Launchpad 2026 is next week on Wednesday, May 13, bringing students, job seekers, employers, and founders together at The Grove for startup pitches, hiring connections, and local networking. The employer lineup continues to grow, with OurEnergy and Onewheel/Future Motion joining the event, and late company registrations are still welcome as space allows.

Meaning is not always found in a big calling or career milestone. Inspired by Guy Kawasaki’s conversation with Dave Evans, Neil reflects on flow, presence, music, and the value of returning to what you love without turning it into another transaction.

Santa Cruz County students from X Academy’s robotics teams earned first and third place at the 2026 MATE Monterey Bay Regional ROV Competition, sending Hephaestus Robotics to the World Championship in Canada. The win highlights local student talent, hands-on engineering, and the power of community-backed STEAM programs.

Santa Cruz Works New Tech Meetup returns May 6 to the rooftop at Anton Pacific — stunning views, food & drinks, and six founder presentations from some of the most exciting startups in tech. Don't miss it.

The Santa Cruz Record has served as Santa Cruz County's newspaper of record since 1972, providing affordable legal publishing services — including fictitious business name filings and public notices — that help local entrepreneurs meet compliance requirements and launch legitimately.

The Hephaestus Robotics Team, a 25-member high school team in the Santa Cruz COE X Academy Robotics Clubs, earned first place in the Ranger Class at the 2026 MATE Monterey Bay Regional ROV Competition on Saturday, April 25, securing a spot at the 2026 MATE ROV World Championship on June 25-27, 2026.

KZSC Santa Cruz 88.1 FM broadcasts 20,000 watts reaching over 3.2 million people across Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties — now they need your help! KZSC is hosting their Spring Fundraiser and hopes to raise $25,000 to help fund operational costs for the 2026-2027 school year.

A civic education event unlike any other, this piece covers Santa Cruz's first mayoral forum where elementary school students, not pundits, get to ask the questions. From the 3DE Club's young innovators to five experienced candidates, discover how Santa Cruz is putting the next generation at the center of local democracy.

Joby, Heron Power, and other local employers are joining Launchpad 2026, connecting students and job seekers with internships, part-time roles, and full-time work.

Santa Cruz is home to a growing set of studios and agencies that treat their work as a force for something larger than the next campaign. Mountains Wave GTM, a Santa Cruz County–based branding and go-to-market agency, is one of them — and over the past few years, its partnership with Save The Waves Coalition has become a quiet case study in how a local business can help amplify global conservation work.

BrandCapsule opened its doors this week with a new category — AI Discovery Intelligence — built on the belief that the best brand should win, not the biggest budget.

Board makes photo editing as simple as tapping what you don't want — and watching it disappear. Ex-Apple, ex-Google co-founder Vojta Jina brings big-tech polish to a tool anyone can master in seconds.

Kaimarra's BioVeris™ resin launches commercially through Growscape's Earth Day sustainability platform — a a multi-million dollar binding purchase order and 13 field trials underway. Santa Cruz deep tech just hit its first industrial supply chain milestone.

The County of Santa Cruz is hiring a County Legislative Affairs Officer, a high-impact role leading State and Federal legislative efforts and advising leadership on issues that affect the community.

Santa Cruz Works is hosting an invitation-only luncheon on May 13 at the Cocoanut Grove, bringing together restaurant leaders for a private introduction to AIO, an AI platform built specifically for restaurant operations. Guests will also learn about Launchpad 2026, offering an added opportunity to connect with local talent at Santa Cruz County’s largest job fair.

Join visionary entrepreneurs, investors, and sustainability experts for an interactive panel exploring the intersection of environmental stewardship and cutting-edge innovation. Stay after for a networking reception to connect with industry leaders and fellow changemakers. Hosted in partnership with the UCSC Innovation & Business Engagement Hub. Virtual attendance available — panel begins at 4:45 PM.

In this optimistic reflection on AI, Isaac Dye argues that technology should deepen human expertise, not replace it, opening new possibilities in science, business, and creativity while challenging us to keep learning and imagining futures.

The MATE Monterey Bay Regional ROV Competition will be Saturday, April 25 from 10:00 to 4:00 PM at Watsonville High School pool where students across the region will showcase their remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) performing real-world mission tasks.

UC Santa Cruz has named its 2025 Chancellor's Innovation Impact Award recipients — honoring breakthroughs in coastal climate resilience, brain-computer interfaces, forensic genomics, and regional entrepreneurship. Among the honorees is Bud Colligan, a founding board member of Santa Cruz Works.

Join us for an afternoon at the cutting edge of conservation genomics as we explore everything from de-extinction to searching water samples for viral genomes, with researchers from the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute who are turning DNA into a tool for protecting life on Earth.