socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2012

The latest numbers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report finds that companies here in Southern California raised $695.4M billion has been invested in the region via venture capital. billion in investments; followed by New England, with $826.1M in investments.

Southern California 180

Southern California GRP Partners Funding Orange County 180

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2012

Los Angeles-based venture capital investor GRP Partners has re-upped its investment in social data analytics firm DataSift , in a Series A follow-on announced this morning. DataSift said that existing investors GRP Partners and IA Ventures invested $7.2M

GRP Partners 145

GRP Partners Venture Capital Los Angeles Invest 145

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. If you don’t want to read that post, the summary is: Open source computing drove computing costs down 90%, which spurred innovation in technology.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Los Angeles-based venture capital firm GRP Partners --which has been very active in the local technology startup market--has made its latest investment, in an interesting industry: mortgage lending. GRP is the lead investor in Skyline Financial , a Calabasas-based provider of mortgage banking and lending.

GRP Partners 160

GRP Partners Calabasas Venture Capital Invest 160

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Los Angeles-based venture capital firm GRP Partners has scored an exit at one of its portfolio firms, Las Vegas-based HealthDataInsights. GRP Partners owned 30% of HealthDataInsights. HealthDataInsights provides technology which is used to detect fraud and billing errors in Medicare and other insurance programs.

GRP Partners 133

GRP Partners Venture Capital Los Angeles Capital 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

And we’re left with a city with idyllic weather, major commerce, the media center of the world, and a great emerging technology scene. But we have a great city for building technology companies. Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. After that you could tell that Greg was really “all in” on the LA technology community. This is exactly the brand that GRP Partners wants to embody. You won’t regret it.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2013

Two, Internet-enabled communications startups, FreedomPop , and TextPlus said this morning that they are working together to introduce a 100 percent free mobile data, text and calling service, by combining plans and technology from the two companies. READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Startup Mobile Los Angeles 157

socalTECH

JANUARY 19, 2012

The latest numbers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture capital Association MoneyTree survey, which is based on data from Thomson Reuters, tallies $738.34M invested in Southern California in Q4 of 2011. raised in Q4 of 2010, and up from the $652M invested in the region last quarter. The amount is up from $528.0M

Southern California 157

Southern California Orange County San Diego GRP Partners 157

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2013

Despite the increase in startup activity in Southern California, local venture capital funds are still few and far between, and a large chunk of the funding here is still from Sand Hill Road. It''s good news for us, but it''s also good news for Los Angeles technology. All of our partners are based here.

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Burstly is venture backed by Founder Collective, GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank Capital. GRP's investment in Burstly was overseen by omnipresent technology investor Mark Suster, and Jim Andeleman was the lead on Rincon's investment in the company. READ MORE>>.

Mobile 171

Mobile Services CPC GRP Partners 171

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

The round comes from GRP Partners, Greycroft Ventures, and Matt Coffin, the founder of LowerMyBills. Singh was most recently EVP of Product, Technology, and Operations at News Corp.'s Mark Suster led GRP's investment in the company, with Dana Settle leading Greycroft's involvement. s Fox Audience Network.

GRP Partners 154

GRP Partners SoCalTech Advertising Venture Capital 154

socalTECH

JULY 15, 2010

Investments by venture capitalists in Southern California were up, both in terms of deals and dollars in Q2, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). in 91 investments, up significantly from the $451.8M in 91 investments, up significantly from the $451.8M

Southern California 174

Southern California Orange County Rustic Canyon SoCal 174

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. The chosen candidate will probably have worked for a very reputable firm that is either in technology, consulting, investment banking, media or a startup. Often these jobs aren’t even publicized.&#. Are you merging?

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2010

helps celebrities, musicians, and other social influencers monetize their Twitter and other activity streams with advertising; the firm is backed by GRP Partners, Greycroft Partners, and LowerMyBills' Matt Coffin. squarely into a multi-way intersection of who's who in Southern California's blog and technology world.

Advertising 168

Advertising Userplane GRP Partners Mahalo 168

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners. What’s up with that?

