Diego recently asked SDSI’s Bob Rief to put his words to why college graduates should stay in San Diego. Bob’s reply was so convincing we couldn’t help but share it with you.

“Really? Hike, bike, skate, wakeboard, surf, cycle, soccer, rugby, motocross, run, swim, tri-athletics, hit a ball, catch it, kick it, look for it (golf), mud runs, Rock n Roll marathons, dive, sail. That's what happens every day here. It’s called the San Diego Lifestyle. We DO things and participate and everyone, baby to granny, is out there being active and healthy, soaking up the San Diego sun. Why wouldn’t you want to be here?

In the post-team or collegiate sport scene there are a large number of businesses who are in the business of sport. Getting the job of your dreams in one of these local businesses means staying in San Diego and utilizing our 335 days of sunshine per year to keep up an active and healthy lifestyle.

You won’t be alone either. There are 37,000 people employed in the Sport and Active Lifestyle businesses here in San Diego. You know many of them: Reef, Road Runner Sports, Competitor Group, TaylorMade, GoPro, prAna, SKLZ, Surftech, Nixon, Sector 9… the list goes on.

Did you know that San Diego ranks number 1 among the top 25 cities in America for the 18 to 34 year old age group, and number 1 in patents per 1,000 of population! And UC San Diego is located dead in the middle of it all: academics, adjacency to business schools and the local LARGE innovation community. I’ll say there’s no better place to stay after graduation. Work in a cool and contemporary business. Live a healthy lifestyle in a super healthy town. Maybe start a sport business here centered around your favorite sport or activity…settle in and make San Diego home base for the rest of your life. What, or where, could be better?

Looking forward to seeing you out in our sports and acitvel ifestyle county."
Bob Rief

SDSI Welcome new members Cain Advisory Group, Rx Smart Gear, and Top Gun Basketball Academy
The Cain Advisory Group is the only San Diego firm that unifies your legal, tax, bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning functions. By bundling your small business needs under one roof, we provide coordinated counsel to expertly manage your back office and increase your profitability. As the only local consultancy firm who bundles these diverse functions, CAG is a partner who manages your legal needs; plans and preps your federal, state and local taxes; and provides full bookkeeping and payroll services. The value to you: integrating expert advice with needed back-end administrative functions, helps streamline internal systems to reduce taxes, generating greater profitability and allowing you to focus on what counts. Learn more at Cainadvisorygroup.com.

Rx Smart Gear, maker of the Rx Jump Rope, pioneered the first totally custom jump rope made to fit the athlete and ready to use right out of the box with no assembly required and no parts to lose. Rx offers the most diverse training options with six cable weights ranging from the lightest speed rope up to Zeus, our heaviest training rope. Rx Jump Ropes are the choice of top CrossFit Games Athletes worldwide reaching the podium 12 times since 2010 as well as dubbed the Official Jump Rope of USA Boxing. RXSG also produces the world’s only muscle up training rings known as the Smart Rings. Learn more at rxsmartgear.com.

Top Gun Basketball Academy is proud to provide special experiences for the youth of San Diego. Last month the seventh and eighth grade Top Gun League Championships took place at Petco Park as part of the Bill Walton Basketball Festival. Top Gun also assisted Bill himself with a once in a lifetime clinic at the ball park. Learn more at Topgunbball.com.

SDSI launches new event series for General Membership
Chat and Chew breakfast speaker series brings together the general membership six times per year for networking, partnership building, learning something new and of course having fun too! The first Chat and Chew will be held at GoPro’s Carlsbad offices on February 3. John Vance, CEO of Freewaters Footwear and former president of Sanuk, will share his entrepreneur experiences and lessons learned along the way. Members, if you have not yet registered please rsvp to Nick Roth at Nick@sdsportinnovators.com. If you are interested in hosting a future Chat and Chew at your company’s headquarters let us know.

Karl Strauss’s Chris Cramer to speak to SDSI Advisory Board
2015 was a big year for SDSI’s continuing executive education programing, providing unique opportunities for the members to hear from SAL industry veterans; Guy Kawasaki, Jeff Kearl (Stance), Beaver Theodosakis (prAna), Brian Smith (Uggs), Fernando Aguerre (Reef) and many more. SDSI continues the momentum kicking 2016 off with Chris Cramer as keynote for SDSI’s February Advisory Board Meeting. Cramer is co-founder of Karl Strauss Brewing Company & pioneer in San Diego’s Craft Brew Industry as well as San Diego’s Beer Week. Stay tuned for more details.

