Santa Cruz New Tech Lights Up the Rooftop at Anton Pacific
The Santa Cruz Works New Tech Meetup returned to the rooftop of Anton Pacific on May 6, 2026 — and the evening delivered on every front. More than 130 attendees gathered under an open Central Coast sky for one of the year's most energized gatherings, fueled by hot pies from Pleasure Pizza Santa Cruz, the easy groove of Cruz Control, and a lineup of startups that ranged from AI-powered photo editing to defense-grade wireless to the future of human connection.
A warm thank-you goes to the sponsors who made the night possible: Comcast Business, Greater Zurich Group, and venue host Anton Pacific.
BOARD founder Vojta Jina — ex-Apple, ex-Google — opened the presentations by making photo editing look almost too easy. His app reduced the entire process to a tap: point at what you don't want, and it disappears. Big-tech polish, zero learning curve.
Santa Cruz's own Jane Technologies (iHeart Jane) reminded the crowd that world-class retail tech has been quietly growing right here on the Central Coast. Founder Socrates Rosenfeld walked through the platform's reach — real-time dispensary menus and seamless online ordering across more than 2,500 dispensaries and brands — capped by a first-of-its-kind POS system built for cannabis retail.
Light Links, a Santa Cruz Works Accelerates alum and Launchpad 2025 winner, brought the room to attention with Wi-OW™ — a patent-pending diffused laser technology delivering fiber-optic speeds over the air at ~1.5 microsecond latency, running 10x faster than Wi-Fi. Founders Wayne Fenton and Firouz Vafadari are setting their sights on AI-driven robotics and defense.
Sonde presenter John Kaster dissected AI coding, software development, and the messy realities of global compliance — offering one of the night's most technically grounded takes on where enterprise software is headed.
Kharros co-founder Kayden Stern — who sold his first company at 14 and is now on his third venture — is building what may be the trust layer for Defense AI, bringing a founder's instinct and hard-won credibility to one of the most consequential corners of the emerging AI landscape.
Kimberly Calvert closed the night with Afterglo, an emotionally intelligent dating companion app built to help people show up more intentionally in their relationships. Through Relational Archetypes, AI-powered icebreakers, and conversation analysis, Afterglo offered a smart compass for the vulnerable work of human connection — a fitting and warmly human note to end a night full of ambitious builders.
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