We were proud to sponsor the 2026 SDSU San Diego Angel Conference, and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences we've had with the IPRSCORE™.

SDAC isn't a pitch competition. It's a process. From the Tuesday night meetings through months of screening, due diligence, and investor-led evaluation, 135 applicants were narrowed down to 6 finalists by a community of angel investors who give their time not because they have to, but because they believe in what San Diego's entrepreneurs are building.

We came to share some thoughts on IP. We left with a much deeper appreciation for what early-stage evaluation actually looks like in practice.

What we contributed

We provided IP insights on the top companies pitching. For each, we looked at the likely IP assets vested within the business to give SDAC investors an idea of what was actually being built and protected beneath the pitch.

We also ran public register searches on registered IP, looking at what founders and management teams had been filing. Patent applications, trademark registrations, and prior filing history - the kind of signals that tell you a lot about how a founding team thinks about protecting what they're building, often before a single slide is shown.

What stood out

The rigour was real. The diligence teams approached each opportunity with the kind of care that most companies never see until a Series B. They asked hard questions. They looked beyond the pitch deck. They wanted to understand what was genuinely defensible.

That's exactly where IP matters most, and where it's most often overlooked.

At the early stage, a company's intellectual property is frequently its most undervalued asset. Brand positioning, software architecture, proprietary data, trade secrets, and any patent filings are not just legal formalities. They're signals of how a business is built to compete. They tell investors what can be protected, what can scale, and what creates distance between a company and everyone trying to follow it.

The IPRSCORE™ was designed precisely for moments like these, to give companies and investors an objective, validated measure of IP strength across five asset classes: Brand, Patents, Software, Critical Databases, and Trade Secrets. Not a gut feeling. A score.

The Finale

End of May's Finale at San Diego State University was the capstone to an exceptional season. Congratulations to the Fund VIII investment award recipients: Sesh Incorporated, My Village Innovations, and Vayim. Watching all six finalists take the stage made clear just how much work, and belief, goes into getting there.

A particular thanks to Neal Bloom, Cathy Pucher, and the entire SDAC board. The environment they've built, where founders and investors meet as equals and build genuine trust, is rare. It doesn't happen by accident.

What's next?

Fund IX is already on the horizon. And for the founders who didn't take home an award this time: the work doesn't stop. If you're building something IP-rich and want to understand how your assets stack up before your next raise, your IPRSCORE™ is free to get started.