New Tech Returns With Fresh Ideas at River Row
Santa Cruz Works New Tech is heading to the river.
On Thursday, June 4, we’re bringing the next New Tech gathering to River Row, the new riverfront destination at 444 Front Street in downtown Santa Cruz.
The location feels fitting: a fresh space along the San Lorenzo River, a lineup of builders working on real-world problems, and a community that keeps showing up to see what’s next. There is an ABUNDANCE of FREE underground parking!
Doors open at 6:00pm for networking, food, drinks, and the usual mix of founders, operators, investors, engineers, students, and curious locals. At 7:00pm, the presentations begin — fast, focused, and straight to the point.
New for this event: there is now a bring-a-date ticket option available, so you can bring a friend, colleague, or fellow builder and make it a New Tech two-pack. $35 for two (60% off second ticket).
Meet the Lineup
Coastal Watershed Council
Laurie EganRiver Row is more than a new address on Front Street. It represents a larger shift in how Santa Cruz reconnects with the San Lorenzo River — not as something hidden behind buildings, but as a central part of downtown life.
Laurie Egan will speak to that river story, and why activating spaces like River Row matters for the future of Santa Cruz. As the city continues to rethink its relationship with the river, this is a timely conversation about place, community, and what downtown can become.
CherryWheels
Gauri JainCherryWheels is a women-founded startup creating designer wheel covers for wheelchair users.
The idea is simple and powerful: mobility devices should not erase personality. They should be another way to express it. CherryWheels designs wheel covers for all ages and occasions — from holidays to everyday style — turning wheelchairs into conversation starters and helping users feel more seen, confident, and empowered.
It’s accessibility, design, and self-expression all rolling together.
Alamento
Taylor LaneWhat if building owners could see tomorrow’s capital problems before they become today’s emergencies?
Alamento helps multifamily property owners turn building inspections into clear, actionable capital planning insights. Built on AI, 25 years of field experience, and years of technology development, Alamento helps teams understand building conditions, prioritize repairs, and protect long-term asset value.
In a world where housing costs, maintenance delays, and surprise repairs can snowball fast, Alamento is bringing better foresight to the built environment.
Scoot Science
Jonathan LaRiviereSanta Cruz-based Scoot Science uses AI and ocean data modeling to deliver real-time underwater weather forecasts.
That means fish farmers and marine operators can better understand what is happening beneath the surface, manage risk, protect assets, and make smarter decisions across coastal waters. Scoot Science is also a Santa Cruz Works Accelerator graduate, making this one a hometown story worth watching.
Ocean tech built in Santa Cruz? We love to see it.
Kaimarra
Bates MarshallThe plastics industry has spent decades engineering “forever plastics” — materials so durable they outlive us by centuries.
Biodegradables were supposed to be the fix, but many do not actually biodegrade, and the ones that do are often too brittle or too expensive to scale. Kaimarra is taking a different approach with its KREX™ platform, using reactive chemistry inspired by the way tree bark resists decay while staying tough.
The result: composites up to 4x stiffer than incumbents, cost-competitive with conventional plastic, and actually compostable. Kaimarra is already in production for horticulture, with agricultural mulch films and food-contact packaging next.
That is the kind of materials innovation the world needs more of.
Judging.dev is the first open source, AI-native, and always-free competition hosting platform, built by two UCSC students who have hosted over 1,300 participants and deployed more than $1M in sponsorship credits.
They have fixed one of the largest issues in any competition: judging going haywire. Again and again, a “judging platform” gets reduced to a convoluted spreadsheet, resulting in hectic participant wrangling and an opaque feedback system.
Judging.dev solves this with an open source, AI-native, always-free solution, allowing anyone to host competitions with clearer judging, smoother coordination, and better feedback.
Standby
Hari RaghavanStandby is building an AI-powered voice agent designed to help incarcerated people better understand their rights, charges, and legal procedures.
The project brings AI into one of the most complicated and high-stakes information gaps: helping people access clear, timely answers when legal systems are difficult to navigate.
Hari Raghavan will share how Standby is using voice technology to make legal information more accessible, practical, and available when people need it most.
Join Us June 4
New Tech is where Santa Cruz comes to see what’s being built — sometimes before the rest of the world catches on.
Come for the riverfront setting. Stay for the founders, the conversations, the food, the drinks, the new 2:1 ticket option, and the chance to meet the people shaping what’s next in Santa Cruz.
Event Details
Santa Cruz Works New Tech
Thursday, June 4
6:00pm
River Row
444 Front Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Thank You Sponsors
Thank you to Comcast Business and Greater Zurich Area for helping make this gathering possible.