Slyde Handboards gives props to SDSI for helping to develop their financial acumen
In a feature in Inc. on when to bring in outside finance expertise, Angela Watt, of Slyde Handboards, talkes about the value their SDSI Springboard mentors provided, especially in the area of financials. Thanks to Slyde’s Finance Mentor, Sam Simkin, "I learned about cost tracking and profit and that our gross margin was too low. That was my aha moment. So we cut costs elsewhere and our gross margin is now closer to 70% and we can afford to pay all our expenses." Read the full article at Inc.com.

VIOS Fitness graduates SDSI Springboard
Tired of the traditional weight stack machine and jumping between fitness machines to get your cardio and resistance workouts in? VIOS has solved your problem with the patent pending hybrid resistance engine that not only replaces the traditional weight stack, but allows you to get your resistance training, cardio training and a hybrid blend of the two, all on one machine! A big thanks to VIOS’s Springboard mentors; Carl Thomas, John Bryan, Reid Carr, Jarrod Barker and Alex McKean.

member-news

Barney & Barney names nine new principals
Barney & Barney, one of the nations’ leading insurance brokerages, recently announced nine senior executives to principal, totaling 62 principals in their San Diego, Orange County and San Francisco Bay Area offices. Read the full release here.

Cor Surf signs big wave surfer Paige Alms
Paige Alms is paving the wave for females in big wave surfing. By the age of 13 she had won her first national title at the USSF championships. In 2015 Paige won the Billabong XXL Big Wave award for best woman’s ride and was nominated for an ESPY for best female action sports athlete. Read more at corsurf.com.

ElliptiGO athlete and US Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier wins half marathon; Reports record 4^th quarter results
ElliptiGO shined during the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon on January 3rd when ElliptiGO athlete and U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, Steph Dinius took the title, completing the 13.1 mile race in 1:31:41. Dinius said “training with the ElliptiGO has both brought me back from injury and kept me healthy by allowing me to do running-like mileage with zero impact,” Read more at ElliptiGO.com.

ElliptiGO announced 4^th quarter revenues were up 40% year-over-year in 2015. The company also reported December had the largest revenue of any single month in the company’s six-year history. ElliptiGO CEO, Bryan Pate, attributes much of the increase to the newly launched bike, ElliptiGO Arc. Read the full story at ElliptiGO.com.

GoPro and Periscope partner to live broadcasted your action and adventures
Thanks to the new deal with broadcasting app Periscope, GoPro Hero4 users can now broadcast their adventures live through the wireless connection to their iPhones. Periscope believes the partnership will “revolutionize how people all around the world can live stream their experiences”. Read the full release here.

How to coach, according to five great coaches
iCoach Connect, SDSI Springboard Class 7 participant and creators of the jobs board dedicated to helping teams find great coaches, caught up with five notable coaches including the Manager of the NY Yankees and the 49ers' Coach Bill Walsh for their thoughts on what makes a great coach. iCoach Connect is currently posting more than 1,200 open coaching positions nationwide. Read the full article and view available positions here.

Predator Warpaint surpasses Kickstarter goal in less than 24 hours
The Irving Group’s Nick Norris, a ten year Navy SEAL, takes camo face paint where it has never gone before; SPF 50 UV, water resistant, sweat resistant and will not run. After deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan left him with blistered and sun burnt skin, Norris saw an opportunity to better serve, and now you can benefit too. Back the Predator Warpaint campaign to protect a soldier or get one yourself.

ROTH Capital with takeaways on active lifestyle products from the recent CES tradeshow
ROTH Capital reports on trends at Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2016 related to Plantronics, ZAGG, Skullcandy, and Mad Catz. ROTH noted less focus in traditional wired headphones, and growing competition in wireless, action cams, and activity trackers. Read full article here.

TEN: The Enthusiast Network official partner for The Dew Tour
The Dew Tour which has been run by NBC Sports, in partnership with Mountain Dew, for the past 11 years, will now take on new direction under TEN’s leadership, including year-round content. TEN is now the official strategic partner and will lead event staging and execution for 2016 and beyond. NBC will continue as the broadcast partner. Read more at TransWorld Business.

Tower Paddle Boards featured on ABC’s Beyond the Tank TODAY!
Tune into tonight 8pm to see Tower Paddle Boards and founder Stephan Aarstol on ABC’s Beyond the Tank, featured as one of Mark Cuban’s best Shark Tank investments from 2012. Now with over $17 million in sales and named #1 Fastest Growing Private Company in San Diego in 2014 see what really happens after the Sharks. Read the full press release at TransWorld Business.

TransWorld SKATEbording Awards winners announced
The 18th annual TransWorld SKATEboarding Awards were held on January 22 at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. Skateboardings’ best of the year were honored and recognized in categories such as Rookie of the Year, Readers’ Choice, and Team of the Year. See the full list of winners TransWorld SKATEboarding.