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Many (Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, True Ventures, GRP Partners, Mike Hirshland at Polaris Ventures) do it the right way – we treat it as a normal investment and we don’t have a “options&# strategy with our investment.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

I had been trading emails & Tweets with venture capitalist John Frankel and we were to meet in person in March 2011 at SxSW to talk about Klout and other investments he had made. We met at a private party hosted by his venture partner Mike Yavonditte and I outlined my concerns for the lack of precision of the algorithm.

Cornerstone OnDemand 303

Cornerstone OnDemand Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup 303

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 14, 2014

Last year, the humbly brilliant and veteran entrepreneur (I totally signed up for www.MoviePass.com the second I saw it), joined Upfront, as a venture partner. The post Innovation Crush | How an Investor Thinks Through Innovation appeared first on TechZulu.

GRP Partners 87

GRP Partners Startup Incubator Venture Capital 87

socalTECH

JUNE 10, 2009

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online auto buying technology firm headed by Scott Painter, said Wednesday that the firm has sold its 50,000th car through its online auto-buying affinity programs. Zag has received funding from USAA, Capricorn Investment Group, LLC, GRP Partners and Anthem Venture Partners.

Zag 100

Zag GRP Partners Anthem Santa Monica 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2008

Santa Monica-based Teleflip, which operated a service which allowed users to send and receive email using text messages, has been sold to an undisclosed buyer, according to creditor Hercules Technology Growth Capital. HTGC had invested $1M in debt financing in June of 2007 to Teleflip.

GRP Partners 100

GRP Partners Santa Monica Email Sales 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

I told him that our market was absolutely booming and was worthy of a commensurate investment. Not that I’ll take credit for what I’m about to announce, but I knew that if somebody could commit to building out LA and making the investments required to kick ass in this market it would be Cooley. Invest they have.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. VC’s don’t invest 100% of their own money. They raise money from institutions who want to have some allocation of their investment dollars in a category known as “alternatives,&# which is supposed to mean higher risk, higher returns.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2010

We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. Earlier today, we talked with Greg Martin at Archer Venture Capital. I'll list three, not necessarily in order. (1) 1) Mobile web. There are lots.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Southern California Cloud Computing Venture Capital 160

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

But less as a complaint and more as advice to younger networkers, the more you invest in relationships the more you will get when you need. Early in his days when he was raising capital for DocStoc he came to see me a lot. Todd Gitlin is one of the best executive recruiters the technology & startup market in Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# I guess that makes USV, Spark Capital, Foundry Group, Accel, Benchmark, Revolution (along with several others) pretty happy right now. source: Capital IQ. If you are interested the Vimeo is here.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. I’ve been to similar events with First Round Capital and True Ventures. My action item – I will soon announce the GRP Partners CEO Summit.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. led by Altos Ventures and Maverick Capital, with Larry Braitman.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. When you think about the success that is Silicon Valley, the unfair advantage is not just the huge amounts of available venture capital.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. The Yin and Yang of Product and Engineering - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 22, 2010 For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Venture Capital: Upfront Ventures. Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. An ad:tech Innovation Award-winning company, SteelHouse is the technology industry’s real-time marketing solution for online retailers. Fun Fact: Technology is in their DNA.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

We spoke with Christopher Webb, the firm's CEO, to hear about how ChowNow's goal is to make mobile, social orders something any restaurant can afford and implement--and how a new $3M funding round from GRP Partners, Double M Capital, Daher Capital, Karlin Ventures, and Velos Partners is helping it to deliver on its mission.

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. I’m just not sure you can build a great technology firm outside of Bay Area.&#.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Rincon Venture Partners and GRP Partners ). You have tremendous momentum and clearly could have raised capital from a variety of sources. We wanted investment partners that understood performance marketing and what it was like to be an entrepreneur from having done it before themselves.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

socalTECH

JUNE 19, 2013

Burstly is headed by Evan Rifkin, and backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, SoftBank Capital, and Founder Collective. Evan wanted to invest, and we were talking with Mark Suster about joining our advisory board. Burstly is located in Santa Monica. What is Burstly? It just made sense.

Startup 262

Startup Mobile Outsource Development Tool 262

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. I had to laugh a bit reading it. So back to MBAs.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337