• 1st meeting of Design Santa Cruz Meetup, Wed, Jan 15, 6pm, NextSpace.

• MakersFactory Engaging Technology in Education Meetup Wed, Jan 15, 6:30pm, Cruzio. The topic is Fab Labs in Schools. 

• Intro to The Startup Challenge: Tue, Jan 14, 4-6pm, NextSpace, and Tue, Jan 21, 4-6pm, Cruzio.   

Features:  

• Opportunity Fund receives support to expand micro loans in Santa Cruz & Monterey Counties. Local VC Bud Colligan says, "There is strong entrepreneurial energy all along the Central Coast, but our small business owners need support in order to help grow our region's economy and create local job."  

• David Eyes' new app passQi works to solve the user's password security problem -- it's like speed dial for your online authentication. "Users never have to remember or type their passwords," he says.   

• Lise Quintana's pitch at TechRaising 2012 turns into Lithomobilus. 
  Think of it as "the DVD extras for books."  

News:  

• Silicon Valley Business Journal features Bud Colligan and his vision for Central Coast Angels. 

• January's Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup packed the house for PayStand, MenuMeet, Motrr, and more. 

• Genome analysis company, Maverix, captures $6M funding. "We've benefited from the talents of UCSC graduates," said Todd Lowe, UCSC Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, and co-founder of Maverix. "The company is building on this know-how to directly address the needs of a much broader audience of scientists..."

• Marc Randolph (Looker board and Netflix first CEO) and Reed Hastings met carpooling from Santa Cruz to Silicon Valley. Randolph shares the history on how Netflix got started here in Santa Cruz County. 

• Looker founder and CTO, Lloyd Tabb, blogs on Three Decisions We Didn't Make That Changed Our Business. 

• "The Naked Economy isn't just about ad hoc project-based teams, freelancers and specialized consultants."  Wharton (UPenn) reviews Jeremy Neuner and Ryan Coonerty's book. 

• AVG launches PrivacyFix family. (PrivacyChoice, started by local Jim Brock, was acquired by AVG last May.) 

• Cold coffee drip system BRUER, born in JoeBen Bevirt's Bonny Doon startup ranch, raises $193K from Kickstarter after starting with 30K goal. 

• Check out the X2Flow Use Case Scenario from X2engine.