TransWorld SNOWboarding announces nominees for 17^th Annual Riders’s Poll Awards
The 17^th Annual Rider’s Poll Awards showcases the best in the industry chosen by their peers. The awards poll over 100 pro riders for each category as well as a Legend Award and Climate Activist Award chosen by staff and Protect our Winters. Winner will be announced on Friday January 29^th at the Ogden Theater in Denver, Colorado. See full list of nominees at TransWorld SNOWboarding.

TurningPoint Executive Search nearly doubles revenue, expands team
In their 8th year of business 2015 marked an increase of 85% in revenues and 50% in number of searches completed for TurningPoint Executive Search. “The job market has really turned a corner over the past 18-24 months, especially in the sales and marketing arena” explains Ken C. Schmitt, President and Founder of TurningPoint. “We have seen an acceleration in the hiring of high performing sales and marketing candidates, as companies look to enhance their current teams, or in some cases, revamp these highly impactful, customer-facing functions”. Read the full release at TurningPointSearch.net.

Office space available with XTERRA Wetsuits
Looking for office space downtown just two miles from Petco Park? XTERRA Wetsuits has 4,369 square feet of office space and approximately 7,000 square feet of warehouse available for sublease. Please contact keith@xterrawetsuits.com for more info.

Productivity or face time? Many companies are struggling with the desire and expectation by employees to manage their own schedule, including the ability to work from home 1-2 days week. While more and more employers and managers are coming around to the idea that face time does not equal productive time, others continue to manage according to the old adage "If I can't see my employees, how do I know they are working?" As the number of tools that enhance the ability for employees to be productive outside the office, and as the war for talent continues to accelerate, I encourage our clients to consider the inclusion of a "work from home" mentality. As the CEO of a firm without an office, managing 7 employees remotely, I also recommend that they read the book "Remote" by Jason Fried, the Founder and CEO of Basecamp. Adding this perk will pay dividends for years to come.

Open positions
Business Development Manager, Supply Chain Consulting, San Diego
Product Manager, Technology, San Diego
National Account Manager (2), Consumer Products, Toronto
Director of Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Orange County
VP Sales, Telephony Services, Los Angeles HQ but position location is open
National Sales Manager, Hospitality Services, Southern California

Digital Operative – Multiple positions available click for info

ElliptiGO – Dealer Sales Support/Inside Sales Associate click for info

Epic Series – Director of Sales click for info

J!NX - Multiple positions available click for info

KPMG - Multiple positions available click for info

RSM - Is hiring click for info

Red Door Interactive – Multiple positions available click for info

SKLZ – Multiple positions available click for info

TurningPoint Executive Search has offered to serve as our resident expert for hiring, retention and job search. A San Diego native with more than 16 years of recruiting experience, President and Founder, Ken Schmitt is available as a sounding board who can share industry “best practices” with SDSI members. Read their blog and contact Ken at Kens@turningpointsearch.net.

Feb. 3 Chat and Chew General Membership Breakfast, 8-9:30am

Feb. 23 SDSI Advisory Board Meeting, with Chris Cramer CEO Karl Strauss 3:30-6pm

Mar. 1 SDSI Springboard Class 7: 15 Minute Presentation #3, 8am

Apr. 6 Chat and Chew General Membership Breakfast, 8-9:30am

Apr. 12 SDSI Springboard Class 7: Quick Pitch/Elevator Pitch, 8am

Apr. 26 SDSI Board of Directors Meeting 4-6pm

May 26 SDSI Advisory Board Meeting, with Tony Finn Founder Liquid Force, 3:30-6pm

Jun. 1 Chat and Chew General Membership Breakfast, 8-9:30am

Jul. 26 SDSI Board of Directors Meeting, 3:30-6pm

Aug. 3 Chat and Chew General Membership Breakfast, 8-9:30am

Aug. 30 SDSI Advisory Board Meeting, 3:30-6pm

Oct. 5 Chat and Chew General Membership Breakfast, 8-9:30am

Oct. 25 SDSI Board of Directors Meeting, 3:30-6pm

Nov. 15 SDSI Advisory Board Meeting, 3:30-6pm

Jan. 27 – Feb. 2 SIA Snow Show and Demo/Ride Fest, Denver, CO click for info

Feb. 11 SIMA Image Awards, Anaheim, CA click for info

Feb. 15 – 17 Agenda Las Vegas, NV click for info

Feb. 16 70^th Annual Salute to the Champions click for info

Mar. 13 - 16 ROTH Conference Orange County, CA click for info

May 18-21 SIMA Surf Summit, San Jose Del Cabo click for info

Aug 3-6 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, Salt Lake City, UT click for info

Sep. 21-23 Interbike, Las Vegas, NV click for info

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