Santa Cruz Works News — Updates on Events, Community Stories & Local Innovation

INNOVATION NEWS

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NOTE: Our blogs are typically “assisted by AI”. We use AI to assist us in research and style the way a human editor would.

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Malina Long 5/21/25 Malina Long 5/21/25

Santa Cruz Launchpad 2025 Photos

In its 8th year, Santa Cruz Launchpad 2025 was a huge success. Over the next 2 weeks, we will make a full story and videos of the events. For now, we have 2 collections of photos: Business Plan Pitch Competition, and Job Fair.

Malina Long 5/14/25 Malina Long 5/14/25

Santa Cruz Launchpad 2025 Participating Companies and Organizations Announced

Santa Cruz Launchpad 2025 employers announced.

Malina Long 6/9/22 Malina Long 6/9/22

Santa Cruz Launchpad Kudos & Winners

Santa Cruz Launchpad event at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn at UCSC featured 19 student teams, 25 company exhibitors, and nearly 500 attendees in total.

Doug Erickson 6/2/22 Doug Erickson 6/2/22

Santa Cruz Launchpad 2022 a “Barn-full” of Success

Nearly 500 people attended Launchpad 2022 to apply for 400+ jobs, and to hear innovative new business plans.

October 25, 2026

Joby Aviation Named One of TIME's Best Inventions of 2026

Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation has been named to TIME's Best Inventions of 2026, earning national recognition for its all-electric air taxi and its potential to transform urban transportation.

October 21, 2026

Santa Cruz County Brings Claude Aboard. What If It Helped Everything?

Supervisors approved the County's 2026 AI work plan, including a discounted Claude contract. We look at what changed, and imagine one AI interface that could search every County site and database.

Did Ukraine’s Strikes on Russian Data Centers Really Take Down Millions of Bots?

Ukraine attacked Russian data centers and shortly after a graph that illustrated a massive drop off of bot activity went viral. Unfortunately, the graph was quite misleading.

Reservoir Farms Expands to Washington State, Bringing Agricultural Robotics to Yakima Valley

The Salinas-based agricultural technology incubator will open its first Pacific Northwest location in spring 2027, focusing on robotics for tree fruit, blueberries and other high-value crops.

Why the Winner of Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Wants to Turn Off Gravity

g-SPACE, the Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Regional champion, uses physics and AI to show companies what happens when gravity disappears, before they spend a fortune launching anything into orbit.

Nominations Now Open: Santa Cruz Works Wavemaker Awards

Our annual awards event is BACK and with a new name: Wavemaker Awards…and nominations are now open!

Your Twenty-Dollar Bill Has Had a Really Complicated Day

A former cash-services operator built FlowLogicAI to give physical cash logistics an AI operating system, with eight pilot customers signed, an MVP launching this winter, and a pre-seed round open.

October 20, 2026

G-SPACE Wins Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Regional; Stork Labs Takes Second

Fifteen finalists, most of them women, pitched at The Catalyst on October 17. Sunnyvale’s G-SPACE took the regional title and a ticket to the Startup World Cup Grand Finale in San Francisco. Photo credits: Kalen Dion, Doug Erickson

The Most Radical Thing at Cat & Cloud Is the Conversation

In our Company Spotlight tour of Cat & Cloud on October 16, 2026, we learned how one Pleasure Point café grew into four shops and a roastery by betting on clear values and real human connection.