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SANTA CRUZ – The sixth annual Titans of Tech was a who’s who of Santa Cruz tech, business and local influence.
Local tech startups showed out Wednesday to display their own innovations while 10 local technologists were honored by Santa Cruz Works at the Casablanca Inn’s back patio. But it was more than award for those 10 honorees. They used their time to pass the torch to the next generation and offer advice to become a local tech giant.
For many of the honorees, it was a story of starting with nothing and working toward something. They all had their humble beginning and are now considered titans of tech in Santa Cruz.
Interestingly, a few of the evening’s honorees did not even start their professional lives in technology.
Becca Fenwick received her doctorate in marine geology and geophysics before leading drone technology at UC Santa Cruz. Additionally, Chris Miller, the president of Cloud Brigade, started as an auto mechanic before getting into computers in the early days of the internet.
“Where you start definitely does not control where you end up,” Fenwick said to budding technologists.
Other themes from the night centered around sticking with your idea, even if it doesn’t appear to be going as planned.
Michael Sikand with Our Future, who Santa Cruz Works referred to as Santa Cruz’s next media mogul, urged people in the field to keep working toward progress, especially if other people turn it down.
Sikand taught a lesson that could be learned from the founder of Hint, Kara Goldin. She was searching for a flavored water drink as a solution to her Coca Cola addiction, he shared. She even met with the CEO of the soft drink company for tips, who told her the idea was not great. She took that as a sign to push harder, he noted.
Philippe Kahn with Fullpower Technologies further hammered in the idea of perseverance. His mantra is to be resilient and keep working toward a goal no matter the challenges ahead.
“The most important thing you can do is never give up,” he said. “There are going to be all sorts of challenges.”
Other honorees included Alexander Wolf of the UCSC Baskin School of Engineering, Hilary Bryant of the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, James Hackett and Chris Frost of Equal Access Santa Cruz, Nicole Beck of 2NDNATURE Software and Roya Pakzad of Taraaz Research.
The evening ended with a little entertainment, as tradition for Titans of Tech. Speakers lost track of time as they proudly shared their insight into the industry, which caused the event to run more than one hour. As per tradition, Santa Cruz Program Director Mathew Swinnerton had to entertain the crowd, this time by allowing participants to dump buckets of ice water on him as the ocean air cooled the night.
