Stuff I am currently focused on:

#1 Bring new financial advisory products to market at Arta Finance. 

#2 Help anyone host engaging and successful events via Eventship.

#3 Help others with AI via GPT Hacks. 

#4 Help my youngest develop his soccer skills, my second work on her basketball game and my oldest shine like his sax.

#5 Spend more time with my awesome wife doing fun things in San Diego and around the world.

Hussein Yahfoufi

Tinkering, Exploring, and Always Learning

I help people get connected across San Diego’s tech and builder community.

I grew up in startup operations during the on-demand boom (Handy, Postmates, Lime), and I’ve always enjoyed building things, especially the ones that bring people together.

Today, that shows up as:

- The Social Coyote, a weekly note on events, people, and momentum in San Diego
- Career Coyote, focused on jobs at growing local companies
- Lightweight introductions when it makes sense

My goal is simple: help our city feel a little more open, welcoming, and connected for builders who live here or are just arriving.

Howl yeah 🐺
(Puns are always intended.)

Jonah Peake 🐺

Grateful to San Diego Magazine for including me in their People to Watch list for 2026!

San Diego’s tech and builder community is special. It’s spread out, diverse, and full of people who genuinely want to help each other, but don’t always have enough chances to cross paths.

That’s what The Social Coyote is about: creating more face time, more collisions, and more reasons for people to show up for one another.

When people connect, relationships turn into companies, teams, jobs, and momentum for the whole city.

It’s an honor to play a small role in helping San Diego feel a little more connected. The real credit belongs to the builders, organizers, founders, and community members who keep showing up.

Onward. Howl yeah 🐺

View the full San Diego list here: https://lnkd.in/gbSfwgmx

Connecting San Diego builders, companies, and opportunities. Founder, The Social Coyote + Career Coyote.

We had dinner last night welcoming a VC who recently moved to San Diego.

They were excited about the eventual chain of events as our more mature startups head towards exits, leading to a wave of new founders with deep roots here in our city. 

It’s easy to visit San Diego. We have the best airport in the country. And the weather isn't half bad. 

But it's an even stronger signal to move here and make San Diego home.

I’ve been wondering why people call the San Diego tech scene ‘intimate.’ And I have a theory. 

It’s not because the work here is small. It’s because much of the most important work in this city happens quietly. 

Military tech doesn’t broadcast what it’s doing, for obvious reasons. Biotech tends to stay heads-down until late FDA moments. And companies like Qualcomm have powered entire categories for years without needing the spotlight.

It’s there. You just have to know where to look.

From the outside, that can make San Diego feel a bit understated. 

But from the inside, it’s dense, serious, and full of people doing amazing work.

San Diego tech isn’t small. It’s just busy building. And you don't quite realize it until you get inside.

San Diego might be the most welcoming and collaborative community!!

And there’s no other city I’d rather be building in right now.

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Happy Monday to everyone building in San Diego!!

Let’s help, Dan and the Firestorm team hire San Diegans!

Firestorm, headquartered in Miramar, San Diego, raised $47M in Series A funding to expand point-of-need manufacturing for defense and battlefield operations.

They use advanced additive manufacturing to produce modular drones and spare parts faster and at lower cost than traditional methods.

They have 25 open roles in San Diego. Here are a few highlights: 

Field Service Engineer, Additive Manufacturing - https://lnkd.in/gxTywNjz
Senior Firmware Engineer, Embedded Platform - https://lnkd.in/g4YY8CXb
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer - https://lnkd.in/g4GTyrug
Junior Robotics Engineer - https://lnkd.in/g-PnQUGe
Senior Robotics Engineer - https://lnkd.in/gYtfpWXX

See all open roles - https://lnkd.in/gwTPQrgU

Let’s help, Dan and the Firestorm team hire San Diegans!

We’re kicking off Career Coyote with one of our San Diego favorites, Drata.

We’re trying to do for jobs what we’ve done for tech events: surface high-quality opportunities that are based here and a strong fit for San Diegans.

When we find meaningful work here, we're more likely to stay, plug into the community, and help the ecosystem grow.

Most of Drata's roles are listed as remote, but they have a real presence here in San Diego. 

And after chatting with Troy Markowitz, I was excited to hear how much they value time together in the office and the culture they’re building together locally.

Howl yeah, San Diego.

Drata is a San Diego–based company building software that automates security and compliance for modern teams. 

In 2025, they crossed $100M in annual recurring revenue. Howl yeah.

All roles are listed as remote, but if you live near one of their offices, San Diego included, you’re expected to come in part of the time.

Customer Success Manager, MSSP - https://lnkd.in/gsKKvNjN

Senior Audit Alliances Manager - https://lnkd.in/gdxwFFK9

Front End Developer, Marketing - https://lnkd.in/gRNUy67J

Full list here - https://lnkd.in/eP2QeWsX

Howl at ’em if one of these roles feels like a fit,
or pass it along to a friend who’s on the hunt.

Let’s help San Diego companies hire San Diegans!

Last week at the Founders Hike, someone asked: “How can I help build the ecosystem?”

One of our favorite questions.

Building a startup community is a team sport. We’re all building different things in different industries, but the overlap is often where innovation happens.

If you want to help bring more people together in San Diego in 2026, here are a few simple ways to start. I’m assuming this is everyone’s New Year’s resolution, right?

- Invite one person to join you at an event. This works because you already have a built-in connection.

- Organize an event or a coffee. Find something you care deeply about and gather a few people around the idea.

- Find something that looks really cool but is on the other side of town, and bring it to your area. Where’s my South County Founders Mixer?

- Share one event with someone who’s looking to get connected.

- Welcome a newcomer to San Diego and show them where to plug in: Eventship, Startup San Diego, and Connect. You can be their tech sherpa!

- Go to an event and connect two people you know should meet.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a solid place to start.

The more we connect, the faster the flywheel spins, and it’s usually the small actions that matter most. When we all add a little something, our community grows stronger.

As always, we've gotta thank Neal Bloom🎩 for bringing us all together, rain or shine, to kick off the year with a Founders Hike. 

Howl yeah!

Massive things happening in San Diego!! Congrats Matt on the fund, and Fred for dropping the story. 

LFG SD

Senior Associate at JLL | Tech & Life Science | MBA & Master’s in Real Estate

NEW: I spoke with Matt Ober managing partner at Social Leverage, a successful venture capital firm that raised $85M for its fifth seed-stage fund.

Founded in 2009, the firm has made 125+ investments, to date. Early investments include unicorn startups such as Robinhood, Alpaca, eToro, MANSCAPED, and Stocktwits.

Full story here: https://lnkd.in/gUypzctC

#sdbusiness #venturecapital #news

San Diego has the coolest startups 🌱🦆

Plantible is a San Diego-based food tech company producing plant-based protein from duckweed. They recently closed a $30M Series B and launched their first U.S. commercial facility.

They sit at the intersection of food tech and biotech.

They’re hiring 6 roles, with 1 based in San Diego:

Applications Specialist - https://lnkd.in/gWH9kamc

Howl at ’em if this role feels like a fit,
or pass it along to a friend who’s on the hunt.

Let’s help Plantible hire San Diegans!

We’re lining up three new San Diego companies and their open roles for next week. Who would you like to see featured?

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The Battle

Hussein Yahfoufi

Jonah Peake 🐺

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The Battle

Hussein Yahfoufi

Jonah Peake 🐺

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jonah Peake 🐺's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJonah Peake 🐺's LinkedIn Performance