SAN DIEGO, CA, USA - To propel San Diego into the global marketplace, WTC San Diego, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Councilmember Mark Kersey, new Stone Brewing CEO Dominic Engels and nearly 200 business and community leaders awarded the MetroConnect Grand Prize to Rough Draft Brewing. The local, family-owned craft brewery – known for its IPAs and Miramar-based tasting room – is taking its San Diego-made beer into the Canadian, Spanish and Chinese markets. With the network, funding and programmatic support provided by MetroConnect, Rough Draft has increased its sales, hired new talent and connected with the Port of San Diego and Dole to fill empty container ships on backhaul to Latin America.

Managed by WTC San Diego and presented by JPMorgan Chase, the MetroConnect Grand Prize offers $35,000 to one of 15 companies to aid in their foreign market expansion.

So why go global? According to the Brookings Institution, companies that are global pay their employees higher wages, are less likely to go out of business and spur more efficient development of technology and R&D.

The MetroConnect Program was announced to incentivize small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to pursue these foreign markets. Now in its second year, MetroConnect has emerged as the region’s premier export assistance program. Led by WTC San Diego, Fifteen companies are selected on an annual basis and equipped with a suite of programmatic and financial resources to help them in their plans to go global. Out of 75 applicants in 2016, just 15 San Diego companies were awarded the initial $10,000 MetroConnect Prize, funded by JPMorgan Chase.

Over the course of the program, the cohort produced an additional $6 million in export sales and 42 new jobs for the region, collectively. A panel of judges consisting of business and community leaders reviewed the companies’ respective accomplishments and goals as a means of selecting the top five finalists to present at the Grand Prize event: Deering Banjo Company, MANTA Instruments, Rough Draft Brewing Company, Calbiotech and VaultRMS.

Winning thoughts:

“We want to thank World Trade Center San Diego, JPMorgan Chase and all those who participated in making this a memorable and meaningful event. To my fellow MetroConnect finalists Calbiotech, Deering Banjos, MANTA Instruments and VaultRMS, it’s been a privilege learning with and from you,” said Jeff Silver, president of Rough Draft Brewing. “We deeply appreciate receiving the Grand Prize in recognition of our efforts and look forward to continued success on the international level.”​

The complete 2016 cohort can be found here.


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