Startup San Diego, the nonprofit that organizes the city’s largest annual startup event, has chosen a new executive director after a six-month vacancy.
The organization has hired Alexa-Rae Navarro, who has worked for the past seven years at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Navarro is replacing Jarrod Russell, the nonprofit’s first executive director.
Navarro was previously senior managing director of the Bixel Exchange, a startup incubator spun out of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. At the incubator, she earned experience that will come in useful at Startup San Diego, including organizing events, connecting with Los Angeles’ largest tech companies, managing a team, and growing the startup ecosystem in Los Angeles.
Navarro was born in Riverside, raised in Temecula, and earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Los Angeles. There, she earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.
“When I originally left San Diego, I told myself, ‘you’re going to come back someday,'” Navarro said. “I heard about the position at Startup San Diego from a few different people, and I knew now was the time. I’m really looking forward to taking all of my learning and applying it in my own backyard.”
Founded in 2014, Startup San Diego is best known for putting on San Diego Startup Week, an annual event that usually attracts a few thousand attendees. But the organization also hosts other educational events, funneling its resources into helping people learn about entrepreneurship, technology, and San Diego’s startup ecosystem at large.
Startup San Diego, formed by a collection of tech entrepreneurs, runs almost exclusively on volunteers. Its only paid position is the executive director, whose spot has been empty since Russell’s departure in June.
The nonprofit hired search firm Blair Search Partners and ended up getting an avalanche of applications for the role. Neal Bloom, an early leader of Startup San Diego and current board member, said the organization sifted through over 900 resumes for this job.
Navarro, he said, is a perfect fit for the role.
“Our dream hire was someone with startup experience and nonprofit experience, which we thought was going to be a unicorn,” Bloom said. “(Navarro) hit those two boxes immediately. But she also worked in a community that was a little ahead of San Diego. Los Angeles has already gone through the growing pains we’re going to go through.”
Navarro said she plans to spend the next few months familiarizing herself with San Diego’s tech and startup scene.
Startup San Diego is getting a jump start on planning its major event in 2020. Volunteer organizers wanted to begin the process earlier this year to ensure a smoother process. The group already sent out its speaker applications in early December for its May 2020 event. They got 452 applications from interested speakers.
Bloom said the nonprofit learned a lot in 2019 when it brought on Russell as its first paid employee. His presence helped corral a huge volunteer army, keeping organizers motivated even after the annual event came to a close.
“We learned the value of staff,” Bloom said. “We used to have to build a brand new volunteer workforce every year. But with Jarrod, people stuck around. Now we’re so far ahead compared to any year before.”
Learn more about Startup San Diego’s events at the nonprofit’s website: https://startupsd.org/.
