Funding San Diego’s Innovation Ecosystem For Future Generations
TL Foundation is San Diego’s nonprofit evergreen venture fund investing in the region’s brightest startups. Every dollar fuels innovation, jobs, and opportunity — keeping success rooted right here at home.
Every year, too many of San Diego’s most promising startups are forced to look elsewhere for funding — taking jobs, talent, and innovation with them.
TL Foundation exists to change that story. We are supporting entrepreneurs build & grow their companies in San Diego and reinvest their success back into the next generation of local entrepreneurs.
We’re turning individual success into a collective movement of community good — one that keeps innovation, opportunity, and wealth growing right here for generations to come.
Early-stage funding for tech and life science startups in San Diego.
A powerful network of founders, mentors, and investors supports each company’s journey.
All returns are reinvested into the Foundation — fueling future generations of San Diego innovators.
The TL Foundation’s first investments are already fueling breakthroughs in biotech, AI and infrastructure — helping companies grow from local roots to global impact.
When Kate Sessions planted the first trees that transformed San Diego in 1892, she didn’t just change a landscape — she grew a legacy. Her vision still lives on in the lush parks, tree-lined streets, and vibrant green canopy that make our city more beautiful and livable today.
The TL Foundation carries that same spirit forward — planting the seeds of a thriving innovation ecosystem that grows stronger with every generation. Our regional economy is the soil that sustains our future. Through the Tree Lady Club, we’re uniting visionary leaders who care deeply about San Diego — cultivating growth, generosity, and a legacy of innovation for generations to come.
The TL Foundation is more than a fund — it’s a community of visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists working together to make San Diego better for everyone.
We’ve already helped the region grow from a $1B to $5B venture market. Now we’re ensuring that success creates opportunity across every family, founder and neighborhood.
Our goal is to build a large evergreen fund that continually gives back to San Diego in perpetuity. Hopefully a $15M fund becomes $30M, which grows to $100M years from now. Those dollars will get invested back into the startup community, creating high-quality jobs across the region. We believe a strong, diverse base of innovation companies creates a strong macro economy. Our intention is to be a tier one global innovation hub. Not necessarily the biggest – but the best innovation ecosystem on the planet.
No, San Diego is the first. This is for San Diego by San Diegans – people who are passionate about the future of our region, and making it better for generations to come. San Diego is awesome, and we intend to make it even better.
There isn’t an 8-week cohort approach. Working with Connect, we are there to help your company scale well beyond the 8 weeks, for many years ahead. We can access different industry experts and advisors over the lifecycle of the company, depending on the needs and stage of the company. Connect is uniquely successful with a long history of helping local companies raise venture funding, further enhancing the trajectory of companies selected.
Much like traditional venture firms, we are looking for tech, life science and CPG companies that are highly scalable. This is an early seed investment. We expect to help these companies raise venture capital. We will seek to build a diverse portfolio across the tech and life sciences arenas.
Admittedly, the early years are focused on getting positive returns, and growing the size of the fund. Once we get to sufficient size, the board has the ability to make grants and other investments to help the broader mission of creating economic opportunity across the region. The bigger the fund, the greater the impact the Foundation can make.
Anyone who believes that a strong innovation economy is important to the future prosperity of San Diego and all families across our megaregion. If you’re interested in learning more, we’d love to talk to you. We are extremely grateful to our initial backers, Buzz Woolley and Malin Burnham.
Nonprofits designed to support economic opportunity are strangely hard to build. We’re just not high on philanthropic radars. Yet what we do, building a strong economy, is foundational to the region’s future.
Mike Krenn is the Founder of the Fund, with zero upside. Mike is the former founder of Tech Coast Angels (now NuFund) and has helped more than 100 companies raise venture capital, well in excess of $800M.
Dave Titus, a former venture capitalist who has a long history in San Diego as the founder of Windward Ventures, will oversee the application and investment process. A separate investment committee will approve all investments.
The first wave of investments were made in September 2024. Check out the press release!
Connect was founded by amazing individuals – people like Buzz Woolley, Irwin Jacobs, David Hale, and Mary Walshok – who paved the way for San Diego to have an amazing innovation ecosystem. At the same time, San Diego has benefited from the generous philanthropy of a handful of individuals, people like Buzz, Malin Burnham, Irwin Jacobs, Ernest Rady, Conrad Prebys, David Hale and Denny Sanford. These people largely created the San Diego we love. We hope to inspire the next generation of leaders in their likeness.
From the company’s perspective – not much at all. Companies will receive a traditional, founder-friendly investment. From the fund’s perspective – it is entirely different. No one gets rich but San Diego. The investors will not get their money back, their investment is 100% philanthropic. Similarly, the managers of the fund will get neither a carry (typically 20% of the returns), nor a management fee (typically 2% of assets under management. Instead, all returns will go right back into the Foundation to be redistributed back into the ecosystem.
Evergreen means the TL Fund never stops growing. We reinvest 100% of our gains back into the fund — no payouts, no end date. We’re built to last and plan to be here 50 years from now, continuously fueling San Diego’s innovation ecosystem for generations to come.
We chose our inaugural companies in 2024. We are continuing to expand the portfolio.
Every return goes back into the fund to support more founders and companies in San Diego. As we grow, we hope to use some of our gains to support those organizations building the innovation ecosystem in San Diego.
Together, we can make San Diego the best place on earth to launch, grow, and give back.
Join us — as a donor, partner or friend — to keep our innovation ecosystem thriving for generations to come.
